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A disabled woman is to receive £5,000 compensation after she took government contractor Atos to court over claims one of its assessors filed a misleading report about her.

Vanessa Haley, who lives in the Colne Valley, told a county court that the assessor had tried to “impede her entitlement” to the enhanced rate of the daily living component of personal independence payment (PIP) by “falsifying” her assessment report.

The report led to her being denied any PIP mobility support.

Ms Haley, 49, was awarded the compensation after the court upheld her claim of maladministration against Atos and her allegation that it was responsible for causing her health conditions to worsen.

(Image: Handout)

Her story was reported by the Disability News Service which has been investigating claims of alleged dishonesty at the heart of the PIP assessment system for more than a year and has heard from nearly 300 disabled people who have made various allegations.

The Atos assessor, a paramedic, visited Ms Haley, a former teacher and film-maker at her home in January 2016 as part of her reassessment for PIP.

But she told the court that he “consistently and repeatedly ignored” her answers and evidence in his report and misrepresented what he saw during the face-to-face assessment.

One example she gave was that he described her as looking “well kempt and casually dressed” when she had not washed her hair in 10 days and was wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown.

He also said he had seen her “move her body around the sofa herself and raise her legs on and off the floor herself” and claimed that she was able to “lay back and put her head against the sofa.”

But she said she was seated when he came into the room and her legs were already up and she only lifted them with her hands to put them on a cushion.

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She said: “I tried to move myself but couldn’t as I don’t have the upper body strength.

“My mum offered to lift me but she’s 73 and that’s not fair to her so I sat in a great deal of pain for the rest of the assessment.

“I didn’t lay back either as my sofa doesn’t allow that, it’s a straight back.”

The county court awarded Ms Haley £5,000 when Atos failed to offer a defence to her claim for damages.

As a result of the assessment she was originally granted only the standard daily living rate of PIP at £55 per week instead of the enhanced rate at £83 and was not awarded anything for mobility.

She was only awarded the enhanced rate of daily living and the standard mobility rate after appealing to a tribunal which ruled in her favour in March this year, 14 months after the PIP assessment took place.

Because of the original decision she was forced to rely on credit cards and financial help from her family and was left in debt.

Ms Haley said that the sick and disabled were being treated in a “diabolical” way which needed to be exposed and stopped.

She said it was “exhausting constantly being worn down by the machine that is the Department for Work and Pensions and the PIP system.”

Ms Haley is angry that disabled people were being “dismissed and lied about”, because “through no fault of our own we have found ourselves in unfortunate and reduced circumstances.

“We are constantly being lied about, repressed and vilified. Many disabled people have become even further isolated by this system and have lost much, if not all of their care.”

A spokesman for Independent Assessment Services (part of Atos) said: “We were made aware this week of this judgement and our initial internal investigation indicates that we did not receive the claim form at our registered office which is why no defence was filed to the claim.

“Until this investigation is complete we must reserve our position.”