Medical Reports, Mental Health, DWP & your doctors. - PLEASE READ THIS

 As you may have gathered from previous posts.  I have been greatly concerned that during the review process. If you list several specialist consultants that deal with other medical issues you have developed alongside or by virtue of your HIV, especially mental health issues. The DWP typically only approach your HIV Consultant. Where they will not wait for this report they may approach your GP.  Therefore only one aspect of your health is evidenced.

I was also concerned. Minded of the DWP guidance & that Mental Health issues were seemingly being ignored.

In my case. I have engaged in correspondence questioning the DBD551 I submitted. Specifically how or why a decision could be reached without medical reports covering ALL my health issues from ALL my consultants.

The response states;

"..... decisions are made based on a persons mobility and care needs and not the disability itself"

so why require any medical report if it is not required to reach a judgement on entitlement?

it then continues;

"You state that I implied that mental health would not be considered part of your current disabilities - this was not my intention.  It is fully accepted that the facts you present with regard to your mental health are accurate and correct.  You are quite right to say that not to approach other consultants you have mentioned would not give a complete picture of your HIV."

The Decision Maker then states she is to seek additional medical reports from my other consultants.

Why is this important?

Your HIV consultant or GP may refer you to other specialists, including mental health, that have more direct knowledge, history & understanding of additional illnesses you experience.  They will of course be keeping your referring medic up to date. Though in my experience this is usually by letter and in very general terms.

Where a decision made has been made on the strength of a GP report only or your mental health or any other health issue you feel has not been properly evaluated.  You may want to consider the above.

Apparently my original DS1500 was supplied from the St. Peter's Clinic. This is worrying as I have never been to any clinic of that name and checking my copy of that document it is not mentioned.  This being one of several errors that, as you can imagine, is generating more correspondence.

I also mentioned in my previous letter. An error made on the medical report submitted, no fault of my current consultant, relating to my date of diagnosis. I wrote asking for this data to be corrected under the obligations of the Data Protection Act. I also copied this to my clinic for correction.  The response implies that the DWP will not be changing this. That I should write to my clinic. So whereas this has been done and the error raised and changed. The DWP will not be asking for another medical report nor changing existing data.  A complaint to the Information Commissioners Office I think now.

As I am completing my DLA556  I am concerned that information I am providing is not being treated correctly or in fact that the information is accurate.

Medical Reports requested by the DWP.

Just to highlight comments received over the last few days.

The DWP when requesting a medical report on you. Under there own guidelines should be approaching your HIV consultant.

As there can be a delay in response from some consultants. Some contributors have noticed that the DWP is sending a second medical report request to the GP.

If this has happened to you. Please let us know.

On the forms you get from the DWP you consent to them approaching any medical practioner that you deal with. For a medical report. If you do not give this consent on the form this could end up with your benefit being withdrawn.

You are not entitled to a copy of the medical report before the DWP have received it only after.

They actively encourage GP's in-particular, not to engage with patients before the doctor submits a medical report on you.

See this article on the Benefits & Work website (you may need to be a member). It links to a document titled "Advice to GP's completing Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance Factual Reports (DWP - Jan 2008)" it states "Your report should be based upon your knowledge of the patient and the medical records. It is not necessary to interview the patient, as any information they provide, especially with regard to mobility and self care may not necessarily be objective." Of course the GP would need to have knowledge of your HIV and how it affects you.

Clearly this can create a problem if your GP doesn't know about your HIV or the specifics of ongoing treatment under the care of your consultant.

If you want to know what your doctor is writing concerning your health to any third party. Even where you have given your consent. You can (in writing) ask your doctor to let you have access to any report, for your review. Before they submit it on to the requesting 3rd party. You can also have access to any medical information held about you under the Data Protection Act.

We are working on the structure of such a letter and will post it to the main site when done.

Useful report from the PSI (Policy Studies Insitiute)

PSI undertakes and publishes research studies relevant to social, economic, industrial and environmental policy. The Institute is a charity, run on a not-for-profit basis. In 1998 it merged to become an independent subsidiary of the University of Westminster.

PSI takes a politically neutral stance on issues of public policy and has no connections with any political party, commercial interest or pressure group.

Reported on "The take-up rate of Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance: Feasibility study" in August 2007.

Some of the points covered maybe of interest to you if you want to understand more about DLA.

If your DLA Personal Care is reduced to Medium or Lower Rate.

If your DLA personal care is reduced from "higher rate". There are implications for other benefits you receive. Many carry disability components that you may loose. You also loose your exemption to having your Incapacity Benefit reviewed and become eligible for the Personal Capability Assessment. Information gathered as a result of any reassessment of Incapacity Benefit is shared with and may have an impact on your DLA. The information is shared.

With the introduction of the Employment & Support Allowance in October 2008. Incapacity Benefit will be replaced. If you are down graded as described above. You will become eligible for reassessment for this benefit. Initially you will simply move across to this benefit. Then by April 2010 the government want to have reassessed all these claims that simply moved across.

Reducing DLA personal care from the "higher rate" of personal care. Seems to be a mechanism to facilitate the re-assessment of those currently on Incapacity Benefit as the new system "beds in". These re-assessments will happen over time.

The assessments under the Employment & Support Allowance are more focused on what you can do? rather than what you cannot do?. Again any information gathered here may have an impact on any DLA award you have at the time.

I do not mean to cause worry. There are many changes in the pipeline. I just wanted to re-iterate the impact both today and moving forward. So you are aware.

Confusing letter from the DWP.

The DWP are sending out the annual letter telling you of your entitlement. My partner received one today. I know someone else has added a comment to a previous post on this.

Having submitted his DLA556 over a month ago he hoped it was his decision. He was panic stricken whilst opening it.

Addressed from "DLA SR Pilot Team"

It says the "Amount of money we pay you is going up" and mentioned indefinitely.

I asked him to give the DWP a call to confirm IF this letter was notification of his award that is expected.

Alas, NO. It was just the yearly letter sent out at the beginning of every financial year. His decision should be due in a few weeks.

Understandably he was upset and took some time to calm - medication helped.

It would have been a good idea if the DWP had inserted a note that this wasn't a decision that that would arrive in a separate letter.

So we continue to worry.

If you need clarification of any letter the DWP send you. Ring them and ask them. They are happy to clarify.

My situation & DWP mental health.

This relates to my personal circumstances and yours maybe different.

I asked why they had not approached other doctors mentioned on my DBD551.

Response,

" You question why the DBD551 makes no reference or referral to your mental health.

The DBD551 is our inital enquiry form which requests information with regard to your current disabilities, medication and names/addresses/consent to contact any medical profession that you are currently seeing. On receipt of your completed DBD551 we subsequently contacted "my HIV consultant.""

I further note,

"The information provided in the HFR from "my HIV consultant" provides sufficient medical evidence to aid us in our decision making process. If you feel that we would benefit from any other information please feel free to provide this at your earliest convenience"

I have written back again asking why they are ignoring the medical information & consent given to approach other specialist consultants dealing with other medical HIV related issues I have. Surely having given all the current medical information and details of who to approach. I would have thought the DWP would have sought full medical reports in order to reach a proper decision based on ALL the medical information they requested and is available to them.

I know this might cause you to worry. I apologise if it does. I post to make the situation clear and create awareness.

My situation & DWP forms don't fully deal with AIDS/HIV health issues.

This relates to my personal circumstances and yours maybe different.

Prompted by Johnny, this confirms his experience. Also given the general criticism that the forms we are asked to complete are not specific enough to those with AIDS/HIV.

The reply from the DWP was

"You state the the DBD551 and DBD556* do not properly deal with all the health issues that you have in relation to your AIDS/HIV diagnosis.

The aforementioned enquiry forms are representative of customers with disabilities of all types and not specific to AIDS/HIV customers. You are entitled to present information with regard to the needs arising from your disabilities in any way which is suited to you. For example you may wish to send in a daily diary or forward a letter. However, page 9, 26 and 31 of the DBD556* are provided for you to include any other information about the problems you experience day to day"

** Remember any other method you use to submit information must include information on how you cope during the day and at night. Use the forms as a guide. **

* I think this is merely a "typo" and it means DLA556. I have written to seek clarification.

I understand if you have diabetes and make an application for DLA there is a specific form form for this condition. I await confirmation from the DWP. Clearly this begs the question why there cannot be a form tailored more specifically to AIDS/HIV.

Call the DWP to ask if they will accept information in another form. On the rare occasion I have called them I have found them to be helpful.

My situation & DWP time period for claims.

This relates to my personal circumstances and yours maybe different.

The DWP advise that the normal period it takes to review is 12 - 14 weeks to complete.

However they rely on how long it takes for the claimant to return the forms. Also how long it takes your doctor to complete and submit any medical report. At present doctors are inundated with these requests in addition to there already full workload.

Mine started in December 2007.

The DWP will give you an extension in time if you need it to complete any form. Just give them a call and ask.

My situation & DWP legislation used

This relates to my personal circumstances and yours maybe different.

I asked under what piece of legislation this review was taking place.

Reference was made to the Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board (DLAAB) and the report on "special rules".

Reply,

"You query the use of the law, the use of the DS1500 and the review itself. We are permitted to review benefit under Regulation32 (1) of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations. Although your claim for benefit was awarded for life does not exclude it from any future reviews that we wish to undertake. Further information with regard to reviews is also provided in the annual uprating letters that you should have prevously recieved. The DS1500 refers only to your original application in 199x and will not form part of the current review"

The "uprating letters" are those you receive, yearly. Detailing your award and the levels it is paid at.

I also asked if this review. Given the stress it puts many under doesn't contrivene the Human Rights Act.

Reply,

"This review complies with legislation including the Human Rights Act."

My situation & DWP omitted Viral Load

This relates to my personal circumstances and yours maybe different.

I asked the DWP why they had omited my viral load on their Doctors Medical Opinion.

The response

"I acknowledge the importance of he recording of the viral load data, however the fact it has been omitted from this document will not affect the decision making process"

Income Support. Just sharing a recent problem.

Today, in the post. My partner received a letter From the DWP "Jobcentre Plus". This followed a telephone call and supporting followup letter.

The initial problem was a change in his payment frequency. A letter was received, a few weeks ago. Stating that, as he had requested a change to the payment frequency, it was now changed. Of course, no change was ever requested.

So we telephoned them. There was some excuse given about his surname (it is hyphenated). We should point out that for the last seven years they have had his correct information. The excuse was suggesting he had just notified them of a "change of name".

Based on previous experience with the DWP. I decided to write a letter. I would advise you to always follow up a call to them with a letter. If only so an "audit" trail is created on your file, but I digress.

The response this morning blames "human" and "computer" errors.

The key bit of information and the reason for this post is :

"The initial problem arose following information downloaded to the Income Support (IS) Computer System from the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) Computer system. The DLA system currently holds your name correctly as a hyphenated surname, the IS system will not allow the name to be hyphenated. This resulted in your Income Support claim being suspended, incorrectly.

When Income Support was put back into the payment the computer system faulted and initially payments had to be made weekly."

This explaination completely different & much fuller than the initial phone call. We didn't know until this his benefit had been suspended.

I post this to show how the computer systems work. The potential problems that might arise. If you have a hyphenated surname "forewarned is forearmed".

On the DLA front. Further to previous posts. We are both still waiting to hear back from the DWP.