The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed a change from June 29. Yesterday, all telephone and face-to-face health assessment appointments, which evaluate how someone’s illness or disability impacts their daily life, started to be audio recorded. Officials said: “We have introduced audio recording to keep an accurate record of your assessment. You can ask for your assessment to not be recorded. You will not be disadvantaged if you do.” They added: “You will get an appointment letter from the Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS). It will explain the type of assessment they have booked for you.”
Assessments are recorded automatically if it is over the phone or in person, either at a centre or in an individual’s home. The DWP added: “You can tell the health professional carrying out your assessment if you no longer want to be recorded. Decision makers will not use recordings to make their decisions.” If a person does not want to be recorded, they must contact HAAS before their appointment using the number at the top of their appointment letter.
The government added: “You can also tell your Health Professional at any point during the assessment if you do not want to be recorded.
“You will not be disadvantaged if you opt out. Your assessment will be carried out in the same way. Opting out does not affect the length of time it takes to process your claim.
“Choosing to opt out of being recorded will not apply to other assessments in the future. You will need to tell us each time.”
People being assessed can ask to be sent a copy of their recording at any point during the assessment or by calling the number on their appointment letter.
When it is ready, the individual will receive a text message with a secure link to download the recording. They will need a smartphone and their national insurance number to access the audio.
The DWP said: “If you do not have a phone or other means to download the recording, you can submit a Right of Access request or write to DWP. More information is in the ‘get help with accessing your recording’ section.
“If you need help downloading your recording, you may share the link with a trusted friend or someone supporting you, but you should not share it more widely.
“You can download your recording more than once, but only within 24 hours of the first download. After those 24 hours, the download option will expire and you will not be able to download it again.
“If the link expires or does not work, you will need to request a new one by calling the number on your appointment letter.”
DWP says it will normally keep recordings for 24 months before they are “securely deleted”.
Officials added: “In some cases, like if there is an ongoing dispute, it may be kept longer.
“Your recording and personal information is only used when needed. For example, it may be used to review how the assessment was carried out if there’s a dispute.
“The recording is kept secure in line with data protection law.”
