I've accompanied a friend twice to an ATOS assessment and then to the first level appeal tribunal.
The first time my friend had an ATOS assessment she went unaccompanied, and was very unhappy with the assessor and how the assessment was carried out. She failed the assessment despite having a progressive condition +
We appealed ie asked them to review the decision. They rejected this and put her onto ESA which also needed an assessment. We appealed the IB review decision to the first level tribunal.
The next ATOS assessment we tried to do things overtly eg recording and taking photographs of the room where the assessment was held. The ATOS assessor went into meltdown and refused to carry on. She'd also gone into meltdown with the previous assessment she'd done. She was also very (unusually, I felt) threatened but at the same time subservient (lols) when I produced a business card to cut short time on introductions etc.
Once we'd been thrown out, I asked the receptionist for details of the complaints procedure which took ages for him to find. At the same time we made it clear that we weren't blaming him, he was just doing his job, ultra polite etc. He was very helpful by way of anecdotal information which wasn't job-costing stuff but helped reassure and made us feel a bit better. I made the point that any delay in the process was the result of how the assessor had behaved and nothing to do with my friend.
When the assessment was rearranged I accompanied my friend again. This time we decided to both record covertly whilst I would overtly take contemporaneous notes to supplement. It was all fine. But bear in mind that this was ESA and that she was already in the appeals process for IB. Anyway, long story short she passed the ESA one so we haven't (yet) needed our recordings and my notes.
The IB tribunal came up and we went prepared with all the documentation from my friend's first unsuccessful assessment and our subsequent request to review the decision with additional supporting medical information. The tribunal was very informal - a bit like the way that employment tribunals were *originally* set up, with the emphasis on informality and accessibility. There was a legally qualified judge and a medical person. No sign of the DWP - apparently they never turn up to these things. They asked me who I was but didn't enquire too closely. They asked my friend some questions - medical ones. She could have referred to all the notes because they were there in front of us but she just answered without doing any of that. The room was just a room with a big table and chairs, it didn't look or feel like a court room. They kept checking our understanding and if we wanted to say more. They emphasised that they were entirely separate from the DWP/ATOS process and were entirely objective. Afterwards we waited in the waiting room for a few minutes before being called back in and told that her appeal had had been successful and that the backdated money should arrive within a few weeks but they couldn't enforce that aspect (it did).
Always get someone to go with you to assessments and never be daunted from appealing. I know I've posted this before but new people join the thread and can't be expected to read every page.
