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

It’s not about being short of money, it’s about a contribution to the extra cost of living with a disability.

When government talks about welfare reform and the cost of disability benefits in general, they fail to make clear the astronomical cost of appeals, which claimants have to make to get a fair decision. If the assessment process and the criteria on which decisions are made were made fairer and more transparent, the cost would come down because claimants would get a fair decision first time around. Joe Public in general doesn’t appreciate this because it’s not well publicised.

No you don’t, and no they won’t.

You don't need to give any notice of recording. Just do it on the day with your phone.

Maybe she worded it badly but essentially in my (long) experience as a disability outreach worker, decision makers don’t challenge the assessors’ report unless they have something in the evidence presented by the claimant which directly contradicts it. Assessors determine the number of points awarded for each activity. They decide when the award is reviewed. Decision makers are not medically trained so the majority of the time they will go with the assessors’ decision. I think that’s all OP meant.

This is a bone of contention on the thread. The assessors handbook has moved the goalposts on recording assessments several times. You can record covertly and not inform the assessor, or you can ask permission in advance to give the assessor the opportunity to record the proceedings themselves. IME tribunals are less likely to accept covert recordings made without the knowledge of the assessor. And we’re talking audio recording here. Video recording is possible but is still subject to stricter controls.

How else would you describe it. The assessors decide the number of points awarded for each activity. They decide the length of award. The decision maker has access to all the evidence supplied by the claimant, as does the assessor and unless there is something in the claimants’ evidence which directly contradicts what’s in the assessors report the decision makers will simply go with the report. Decision makers aren’t medically qualified so rely on the assessors.

I imagine that people record covertly very often, but like you, I think any tribunal panel would take a dim view of that when there are measures in place to have a recording done with the knowledge of the assessor.

Video recordings (I assume you mean in reference to video call assessments)…I’m not sure how they work as I don’t do them.

If someone tells me they want to record the call, there’s a few line of script that I need to read to them (essentially saying that they’re fine to record but must not edit or alter the recording), then we proceed as normal.

I can absolutely, categorically assure anyone reading this that there’s no need now for any advance warning, use of specialist recording equipment or anything else.

I’d definitely record if I was the claimant for peace of mind.

I was just responding to this post:-
In reality though, PIP is spent on heating, food and carers

This is correct.

A report is submitted to the decision maker, they have access to all the evidence and the content within the report (as well as any previous reports) and they’ll do one of 3 things:

1. Nothing - the award or non award stands
2. Ask for changes to be made.
3. Ask the claimant to be called back, for more info to be gathered as the assessor hasn’t gathered enough in the initial consultation.

Daft question, sorry. How do you expect anyone to answer this on such flimsy information. The glaringly obvious answer is that PIP is not decided on the disability but the functional impact from day to day, and your partner simply didn’t meet the criteria. Health conditions are measured against a range of day to day activities and mobility criteria. It’s a high bar.

You can't use the audio recording but a transcript will be admissible.

Sorry, I was referring to video recordings - they are still subject to stringent rules. They’re not used very often but when they are the individual assessment provider can still insist that two copies are provided so that they can be sure the evidence hasn’t been tampered with. Covert audio recordings are allowed but tribunals are not obliged to consider them as evidence because the claimant hasn’t allowed the assessor the opportunity to make their own recording to verify that it’s a genuine representation of the proceedings.

They still take into consideration whether the assessor was informed that the claimant was audio recording the proceedings - where they haven’t, they will factor in that the assessor wasn’t given the opportunity to record the interview themselves, thus verifying that the recording is a true representation of the proceedings.

The rules on admission of audio recordings are the same for a tribunal as for court. The audio recording may be admissible, may not be (at the discretion of the panel) but a transcription will be, or a sworn statement may refer to them

A transcript will be admissible.

That’s a sweeping generalisation though. IME people use PIP in many different ways - not least to save up to buy the equipment they need because the bog standard NHS or social services issue is unsuitable. And I’ve lost count of the number of parents of SEN children I’ve seen who use their child’s DLA to pay for private reports so that they can access the help their child needs.

I couldn’t have said it better myself - perfect summarisation

Thanks.
We were not aware that the assessors award points, we thought that was the decision makers. So basically that means asking for a mandatory reconsideration is completely pointless. In fact surely it completely negates the point of having a "decision maker" because the allocation of points is already decided before the decision maker passes judgement.

The system is even more corrupt than we imagined.

Yet for most people, it seems glaringly obvious that this person won't be able to do much.

Common Sense......

Not really, most illnesses range from very mild/early stages to very severe/profound and everything inbetween. Present 2 people with arthritis, 1 can run marathons another can't walk or open a can of beans. Both can legitimately put arthritis on their form, but are you saying both should be able to claim?

Once again it doesn't have to be 100% either way. So you are agreeing that it isn't all assessors. Glad we have agreed on that.

A severe asthmatic on biologics as per the pp doesn’t have mild asthma.

Which needs to be explicitly stated on the form and how this affects the person. If their breathing is so bad it takes them 3 hours to get washed and dressed and they require a half hour rest to recover, that is what needs to be put on the form.

Of course, I wasn’t commenting on the form. I was commenting on the use of mild when it is clear from the post that isn’t the case.

Is it clear? Not everyone will know that.