Im a PIP assessor - AMA

[pipfs]

Im a regstered nurse and have worked for PIP for a few years. I work in this role due to my personal health, i could not longer stand for 12 hours to do ward based work, i could no longer travel for the requirements of community. The jobs market when my health took a turn for nursing was limited, i had my own family to support, my options were very limited.

I do not do assessment via phone or in a clinic. That is not my role. I check claims as they come in, and will send to phone, clinic, or both where appropriate. If they are not suitable for asssessment, i will try everything i can to avoid an assessment, try to gather the evidence from health care providers, schools, social care, support contacts, appointees etc, and i write them as what is know as a paper based report. Some do end up having to go to assessment despite my efforts.

95% of claim reports i write, get awarded. Over 2/3 of reports i write get an enhanced/enhanced award. Half of the reports that i write are for 16 year old transitioning from DLA to PIP. Followed by cancers on active treatments, significant mental health, following a stroke, condition or incident where they are fully reliant on other people for their care, and cases where an attempted assessment has failed. But the transitioning cases build up the majority of my case load on an avergae week

I fully understand the frustrations and limitations of the system, i fully underand the stigma that comes from being an assessor, and how these reports can at times, be written. However the area of pip i work in is very claimant centered due to the nature of the cases we write, and i spend hours ensuring that these people, the people who cannot attend an assessment because of their health restrictions, get the support they require. It is a rewarding role.

So if anyone has any questions regarding the transistioning process, or in general, i am happy to answer where i can.

@changeswillbemade I also have ME/CFS and concur about the difficulty scoring enough points.
My assessor clearly didn’t understand debilitating fatigue and brain fog. My report had lots of “claimant reports difficulty with X task but cannot have cognitive difficulties because of previous educational attainment”, and said I did not sound fatigued.
The points are aimed at physical issues causing consistent problems with tasks, and do not take account of fatigue conditions that mean doing one task knocks you out for periods of time, or varying levels of competence in tasks.

@Mybrowsaresisters there isn’t an average time that I am aware of. For a start, different health assessment providers operate in different areas. It isn’t one for the whole country.

@changeswillbemade @InMySpareTime the activities absolutely should take into account fatigue. In order to be able to do a task you have to be able to do it reliably. That is safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in reasonable time. That includes taking into account fatigue. For example, if you need a prolonged rest after getting dressed before doing anything else, that should be considered. Another example, if you can can’t making a simple meal in the evening after the normal daily activities (including where someone works) without assistance, that should be considered.

@Mybrowsaresisters as PP said, it’s unfortunately very variable. I can give you our timeline though, in case it helps.

Form submitted in March, appt took place start of June, decision made about 6 weeks later.

During the phone call I was told that my DS’ application would have to be sent for checking because it was such a high-scoring case. And that was our timeline. I was warned that if the auditor wanted more info or clarification they’d have to ring again but that wasn’t the case.

Do you know the trick about ringing to see if a decision has been made but not having to talk to anyone?

Also, be aware that if PIP is granted, the first payment is weird. So our regular DLA was paid to the 10th July, the decision was made, and the DLA was then paid to 28th July - so a partial payment - then the first PIP payment was 18th Aug - so a partial payment too. We then got his first full PIP payment in September.

The dates they pay and how they organise the transfer makes no logical sense. And once again, it was different for both DD and DS (but they did both have partial payments of DLA and PIP). The only good thing is that when the PIP officially takes over, DLA automatically pay you the partial benefit that’s owing.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience.

I know that I can check proof of benefits to see if I have been awarded but my assessment hasn’t even gone to DWP yet so a decision can’t be made until then. The assessment was four weeks ago and all they tell me is it has been selected for quality checking audit and as soon as it is complete I’ll receive a text from DWP to say its with them for a decision. I wrongly assumed that the audit stage would be done by now. They have had it a month already!

@ExistingonCoffee thank you, my provider was Maximus. I guess I can only wait until they finish it. It just seems to take such a long time.

Do you really mark claimants down if they ‘managed to attend the assessment’ ? I attended mine with my mum who waited in my Motability car which was parked 2 miles away and I left my wheelchair in the lobby as I’m an ambulatory user. I was later told that it was noted by my assessor how I’d “obviously managed to attend the assessment centre alone” and was supposedly deducted points for this! I was never even asked how I’d got there or if I was alone, it was just assumed!
Ever since, I’ve requested home assessments.

Someone i know who already gets it...works. severely obese. Thyroid. Diabetic. antidepressants. They have just said theyre an alcoholic for extra money. Theyre not. They just binge drink a lot and their gp knows and it is recorded how much they drink as standard per weekend/week..but it is absolutely not a daily necessity and theyre not an addict. How would this be checked? Would it be declined?

Ours was SERCO so not the same as yours, so the process might be different. We were also told we’d get a text to confirm it had been sent for a decision but it never materialised.

There wasn’t a great deal of difference time-wise between my DD and DS’ claims. I don’t know what the internal process looks like but DS’ claims went through very quickly after the audit so I don’t know if that fast-tracks it somehow? But DD’s claim was entirely paper-based and took almost the same length of time.

Obviously it all depends on caseloads etc but I was pleasantly surprised how relatively quickly I got DS’ decision after the assessment. I’d been expecting 2-3 months!

Being an alcoholic on its own wont get them extra money the PIP criteria is very specific you either meet them or you dont it doesnt matter how many diagnoses' you have.

I have a recent adult social care report for my son. Should I submit this as evidence? Although having said that the PIP has continued since I submitted evidence for review 2 years ago. The award is just continued to the next review. Last review was never concluded before the next 3 year review. What’s going on?

@PocketSand you can send the social care report as part of the next review. If you have a review currently ongoing, you can send it now.

Some reviews take a long time (although some happen really quickly) but it is unusual for a review to still be ongoing after 3 years.