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DS1500
Does anybody else have any experience of the DWP second guessing a DS1500?
I made an AA application for one of my patients, who has had a DS1500 issued by their consultant. Everything had been sent off and DWP confirmed receipt.
However, there is a delay because DWP have ‘misplaced’ the DS1500 on the way to their HP. I queried this action as I’ve never had any problems with a claim once the DS1500 is received. The DWP advisor stated that (type) cancer can be curative and further assessments needed to be made to see if the condition has spread.
I didn’t have time to raise a complaint for various reasons, but as far as I can see a HP would not issue a DS1500 IF said patient does not meet the criteria - which very loosely means that life expectancy is 6 months or less. Of course not everyone who is issued this medical form then goes on to only live for that long, but it is a moot point as we are looking at reasonable expectation of the fact.
I think that is completely inappropriate behaviour - as you note, DS1500’s are not issued lightly and if they have lost the original form, they’re compounding their problems by second-guessing not only the illness but the prognosis. I would lodge a strongly written complaint about this, with details of when you called, so that they can hopefully offer the official some words of advice here at the very least.
i think legally they can investigate further but common sense and common decency dictates its probably not a good idea to do it.
for what its worth i have heard of them do this before with terminal cases.
I would just escalate it and complain as previously suggested.
We deal with approx 15 new DS500 cases a week. About 1% of these cases are questioned and, to be fair, we usually anticipate which ones these are going to be (generally when conflicting evidence has been received).