To be delighted PIP assessments are to be face to face?

All it will do is add to the costs of administering the benefit…far more than believing medical staff …imagine all the extra medical appointments trying to gather evidence too…it will just add to service and cost pressures

I've wished they were for a long time.

Never had an issue previously when every assessment was face to face. Was awarded every single time when I was assessed face to face, and yet both time over the phone I've been denied. (Amazing how they can say that you "showed no signs of distress" over the phone....despite having such a bad panic attack they threatened to stop the assessment if you didn't calm down 🤔🤦🏼‍♀️)

In fact the fact they still try and say they've carried out a mental state exam over the phone is utter bullshit as that's something that's only supposed to apply when you can physically see/assess someone.

So yes bring back f2f and hopefully they get less decions wrong

So how come they know when child benefit claimants have gone overseas? The Guardian has been running articles about how families from Northern Ireland lost child benefit because they came back via Dublin so the Gov thought they were still overseas.

It’s staggering that this isn’t in place already.

No they don’t 😂

This is what people don’t understand. Thank you.

@Cherry8809 and those who agree with face to face assessments- this OP’s story about budget today and PIP assessments appears to be hogwash (as it wasn’t mentioned) - it’s the another disability bashing thread.

Now that aside f2f assessments is more rule of thumb than any other assessment. Many will fear them for the articulated reasons above. Many won’t fear them.

DLA doesn’t have f2f (because children I suppose) but I’d welcome an assessor to view my daughter at any time.

She’d enjoy it too - she loves attention and medical appointments, which is just as well as she gets lots of both.

On the other hand, I’d feel sorry for the assessor who had to try to get a verbal response from her.. she’ll sing along in babble to “Bonkers” by Dizzee Rascal and dance by shaking herself from side to side with a happy face, to Motley Crue and ABBA too.

She will say “hurrah” if someone says “hip hip”,

But she won’t say “fuck off” to the cunts that wrinkle their nose at her in disgust or the parents who pull their children to them for fear it might be catching I suppose (very few but even one is too many) or push in front of her in a queue because she doesn’t understand queues or cunts.

She can’t answer the fuckwits that tut when her mum (me) jumps out of her FREE wheelchair accessible vehicle with loud music on and who ask if I have a blue badge / I tell them I don’t and they can ask her and they see her - she can’t even enjoy their embarrassment when they blush because unlike a lot of people she’s happy, secure and sweet even if she can’t speak or walk or eat.

Let them come I say!

PS if any of you have the names and addresses of those pip cheats DM me - I’ll happily shop them for you!

I guess all it takes is for a database to alert passport number, NI number and how long they’ve been out of the country.

Well they only know if you tell them!!! Do you seriously think they have enough people to keep track of every universal credit claimant 24/7

Things are not always as they seem?
lots of conditions vary daily, as my Parkinson’s can

Bloody hell my reassessment took 19 months. It didn't matter as I was still getting paid but I wonder if its based on area. Even my first ever claim which was fast tracked and that took just slightly over 6 months god knows how long it took people who weren't fast tracked.

You clearly have no personal experience with PIP or how difficult it is to get it. Face to face only appointments severely disadvantage disabled people or people with critical illnesses. Also, if we just collected the tax we are owed from large companies and wealthy without needing to change any laws we'd make an additional 30 billion pounds for our budget. Benefit fraud is so miniscule, disabled people are being killed and left to die because they've been demonised. I'd also like to remind you that PIP is a benefit for people who work also, so we're talking about people who pay into the system just attempting to use it.
Labour should be ashamed with how they've continued the work of the Tories to demonise our most vulnerable people in society. They may as well call themselves Tories 2.0

I think face to face assessments are highly appropriate, unless someone is terminally ill.

Not necessarily true. My PIP award was to May 2026. I got the reassessment form in August 2025, and the decision letter 2 weeks ago.

My daughter's face to face assessment was a joke. He was a physiotherapist- she was claiming for autism. He took one look at her - she was 16 at the time and very pretty - and decided that she must be able to do everything because she looked so capable. She got 1 point, I think. We appealed and it was overturned at mandatory reconsideration. The guy had no relevant expertise and didn't even do the basics like asking her to do a sum or read. It is just going to cause huge distress for disabled people, cost a fortune to implement, and in the end they will still have to pay out.

What is the point if the assessment tools/criteria are such a blunt instrument?

Good i always have paper assessments apart from my original claim

Me too.

Regular?

Why? Do you think people like me with denerative conditions and genetic defects will magically get better?

Do you think people with missing limbs or dwarfism or sight loss will suddenly improve?

People on the maximum amount of benefits for lifelong conditions absolutely do not need regular interrogations!

People on the lower level, who may deteriorate should, yes, but they should be able to just put in a change of circumstances with new evidence that is reviewed alongside the results of their original face to face (assuming it was face to face)... they too should not need someone to come out and see them (or be forced to come into somewhere).

Do you realise many of these assessment centres are hard to get to and not particularly accessible and they are so on purpose to try to catch people out?

The people assessing them have next to no understanding of medical conditions or disabilities their job IS to catch people out.

Do you have any idea how stressful it is that, given the back log of cases you can be informed of your next review pretty much immediately after your previous one (if you're on a two yearly review).

IF the people assessing actually had a clue and looked at the evidence submitted, spoke to peoples consultants, it wouldn't be a big issue. It is however a massive deal when we're being lied about (my partner apparently turned up clean, tidy, well presented, talkative and made great eye contact. That'll be a first and a miracle as he went out of the house in three day old clothing and food down his front and hasn't made eye contact with me for almost a decade!) and evaluated by people without the first idea. I had one ask me what Ehlers Danlos was and what Cardiomyopathy meant!

I have severe agoraphobia and won’t be able to attend an interview so I’m screwed.

This is the same as my south-east Asia traveller acquaintance. It’s a spinal condition, but one that doesn’t cause problems (yet, at the moment; it may well do, in years to come). This is part of her reason for going. She’s mid-50s, fit and well and mobile right now, but understands she may not always be.

But this is true for all of us, if we are lucky enough to be in decent nick now.

Good in theory, but I'm sure there will still be oscar-worthy performances from some cheating scumbags. There should be more of a requirement for medical records though.

Yeah this comment should be pinned at the top of every thread like this as a public service announcement!👏 👏 👏

So she has been done for benefit fraud before, and is doing it again? Unbelievable!

After 28 days being out of the UK she not entitled to anything and is committing benefit fraud