To be scared of PIP assessment?

[PIPinghell]

DH has finally had the dreaded “DLA is ending you have to apply for PIP” letter.

DH gets contribution based ESA (he was able to work up until about three years ago). He is in the support group and exempt from future reassessments due to his condition being severe and lifelong (he has a rare neurological condition that is degenerative and I am now his full-time carer), this was all awarded first time around, no needs for mandatory consideration or appeals.

So for DH the ESA process was fine, but I feel really scared of the PIP process and that it may be a very different experience to the ESA one.

If anyone has been through this recently, please share how you got on if you feel able! Thanks.

My son Had one. He’s severely autistic and non verbal. It was painless and over with quite quickly. I found the whole process much easier than DLA, the form was shorter , the assessment was about 40 minutes. I know a lot of people record the assessment as well.

The assessee will want the majority of answers from the person who has the assessment.Some will ask an attendant not to speak or cut them off. Some will ask at the end if you want to add anything. I therefore advise the person having the assessment requests their attendant needs to help them express their difficulties. For anyone going through this it is always worth asking for a mandatory reconsideration if you are not happy with the decision and if that does not give a satisfactory result go to tribunal ( you can do this yourself and decisions are often changed here with an expert panel )

I had my assessment a while ago. Moved from DLA to PIP.

I had read some horror stories and had already made my mind up before the assessment that I was going to be turned down for PIP.

I didn't have any evidence to show, not one letter.

As it turned out, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be and I ended up with a greater award than what I was getting on DLA.

As someone has already said above, you really only read about the bad experiences on forums (and I know there are many), but there are a lot of positive experiences too.

Just come out of the tribunal and we won. Dwp guy conceded on most points before we even started and we just had to argue one main point and won that. Got 12 points daily living and 10 points mobility. Big difference from 0 for both!

Wow, that's amazing, Murinae! So pleased for you.

What bastards they are to have put you through it, and then immediately acknowledge they didn't have a leg to stand on.

Also sounds like a different set-up for the tribunal than I experienced: DWP didn't attend mine, and I didn't get the outcome till at least a week later.

Murinae that's fabulous, I am also very pleased for you!

@PerkingFaintly yes we were expecting no dwp person to turn up but one was there. The judge introduced everyone and then the dwp immediately said they conceded various points. At the end they sent us out then called us back in after 5 mins to tell us the result.

I think DWP twerp did you a favour, helping the judge come to so swift a conclusion!

Well I have spent what feels like a thousand hours doing the bloody PIP form and gathering the evidence. I'm planning to send it off tomorrow (tracked and signed for) so fingers crossed!

Thanks everyone for all the tips and advice, it really helped.

Have heard back from DWP, they are going to come and do a home visit, which at least saves the stress of getting to an assesment centre.

That's good news

Given what's gone on in the last couple of days re: the CV, I am wondering whether face to face PIP assessments will be suspended soon because of the fact that obviously many claimants are vulnerable to the CV.

Hello

I thought I would come back to the thread to let you know the outcome. DWP did a telephone assessment. My husband has now been awarded enhanced care and mobility for an ongoing period.

Such a relief to not lose the mobility element as we have a motability car. Quite gobsmacked with the care award, we hoped he might qualify for the standard care, didn't really think he would be awarded enhanced, but the points awarded really did stack up.

I'm really pleased for you, @PIPinghell.

What was the telephone assessment like?

JamieLeeCurtains the assessment was quite intense, lots and lots of detailed questions about all relevant activities. It lasted about an hour. The assessor was very pleasant though.

Afaik the threshold and criteria for pip is different than dla so though you might qualify for dla you dont qualify enough for pip. Its tax payers money, of course they woule want to make enough checks. Dont exaggerate but dont pretend to be better or be braver. Be like you normally are and if it fluctuates think and tell them what you are like on other days and how often you are worse.

If you can then ask your DH's consultant or GP to write a letter with reference to each of the descriptors. Provide as much medical evidence as possible.

Do include the ESA report and also explain repeatedly that your DH's condition is degenerative so has got significantly worse over time (otherwise a lazy assessor might just look back to the DLA being 'Mobility' only and make a decision only to award the Mobility component).

Abcduck we have had the assessment now and it all worked out fine, as above!

Oh sorry, didn't read the thread- that's great news OP!

I know that there are a lot of negative stories on PIP - probably because nobody ever takes to the internet to complain about getting it. And yes, some of these stories, if true (there are always two sides to everything, and I do actually know someone in receipt of it who has not remotely told the truth about themselves) are scary.

But here's mine. I put it off claiming for a couple of years because (a) I didn't really want to admit to myself how bad I was and (b) because all the stories I read said that I'd never get it if they couldn't as they were obviously worse than me!

I got the Benefits and Work site handbook others have recommended, and it was a great investment. I filled in the form. I sent NO evidence because my condition was not being actively treated any more (nothing they can do). I gave them the contact details of my GP and physiotherapist. Sent it in in December 2018. Got a text in January 2019 saying they were assessing it. They phoned my physio to ask some questions. Got a text in early February saying a decision had been made and they were sending a letter. Two days later the letter arrived - higher rate in both categories, which is more than I expected to get!

To me the key was to give as much detail as possible. Don't try to fill in the boxes - I typed additional sheets and just said "refer to additional sheets" in every box. That enables you to consider your responses and amend them easily. Remember that there are some key words - you have to be unable to do things repeatedly", reliably and safely. Keep using those words to describe what can't be done. In every sentence if possible. And also remember that you need to describe how much longer something may take to do, and whether it causes you pain to do something. For example, with a rollator I can walk more than 200 metres. What I cannot do is walk it in the length of time somebody fit could do it in, and I would be in pain the whole time. So the test isn't always whether you can* do something, but what the consequences of doing it may be.

I was shocked at how easy it was for me. I don't know whether I was lucky or what. But like I said, pretty much nobody ever complains about their good experiences, so we can't say that it's all bad.

To me the key was to give as much detail as possible. Don't try to fill in the boxes - I typed additional sheets and just said "refer to additional sheets" in every box.

Yes, that is what we did when filling in my husband's form, I think it probably really helped. I also think perhaps that DWP has pulled its socks up on PIP after the consultation that was carried out a while ago which showed how bad the system was for many people.

Yes, the PIP assessment system is under scrutiny by parliamentary select committee.

@PIPinghell that's fabulous news, congratulations

I know that sounds like a daft thing to say for getting a disability award, but from having completed the whole process through to Tribunal on behalf of my DD and encountering an awful lot of the assumptions outlined in other peoples' experiences of a F2F meeting, I'm pleased the system is being looked into by the parliamentary select committee.

@Moondust001 you said "some of these stories, if true ... are scary" about accounts that people have written here.

I'm pleased you had what's tantamount to an effortless experience with your award but having been one of the ones who had to go to Tribunal, I can assure you that being treated as a probable liar by the DWP's ATOS assessors was bad enough without randoms online questioning the veracity of peoples' experiences outlined on here.

The posters who have outlined the type of questions asked by the F2F Assessors and the erroneous assumptions made from the answers to those that affect the amount of points awarded are absolutely spot-on in our experience.
One Q at the FtF that no-one's mentioned upthread was in the getting dressed section, DD was asked 'How do you fasten your bra?' because with their type of 'reasoning' the answer to that would have suggested how much dexterity she had in her hands and how much back and shoulder movement she was capable of depending on whether it was fastened at the back or initially fastened at the front then spun round.

Thanks @BlankTimes. It is a funny one, isn't it? We are pleased at the result as the money will really help, but on the other hand it reinforces how disabled my husband has become.

I am sorry that you had such a lot of trouble with your DD's claim. Although our end resuly was good, it is still a horrible and stressful process which makes you feel as though you have to prove you are not lying. Even though the assessor seemed decent enough, there were a couple of questions that I felt were designed to try and catch people out. And having someone he has never met ask how he manages to wipe his arse was a particular joy for my husband.