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

It actually is if you lie. If someone is playing the system it's not hard for them as it really makes no difference if they are awarded or not. If you have a genuine need for the assistance it is much harder as it actually has a serious impact whether ot not you are awarded.

Having made your initial assessment of my protestations (pompous, much?) you must believe what you want to believe, since I’m just a Mumsnet user on the end of a phone with no way to prove what I’m telling you. But it’s true.

The profit margin on all services provided by the largest health assessment provider is 9%. That's not "an enormous cost". It might be that TUPE'ing all the employees to the DWP and setting up a departmental management team to run the program costs a bit less than that 9%, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Exactly.

It makes no sense. I literally had to explain that just because my son is in hospital, it doesn't mean that he's stopped growing and magically won't need any new clothes.

Anyone who is just faking, but who is so clever that they've managed to convince the doctors of it to get the relevant letters etc, is going to be able to convince the assessors too I'm afraid. All this will do is increase waiting times and make genuine claimants nervous and upset. I don't know what the answer is though.

She isn’t incredibly wealthy. Where did you get that idea from? No savings, no assets, no property, no pension. In England she was incredibly poor, existing on benefits. In developing countries with no bills, her quality of life is good by comparison.

Yes it’s utterly shit and people should not be penalised for being in hospital particularly as it’s more than likely that the stay is related to why they’re receiving PIP etc in the first place.
It also seems foolish because it encourages people to leave hospital before they have completed treatment in order to avoid having their benefits cut which is likely to mean their condition will deteriorate further and they’re likely to be hospitalised again which is ultimately going to cost the NHS and tax payers more money. It’s ultimately inefficient and foolish imo but I don’t expect anyone important to take it up as a cause any time soon.

So you reported them then, did you?

Did you report this incredibly wealthy globe-trotting person on benefits then?

Why on earth are you saying that assessments are not done face to face?

Most are. What are you on about?

I am still waiting for the OP to come back and provide a link to this news story she has created a thread about.

Come on then @PAYE Show us a thread to this news from the budget today!

I won't hold my breath!

I’m sorry to hear of your own disability and it’s great to hear this hasn’t held you back.

Also, I didn’t appreciate your suggestion that I’m a fantasist or a liar.

💯

Completely unreasonable for assessments to be outsourced to a private company where they profit from this. Assessors routinely lie.

Over 70% of appeals go in favour of the disabled person making the PIP claim at enormous public cost. Private companies are not penalised for the additional cost of handling appeals - they are financially rewarded for turning claims down.

This is all about corporate greed at the cost of disabled people.

It is absolutely disgusting that anyone would be in support of a system that hands over so much taxpayer money to give a private company a huge profit.

The system is overwhelmingly biased against disabled people.

The cost of fraud is an absolutely minute fraction of the amount of profit made by private companies. Paying profit is a gigantic cost.

The Pip claims are spiralling out of control. The UK seem to have many many more people with MH issues, ADHD especially after COVID and of course there are the influencers out there who will tell you the key words to use.

I am staggered that assessments arent done face to face.

We cannot carry on approving more and more claims because it will end of spoiling it for the genuine claimant when a more realistic government is voted in.

Nope, it will just mean lots of severely disabled or unwell people will not get benefits as they will be unable to attend in person.

It also completely discounts incredibly long hospital stays. My son was in hospital for so long that we applied for DLA when he was in hospital and he was still in hospital when his DLA was awarded.

To continue to receive child benefit, I had to prove that I was still providing for his needs even though he was in hospital. It was completely ridiculous and again, more stress when long hospital stays are already a huge financial strain.

I know someone who had a home based PIP assessment yesterday. The assessor was there for hours. Feedback was that she was thorough, but kind.

In principle yes it could help but it won't in practice.
There is too much of a backlog, the current system needs looking at (I've had total lies written about me in person assessments as well as online). In recent years my assessment has been downgraded twice (both online) when my health has deteriorated (but I'm too scared of appealing as I haven't got much medical evidence because the nhs diagnosed and discharged).
I had a very thorough assessment for my ill health retirement in which 3 NHS doctors said I would never work again in any job aged 36 but this is not acceptable evidence (in my eyes it should be because if I'm deemed too disabled to work it surely proves I have chronic ill health which stops me carrying out lots of activities). I know pip is for those in work as well but not being able to work surely should show a level of disability.
It all needs to be brought in house, not give targets of how many they do. It should be about quality not quantity.
To give you an example last assessment I submitted it took 16 months from me submitting my evidence to them assessessing me, and me panicking what the outcome would be. I resubmitted my evidence again this September I have no idea how long it will be before an outcome is decided. In the meantime I need to apply for a blue badge and disabled bus pass which are much easier when you have a long award notice. It has such a knock on effect to other things.
So in short yes (especially first assessments) should get done in person as long as adaptions can be made (I've had home visits before covid) but not till they've got the staff, sorted the backlog and changed the whole system. Stop tinkering and fix it basically.

Face to face appointments were notorious for ignoring medical diagnoses, for deliberately under-recording the severity of conditions and for noting down outright lies about the people being assessed.

The rate of successful appeals was way too high. Almost as if the assessors were being financially induced to lower the amount paid out to claimants…

My MIL was called in for an assessment just before she reached pension age. Funny that, given that you can’t then have your PIP readjusted once you’ve aged out. Some of the notes from the assessor were so far from the truth that it would have been comical, had it not involved a financial hit.

If this is true I hope it might stop the assessors lying on the reports. While I was awaiting radiotherapy the assessor told me she’d request a review in six months due to the radiotherapy/illness. After receiving a copy of my report she’d written a review wasn’t necessary as my health wasn’t likely to change in the near future. Utter rubbish

Seems a bit of a pointless waste of resources for many disabilities.
I mean, if you are a double amputee it's pretty obvious what your needs are.
I think it should be face to face for more ambiguous issues, where a conversation about their needs would be beneficial.

I can only imagine how stressful it was. Sincere sympathies. I’ve been a carer for family members 3x and haven’t claimed Carer’s Allowance even once because it’s such an ordeal. The first time the person I cared for died before a decision about Carer’s Allowance was made. I did have the opportunity to reclaim it but it wasn’t worth it for the amount and I was too overwhelmed for any more paperwork.

I am in favour of reform even though I am disabled because I don’t buy the official figures for fraud and I have seen abuse of the system from various angles. It absolutely goes on but there’s also people going without who shouldn’t and that should be a matter of concern too. Likewise I think it’s ridiculous that most benefits stop when the person is in hospital for more than 28 days because the bills certainly don’t stop coming so why should the benefits? Not to mention the extra expenses of parking, meals etc. I don’t think that’s something that they’re contemplating unfortunately but it deserves attention.

Despite your protestations, having applied the duck hypothesis, I am happy with my initial assessment
In the vanishingly unlikely event that the situation is as you have described it, then, as previous posters have said, you may wish to think of notifying the DWP as UC should be stopped if one is out of the country for more than four weeks. However, if you are labouring under the misapprehension that someone's PIP claim must be bogus since you don't think disabled people can go on holiday then I will politely point out that you are mistaken. I have enjoyed many foreign holidays throughout my life, all while being completely blind since birth. So far, no amount of foreign travel has caused the eyeballs without which I was born to grow, so very much still disabled and still qualifying for PIP! Hope that puts your mind at rest.

Agencies that do all this are pointing out that they haven’t actually got the staff or facilities for this. I guess it may end up to be the usual government “aspiration” and not routine. 🙄