To be delighted PIP assessments are to be face to face?

[PAYE]

The only good thing about the budget is that Rachel Reeves announced that face to face assessments for PIP and disability benefits are being brought back. AIBU to think that this is a great thing?

It will make sure that the money goes to those who need it. It is madness that such face to face assessments were ever stopped.

100% this, in spades!

Completely glossing over the fact that ‘ have you been out of the UK for more than four weeks in the last year’ is one of the questions asked on claim and review forms. Lying is benefit fraud and easily checkable.

These people had their benefits stopped for supposedly leaving the country https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/16/i-was-scared-parents-reveal-stress-of-hmrcs-child-benefit-errors?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Anyone who has been through the PIP assessment will tell you that whether or not you are genuinely disabled is not the point. It’s a forty minute snapshot of your life as a disabled person, assessed by a nurse, physio or paramedic who have a few days training and who are generally woefully under qualified to be assessing complex disability. And assessors routinely challenge claimants’ own medical evidence supplied by HCP’s far above the their own pay grade. I don’t know of any other area of medical assessment that would tolerate this, but it’s OK for our disabled ?

The government promised root and branch reform to make the assessment process fairer and more transparent. What disabled people actually got was more tinkering around the edges which will actually make it harder for the genuinely disabled to secure an award.

What the baying mob, the term Hellohelga resents, actually want is for there to be no benefits completely. He/she will deny that but that’s exactly what the endless, repetitive threads are all about. To the mob no one is entitled to ‘free’ money, ‘tax payers’ money. What the baying mob would absolutely love is for them to be put in charge of the decisions and for it to be made as humiliating as possible, such is their fury. But the old disclaimer will be trotted out about it just being about the fakers.

Do you really think government agencies don’t talk to each other ? There are warnings all over benefit claim forms advising claimants that DWP shares information to verify the claims. One of the questions on claim forms is ‘have you been out of the country for more than four weeks in the last year’. It appears on PIP claim forms and also on review forms. People can lie - of course they can. But DWP aren’t stupid and systems exist to easily check.

Agree. 100%. And as far as I can see this is just another benefit bashing thread. I’m surprised nobody has trotted out the Stephen Hawking analogy yet (unless I’ve missed it) !!

I thought they were always face to face

Yes, the agenda has been pushed for a very long time. Maybe we should set up a public hanging platform for all those who have received some kind benefit and the mob can get comfortable with their knitting.

Mumsnet will be thin on the ground on those days.

They were before Covid - suspended during the pandemic, and within the last couple of years have gradually been brought back in. The government would have you believe that’s down to them. It’s not. And whether the assessment is face to face, over the phone, or by video call, the rules and guidelines for assessment are still the same. What matters is the quality of the assessor and the accuracy of the decision. Assessment by other means has it’s place for those too disabled to travel, or for those who have provided enough paper evidence to support a claim, where a few points need to be cleared up. Assessments cost the tax payer - why do it where it’s not needed ?

Guess what? Some people, when presented with a tick box sheet, tick the ‘no’ box.

Nope. They may have attended the assessment centre on shared premises but medical assessments for disability benefits are not carried out in Jobcentres. The assessments are carried out by private companies - they have nothing to do with jobcentres, and PIP applications are not submitted to Jobcentres, they are collated and distributed to assessment providers via dedicated centres.

My previous phone assessment was carried out by a physiotherapist

I was claiming for severe mental illness.

The report was....barely coherent and so unbelievably incorrect it was extremely easy to over turn even at the MR stage.
He lied and for every single descriptior denied me points because he wrote (verbatim) "she work 6 days a week she have no issues with this"

Despite the fact that I was quite easily able to prove I actually only could work part time over 4 days 🤦🏼‍♀️

And there was a hit where it asked for his professional input and it legitimately said
"I have none" 🫠

At the absolute bear minimum I would expect someone with severe mental illness to be assessed by a mental health nurse or just anyone with ACTUAL relevent qualifications

Which, as I’ve already said, can and does happen. But it’s checkable. Guess what ? DWP actually share information with other government departments. So if you lie, and you’re found out, it’s benefit fraud.

In the same way a person on the end of a 999 call can assess how urgently an ambulance is needed without any medical training! By using a prescribed set of questions that are pre determined by the DWP. They are qualified enough to see if a person can perform certain tasks and to what degree they can perform them. PIP is granted on how your condition affects these day to day tasks NOT on your illness/disability.

And I assume you have reported this?

Do you actually believe that the DWP have the staff/money or time to be constantly following up on such things? Seriously?

And depends on the qualifications of the assessor and their capability to assess complex neurological conditions, for example.

I don’t believe that you wouldn’t have grassed her up yet if this were true, no.

Why don’t you?

As an outreach worker I’ve accompanied claimants to assessments and some of them have been appalling. Assessors who haven’t the first clue as to how disability affects functional ability - which is the whole point of the assessment. I’ve seen amputees asked to wriggle toes on artificial limbs and on one horrendous occasion a double above knee amputee was asked why she needed help in and out of the shower - ‘why can’t you sit on the floor and shower ?’. A claimant who had spina bifida (a neural tube birth defect) asked how long he had had the condition, and someone who had two rigid full leg callipers asked why they couldn’t sit at a kitchen counter to prepare food. And I’ve never been able to understand how an assessor who actually doesn’t lay a hand on the claimant is able to assess the degree to which they can bend and flex limbs despite having never been asked to move out of the chair - and yet several pages are devoted to detailed information about angles and degrees of flexion. It’s nonsense.

They don’t assess any conditions or illnesses, they assess what you have told them you can or cannot do!

Ok
Thanks
I assumed it was an announcement today

Yes, they do. That’s what they’re trained for. Their official title is disability analyst. They assess functional ability in the descriptors provided - how are they supposed to do that if they don’t understand the limitations of the disability ? They don’t just blithely accept what the claimant tells them - you have to have actual medical evidence to back up what you say, and in the absence of that, you’re at the mercy of an assessor who may not fully understand your condition.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/28/hmrc-cuts-child-benefit-for-35000-families-based-on-incomplete-travel-data