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.

It just isn't a desirable life to live, not working

Or alternatively you don’t know everything about her or her kids, they have investigated and found her to be genuine ?

I absolutely do know about her and her kids…she is one of my oldest friends!

What cure is there for learning disabilities? What is the point of putting someone through a process, which they do not understand on any level?

The government has already said that those with severe or lifelong disabilities not expected to improve, and who attract the high/long term levels of awards won’t have to go through formal reassessment. There will be light touch reviews via their health care teams to ensure nothing has changed.

And home assessments are only used for those who have difficulty in getting to an assessment centre. As I posted upthread, disabled people are expected to travel up to two hours to get to a centre and often when they get there, they cannot access it because they’ve been misinformed about stairs, lack of lifts, lack of suitable toilet facilities and non existent wheelchair facilities or accessible parking.

Some people have no choice. And some are caused even more disability related stress by working. It’s time the assessment process was comprehensively overhauled and made more realistic in terms of expectations. The thread is about PIP, so I do think it’s important to point out that PIP doesn’t assess the ability to work, only the degree of difficulty disability poses in everyday life and mobility capabilities.

I agree. That's what I'm saying. That a life on benefits I can't imagine many people choosing and gaming the system instead of working

@PaisleyGilmourStreet you obviously do care or else you wouldn't be posting diatribes against her on here. Also you are either misinformed or lying yourself as nobody gets a "free car" on benefits. How much do you even know about her health conditions and how would you know if she lied? It just sounds like you dislike her and are bitter she gets any support at all.

No they don’t. They assess whether what you have reported is reasonable on the basis of your condition, and considering any independent medical evidence you have provided. And to do that they use their findings via assessment questions, and what they observe themselves in the time the assessment is carried out. Their findings are then translated into what the assessor considers you to be able to do during the course of a typical day, taking into account whether you can do an activity repeatedly as often as necessary, reliably, safely and within a reasonable time frame, taking into account medication needs and effects and pain/discomfort levels. Points are then awarded accordingly in each category. For that they need a working knowledge of your condition to be able to factor in whether your reported level of disability is a reasonable expectation for your condition. Assessors don’t make benefit decisions. They simply report to the DWP case manager, who is responsible for making the correct level of award.

Sorry - yes, I agree. I worked for over twenty years as a disability outreach worker and that was my experience. For the most part the disability is genuine and the reasons why those people can’t work are many and varied, not the free choice that some people here seem to think.

If by 'playing the system all their lives' you mean claiming disability-related benefits then I am guilty as charged. I was born without eyes and with multiple joint deformities. The expenses related to my disability are considerable, both as an adult and as a child. I work full-time but, without the PIP payments I receive, I would probably be unable to remain in employment as the specialist equipment, adaptive technology and carers which PIP helps to fund and which allow me to function day-to-day would be unaffordable and getting myself washed, dressed and out of the house, let alone to my workplace, would be impossible. PIP by no means covers all of my disability related expenses so I am already worse off than someone without my disabilities earning the same wage. I know this must come as a shock to all the whinging posters on here convinced all us PIP claimants are swimming in vats of tax-payer's cash like Scrooge McDuck and leading lavish lives of unimaginable luxury!.
Also, you may wish to sit down for this revelation, I am both a lazy disabled benefits scrounger and a poor hard-working tax payer. I know, who would have believed those two things weren't mutually exclusive? Well, apart from the many posters who waste time and energy on tedious and depressing threads like this patiently trying to explain to ignorant bigots that PIP is not an out of work benefit!
How exactly would your suggestion that PIP should only be a short-lived safety net work for someone like me whose disability will not improve? The extra costs related to my disability are ongoing, I don't pay for them once and that's me sorted for the rest of my life. Unless my eyeballs magically sprout in the future, which seems highly unlikely, I will continue to need extra support to allow me to carry out basic tasks that non-disabled people take for granted.
Your charming implication that anyone who has been on PIP all their adult life is a work-shy scrounger is ignorant, inaccurate and offensive.

I see this loads in my job. Usually middle aged men who have been on these benefits for years, usually some low level mh issues or alcohol problems and you can never quite understand how they managed to get the benefits in the first place but they seem to know exactly what to say to keep it ticking over for years on end. Then you see others really struggling and they find it hard to get an award. None of it makes sense and it's such an unfair system.

Nope. And motability cars are not ‘free’.

Oh, I missed that particular nugget in my initial reading of that comment. This poster really is pulling out all the stops to fill their disabled benefits bashing bingo card. 'Playing the system', vague anecdote about, absolutely not imaginary, relative who has supposedly been engaged in benefits fraud for decades unchallenged and a free car thrown in for good measure. All the greatest hits right here! Bravo!

Judging by half the posts on Mumsnet I occasionally wonder if some actually ARE pip assessors 😬🤔

I wonder if this old friend knows you have nothing but contempt for her and believe her to be a lying, deceitful benefits cheat? Mind you, it obviously doesn't bother you that much since you are still apparently friends so I guess benefits fraud doesn't outrage you as much as you protestit does!
I can't say I am losing sleep over this person's alleged crimes either since I believe she's about as real and existent as most of the other benefits cheats bogeymen being conjured up on this thread! Once again, in the unlikely event that any of these people actually exist and are genuinely known to these commenters and aren't just an elaborate fever dream concocted after reading one too many lurid Daily Mail articles, their candour is most surprising to me. One would think that, if one were engaged in an elaborate scheme to defraud the government, one would be a trifle reticent about sharing precise details of this crime with every nosy parker who asks. Maybe fraudsters are just more charmingly garrulous than I had realised!

Not everyone seems to realise that many people who receive PIP do work, it’s not a benefit for people who can’t work because of disability. It’s also not about what disability you have, it’s what help you require because of your disability.

I think if you are going through chemo you will be effectively rubber stamped for ESA and put in the support group so no work requirements and need for fit notes etc. Not sure on PIP. I’ve had chemo myself and have not claimed but obviously chemo can affect people differently over the long term. I didn’t even claim ESA because I didn’t realize I would have qualified. If I’d known I would have.

This is absolutely true but I fear you are very much wasting your time trying to get some of the ignorant commenters on here, for whom all PIP claimants are work-shy scroungers, to actually acknowledge these facts. On every tedious and depressing PIP-bashing thread like this, countless posters turn up to patiently explain that PIP is not means-tested and that, therefore, one can work and still claim it, and once again, thread after thread fills up with ignorant and outrageously offensive comments from bitter and unpleasant bigots who have no idea how the system works, will not listen to explanations from those who actually do know how it works and are convinced that they are the experts on the subject, despite demonstrating repeatedly that they certainly are not!

Excuse my unscholarliness in the acute intricacies of the benefits system. Perhaps gratis, in terms of transport, is more palatable? Because besides for petrol, she doesn't pay a bean towards the car (she's also got a personalised plate on it. In fairness, I can't blame you for thinking I'm making it up; it really is beyond parody).

I made crystal clear in both my comments the type to whom my frustration is directed. You're on a jolly here (maybe you're bored) if you're seriously suggesting there are not people who play the system.

I can't believe this needs explaining yet again but, since you seem to have missed this explanation the last several hundred times posters have patiently attempted to deliver it, a car on the motibility scheme is not free. If one is in receipt of the higher rate of mobility of PIP one may choose to exchange their monthly mobility payment for a vehicle or electric wheelchair. So, in fact, your good friend (whom you really seem to hate by the way!), pays part of her PIP for her car, thus it is very much not free. If she did not have the car she would be getting the money instead so it would be saving poor hard-working tax-payers like you and I precisely nothing.
Oh, before I forget, she doesn't own the car, with or without personalised number plate! The Motibility scheme only pays for the lease of the car, she will have to hand it back after three years. Many people also have to put a substantial down-payment on Motibility payments in order to get one that fits their needs or pay a considerable amount to adapt a vehicle to their disability. They do not get this money back when they return the vehicle and have to pay all over again to adapt their next one, which they also won't own.
Hope that helps, though I very much doubt that it will stop you, or people just like you, popping up on countless future threads to trot out the same predictable complaints about free cars being handed out!

I’m assuming @PaisleyGilmourStreet means
a ‘free’ car

in terms of
It’s paid for via benefits. So not earned income through work as her cousin doesn't work.

technically it can’t be considered free as it’s funded by the tax payer but I suppose it depends whether you are the provider or not.

Once again, PIP is not an out of work benefit. Also, the linguistic contortions one would have to perform to make the word 'free' mean what you are suggesting this poster thinks it means are quite some feat!

@CandidLurker I assumed ESA was for when SSP runs out? It's honestly a head spinner. My secondaries nurse said I am eligible to some bits that aren't means tested. I'm sure I'll find out what soon. Thank you for your advice.