dd with learning difficulties and telephone pip assessment

[HelpWithPip]

Hi, my dd who’s 18 has a telephone appointment on Monday for a pip claim. The letter says that although she can have someone with her for the call, they won’t be allowed to talk for her. The thing is, she won’t understand them or have a clue what to say, she generally won’t be able to provide them with the information they need. And she might even refuse to talk at all due to her condition. I was the one who completed her form, there’s no way she could do anything like this by herself. There must be others in the same boat, there are people who are non verbal for example. What happens then? Really worried about how this is going to go. If anyone has any experience or advice it would be much appreciated.

Are you her appointee?

You put them on speaker phone and remind them that they have a duty under the Equalities Act 2010 to ensure equal access and in your daughter's case that is her access to both services and funding as she has communication difficulties.

Honestly - what is the problem with service providers at the moment? I've had the same issue with a Ukranian familiy recently who would only speak to them and not me. The only english speaker had blast injuries.

If you fill out the form to be her appointee you can speak for them. Technically they need to be present but my daughter wasn't for her PIP assessment as her anxiety meant she was hiding.

She was awarded it.

I’ve just found this on one website and it says you can remind your daughter of what she can and cannot do ,for example, over speaker phone.

www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/preparing-for-pip-assessment/

I.e prompt. Forgot to add that in!

I haven’t heard of ‘appointee’ before, I’ll look into it, thanks.

That’s really sad, I’m so sorry to hear they’re having to deal with that after what they’ve already been through. Thanks for the advice.

You need to be made appointee before the call

I just looked up being an appointee and you have to apply to do that from what I’ve read? I haven’t applied yet but I will in case I need to phone up on her behalf.

Cross post, thank you.

Do you think I should try to reschedule the appointment until after I’ve been made appointee?

Thank you, that’s great to hear that you still got it even though you spoke her. Which form did you fill out to be her appointee? Was it straight forward to do it?

You would hope that her inability to understand would only go in her favour regarding getting an award. I would just go ahead with the appointment unless it is going to stress her too much.

Thank you.