PIP assessor here

[Fsj88]

Good evening

I’ve been encouraged to sign up to Mumsnet by a friend who has suggested that some people might find it useful to be able to ask a PIP assessor questions.

If there’s anything you think I can help you with, please ask away

Why do you still expect parents of adult kids to fill in forms when our kids require high levels of social care.

Quite frankly it the forms don’t coincide with the high social care needs, then the questions asked are not fit for purpose.

As an example of that, a friends so. Who has the condition where one part of the brain does not talk to the other and who has agreed 24/7 social care support to move into jos pennies still is not on the highest level of pop and going to tribunal which seems a complete waste fk then and money . It seems that pip is assessed on how well you fill in the forms rather than actual needs.

From my point of view, pip assessments remains yet another chore and frankly don’t you think it quite a depressing chore for carers?

Do you understand the complete awfulness of having on the one hand to positively praise any progress your adult kid makes and on the other hand filling in a form saying how bad they are doing? It’s a schizophrenic feeling!

So to recap - social services spend hours with our kids, they also have dynamic and live access to daily care charts. What is the point of further pip assessments.

Do you think that 16 is a stupid age (I do) to transition from DLA to PIP?
It's an adults benefit but the claimant is a child and is expected to make their own claim (unless they have an appointee).

Which leads me to my next question. Can an appointee revoke their position and revert to the claimant?

Well, according to the OP, a claim can be successful without evidence so it seems that, although what you are saying makes logical sense, it is not actually the case.

If people provide evidence it will support their application to get it. Hopefully people reading this will be sensible enough to know to provide it.

2 hours?????
So how many people will you go through in one day?
What other duties do you have e.g training or meetings or anything else?

For very profound cognitive restrictions, if there’s sufficient medical evidence then assessments are usually paper based.

If an assessment IS required and is likely to cause the claimant distress then the ‘carer’ can complete the assessment without them present, as their appointee. This is a conversation your friend could have with the DWP.

I would challenge the notion that success depends on form filling - I often assess people who haven’t even submitted a form. It’s useful to have but not essential and it’s my responsibility as an assessor to ensure I’ve covered the scope of every activity during the assessment itself

Yes I agree - I’m not sure why it’s not 18, actual adult age.
Yes an appointee can revoke their position at any time

Yes definitely, I would always encourage someone to send in evidence if they’re capable of doing so

Workloads have been reduced in response to consistent and longstanding feedback from assessors. We used to do three assessments a day, now we alternate between two and three. On a three assessment day we’re expected to assess and write reports for three claimants, prepare for the following day which involves reading applications and any medical evidence and pre populating it into the assessment form to help guide our assessments. We also have the usual administrative tasks - emails/ meetings/ training/ continuing professional development and so on

Just as an aside to this, although there are benefits to the reduction in workload for both the claimant and assessor, this does mean that claimants are now having to wait even longer for an assessment than they were previously

If I had to estimate based on my working week I’d say that probably 30% of people don’t submit any evidence alongside their questionnaire about probably somewhere between 3%-5% don’t submit a questionnaire

I don’t get how a 16 year old I know has received PIP with higher rate mobility, after receiving DLA as a child (his parents are fucking rich, yes I’m a little bitter and sorry if it offends anyone).

He has adhd.

How does this work? My son has debilitating adhd but we haven’t even applied for DLA. Partly because I can’t bring myself to fill out the massive form.

Why do some assessors infer things that haven't been said in order to deny an application?

When my Dad had his assessment, the assessor asked a question about his dogs. He thought she was just making polite conversation, so he answered her casually and said his dogs get out for an hour a day.

His claim was denied on the basis that he is mobile and can walk for up to 60 minutes per day with no pain or breathing issues evidenced by him walking his dogs daily.

His dogs get out for an hour a day because it takes him an hour sitting on the edge of his boot while they run around private enclosed land to recover from the exertion of getting their leads on and getting them in the car. He can't walk to the kitchen without needing a rest, as he explained when she asked the actual question about his mobility.

He won on appeal after his specialist wrote a letter supporting his claim and outlining his breathing and mobility issues.

A very good question and a good point to make.

They also infer things based on someone being able to drive.

Sorry I don’t understand the question - are you asking why the benefit isn’t means tested?

Do you get any training in the law, do you have knowledge of binding precedents? I am in the process of doing a mandatory reconsideration where the assessor decided that because my son can use a bath (with aids, grab rails etc) not to consider the fact he can’t use a shower (held to be incorrect by the upper tribunal) and also just because he can walk with an aid, which we accept they ignored the fact the test is stand and walk? There are also no findings on repeatedly,safely or reliably instead saying because no cognitive issue no need for supervision.

Also bearing in mind you do have limited time and thinking about my experience we sent 60 ish pages of specialist medical reports from 5 consultants at 3 hospitals as well as the EHCP, all of which contradict the PA4 finding, is that because you don’t have time to actually read the evidence?

do you think it’s harder for determined, bright but physically disabled to get PIP when they have adapted everything to be able to be included?

The assessor should have been more diligent and not taken his answer at face value. When he said that he gets out for an hour a day they should have referred back to what he’d already told them about his mobility issues and asked more probing questions

Have you any idea how many of the 30% would be successful in their claim?

I don’t know how he got it with a diagnosis of adhd

The ‘parents are rich’ comment was just me being bitter and twisted. Sorry!

To an extent but not beyond the scope of what we receive in clinical practise - mental capacity act, human rights act and so on.

I always ensure that I read any evidence submitted but yes reams of supporting evidence doesn’t equate to better likelihood of a successful application. Inevitably for some assessors who have multiple complex cases in a day, with high levels of medical evidence to get through, will have to spend less time elsewhere in the process - either on the assessment itself or on consideration of the evidence/ report writing. Unfortunately the time available to us for consideration is the same whether someone has submitted minimal evidence or 150 pieces of evidence (it happens).

For me the perfect case is one with about 3 - 5 pieces of solid supportive evidence from a range of sources I.e a GP report, consultant letter, occupational health/therapy report etc
The less evidence there is, the less likely it is that there are inconsistencies too because that happens, even amongst consultants.

Do you think PIP should be means tested?

True, he did lose points on the mobility section because he can (could) drive. We knew that would happen.

He needs reassessing soon because this ability is dwindling. Most days lately, his dogs get more time out because my mum drives him out there, leaves him sitting in a deck chair while she drives back to work, and I go and pick them all back up on my break.

It's bad enough that he put me on the insurance for his precious car to get me through my driving test a few months ago because he wanted to book a holiday to Somerset and knows he will not be able to drive that distance by then.

It's sad because his driving was the last bit of independence he had left.

@Fsj88

Last year I helped my neighbour with her PIP form.
She has multiple health issues, including COPD, severe arthritis and what seems to me quite complex mental health issues. She lives in one room in the house because she cannot use the stairs. Fortunately she has a downstairs bathroom. She can no longer even walk as far as the end of her garden.
She is on multiple medications.
She hasn't left the house since COVID apart from medical appointments which cannot be done at home eg scans. Otherwise the GP and other services come to the house.
She suffers from paranoia. She thinks her other neighbour has listening devices and controls her TV. She thinks that DWP staff live in the house opposite are thete solely to spy on her. She thinks another neighbour, who is a nurse, is also spying on her and reporting to DWP.
She scored a big fat 0 in her initial assessment.

Can you explain why that might be ?

With this volume of workload I’m not surprised that people get it wrong from time to time, they literally haven’t got enough time to read all evidence carefully.
We need more assessors.
Are there any perks in your job?
By the way I don’t ask for myself. I’m at the other end of the- my child receives PIP, we didn’t have any problems with the assessment, but we had as lot of clear and obvious medical evidence 😢.