I’m a PIP assessor, happy to advise if I can

[Impr90]

Hello all,

If you’ve got any questions you think I might be able to help with, please let me know

All the best for the New Year

I had a good experience. Albiet drawn out but the pip assessor was alright, just asking questions thats all

The assessor who assessed me lied and I can prove it. How is that complying with the rules and guidelines?

i had a lovely lady from the council who helped me do mine.. might be worth getting in touch with them

You need to move on - my post is not the point of the thread - I assessors should sort out the claimants from the fraudsters who take so much money from the system. - was my point.- it happens https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c88z8jn8gj0o

Did she provide any medical evidence to show she could not leave the house alone? medical evidence is so important with these kind of things.

when i had my assessment (at this point i’m unclear if it was PIP but it was with the DWP) i had an in person one. the assessor asked me directly if i had suicidal thoughts and i replied yes, then he proceeded to ask for proof? i was gobsmacked why didn’t they contact my GP i would’ve gave permission if that’s what they needed. anyways i replied that i’ll have to speak to my GP and send it to you once i receive it. my GP quickly drew a letter confirming i was suicidal it was utterly humiliating & insulting to say the least. the system is very much broken it was very invasive. i felt as if they thought i was lying, it was traumatic i haven’t gotten over it.

General reminder.

Please everyone, do not rely on anonymous people on the internet for PIP advice.

Please make an appointment with your local money advice service - this might be Citizen’s Advice or another advice charity such as a caring charity. Have a google, or use a signposting tool that doesn’t ask personal details such as:

https://www.worryingaboutmoney.co.uk

The advice, usually delivered 1:1 by trained volunteers, should be free and confidential, and experienced advisors will have good knowledge of the process local to you.

This kind of thread is fine for asking about the OP’s personal experience.

It happens, but it happens so rarely that the official fraud rate of PIP is quoted as 0% in the DWP’s own report

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/zero-percent-fraud-rate-for-pip,-dwp-figures-show

How do you sleep at night?

’Specialist assessors for things like neurological conditions’ ROTFLMAO
Yep, allegedly my assessor was a nurse. I am photosensitive and there was a flashing router right in my eyeline at the assessment. My husband and I both asked the assessor to cover it up but she refused.
My husband took a piece of paper of her desk and did his best to cover it up.
I ended up seizing. When I came round I wanted to go to the toilet to sort myself out. The toilet was exactly the distance measured by a white walkway that you were required to walk. At the time I thought that the assessor had realised I wasn’t making things up and was helping me get there….sure!
They care so much for anyone with a disability.
The assessment basically denied that any seizure took place.
Oddly they didn’t challenge anything at the tribunal.
I could think of a few things that AI might stand for….
Why on earth would anyone want to do a job that injects so much misery and fear into the lives of anyone with a medical condition.
I completely agree with @Frith2013 The initial horrible assessment, various administration mess ups and just the whole horrendous process lasted a year. It is a battle of attrition that they hope most people will give up at the first hurdle due to the level of absolute humiliation.
I’m not stronger than some, I just got angrier.
Far better getting help from Citizens Advice or a specialist medical condition forum.
Have I been mean or insulting? No, just truthful.
Awaiting deletion of post.

And just to be clear, it wasn't that information was "omitted" and that wasn't the basis of my MR. My MR was on the basis that the information as recorded by the assessor and the assessment that she had made of my capabilities was lies. And I proved it by going line by line through the report and matching that up to my pip form and the other information that had been provided by health professionals involved in my care.

So, for example, "The assessor states that I am able to walk more than 50 metres unaided. The assessor did a phone appointment with me and therefore did not observe me walk. In Part x.y of the form I stated I was unable to walk more than <whatever metres it was> without the use of crutches and without being in extreme pain. This is further indicated by my medical professional x at paragraph y page w and medical professional so and so at para ...." and so on.

"The assessor states I was not distressed and was able to communicate well. Please provide me with a copy of the phone call as recorded by the assessor, as my phone call record shows that I asked for them to stop at however many minutes and seconds, and again at whatever time and I can be heard sobbing and saying "I am begging you to please stop" at this or that time"

It was absolute fiction what the assessor wrote.

Quite a few posters have asked about my background and why I took on the role. I’ve been working as a mental health nurse for about 15 years. A colleague/ friend of mine was badly assaulted in our workplace by someone very unwell and uncapacitous. The incident is unlikely to have occurred if there was adequate, safe staffing. This staffing issue had been longstanding (and has been similar in the two other places I’ve worked) I persevered for as long as I could but it became untenable for me. I left and was recommended the role by a friend. I was scared about moving into another area of clinical practice following the assault, Yes I was aware of the reputation of the role and didn’t apply too enthusiastically.

How is it possible to provide such "evidence" other than the contact details of her doctors who would be able to confirm this. How else can mental health issues ever be "proven"? Agoraphobics are largely "invisible" because they are often unable to attend hospital appointments, it is thus very difficult for them to be taken seriously. She has a CPN and has had therapy both at home and by phone. She is under the care of the local NHS trust's mental health team. What more could she realistically do?

Its not about not agreeing what's on the report its about multiple specialists that iv been under stating one thing and then a pip assessor who iv only spoken to over the phone disagreeing with them and me when something is a scientific fact. I fully appreciate i have a very rare condition and most medical professionals haven't even heard about it let alone know what it actually means I also understand it's also difficult to Google as again it's so rare but to blatantly disregard what I'm saying and what multiple specialists are saying and say their is no medical reason for this is crazy hence why I got the apology and a new interview without having to go to mandatory reconsideration but what the assessors didn't see because they was to busy making up lies was my life completely fall apart the stress it caused led to a suicide attempt and a relapse into self harm.

I’m really sorry this person had such a terrible experience.

From my research and understanding into this, there is a lack of training and understanding around mental health which can lead to these bizarre and incongruent reports. This is why I was asking the OP about her background and training.

A theme that comes up time and time again is claimants who are relatively ‘composed’ during the assessment are not understood as being anxious or distressed in anyway. Whereas we know that people can seem calm but actually they are in ‘freeze’ mode (or ‘fawn’ mode of the fight and flight response), or dissociated, or overwhelmed or a thousand other things that may not be immediately obvious to someone who is untrained. Part of this is stigma around mental health and what it looks like to be struggling with mental health - I like to think we’ve moved on from imagining a woman screaming ‘hysterically’ incoherently but I’m not sure we really have. Someone can be struggling so much and be actively suicidal, but still able to be articulate and respond coherently - and even able to paint their nails too! Essentially I think those doing the assessments need better training and certainly more governance.

Apologies for the rant! I really hope the person you speak of gets a more appropriate and accurate assessment outcome.

Why don’t you stop and consider what would happen if benefits like PIP weren’t available before commenting simply to be rude. You can’t just hand out disability benefits without an assessment, and someone has to do it. The system is far from perfect and assessors have to work within the guidelines, they can’t change anything without government legislation.

I can empathise with this. We all have to put food on the table somehow, and an under resourced setting as you describe sounds like somewhere where few would choose to work.

Where do you see your career going next?

A friend was an assessor for a short while but has now found a role she is a lot happier in working for a private rehab unit.

Same, it can feel very personal and invasive as she asked me questions about toileting, dressing, bathing etc. But this is part of the assessment and they cannot do a full assessment without asking.
I did have a good cry after the assessment, but that's not the fault if the assessor, she was polite and kind, but more that talking about my difficulties was upsetting.

It would save so much money to go back to paper assessments like they did for DLA

Verified figures ?? I worked in this field for years, and have seen the amounts of frauds - yes they are small but often substantial. I have also been in the waiting room with my disabled son waiting for an assessment with a a couple practicing their interview, how they spoke, walked and behaved - followed them out of the interview (separate rooms) and they were very different individuals.

But my assessor LIED. And I can prove it - could prove it, hence getting my MR in a couple of weeks. Is lying "working within the guidelines"?

Sorry to hear about your experiences. I can imagine it was like going from the fire pan straight into the fire with your new job!

Do you enjoy it? Do you have any concerns about those with mental health conditions (and a likely background of trauma) applying for PIP?

I am also really curious about what support you receive to do your role, as it must be stressful. Is there a limit to how many assessments you can carry out in a day/week? Do you receive any sort of reflective supervision? Or additional mental health training?

This is the area of PIP where I think a complete overhaul is needed, as well as specialist input for the assessment. The mental health assessment is completely skewed against the claimant. I’ve seen claimants go to tribunal and have zero points turned into a maximum award several times on mental health grounds and criticism has been levelled at DWP for allowing some cases to actually get as far as tribunal because it’s plain for all to see that the decision is wrong.

Thank you. Her injury was life changing. There had been near misses with various other patients prior to that incident. I had a great rapport with a lot of my patients and felt awfully guilty leaving them as I’ve just perpetuated the poor staffing problem but I’ve got two young children and felt I had to prioritise being a safe and present parent to them. I really don’t know what I’m going to do next. I can’t see me moving back into a clinical setting which is a shame but this doesn’t feel like a long term job role either

Yes absolutely- and a complete overhaul is what we are aiming for!