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.

Not necessarily true. My PIP award was to May 2026. I got the reassessment form in August 2025, and the decision letter 2 weeks ago.

I think face to face assessments are highly appropriate, unless someone is terminally ill.

You clearly have no personal experience with PIP or how difficult it is to get it. Face to face only appointments severely disadvantage disabled people or people with critical illnesses. Also, if we just collected the tax we are owed from large companies and wealthy without needing to change any laws we'd make an additional 30 billion pounds for our budget. Benefit fraud is so miniscule, disabled people are being killed and left to die because they've been demonised. I'd also like to remind you that PIP is a benefit for people who work also, so we're talking about people who pay into the system just attempting to use it.
Labour should be ashamed with how they've continued the work of the Tories to demonise our most vulnerable people in society. They may as well call themselves Tories 2.0

Bloody hell my reassessment took 19 months. It didn't matter as I was still getting paid but I wonder if its based on area. Even my first ever claim which was fast tracked and that took just slightly over 6 months god knows how long it took people who weren't fast tracked.

Things are not always as they seem?
lots of conditions vary daily, as my Parkinson’s can

Well they only know if you tell them!!! Do you seriously think they have enough people to keep track of every universal credit claimant 24/7

I guess all it takes is for a database to alert passport number, NI number and how long they’ve been out of the country.

@Cherry8809 and those who agree with face to face assessments- this OP’s story about budget today and PIP assessments appears to be hogwash (as it wasn’t mentioned) - it’s the another disability bashing thread.

Now that aside f2f assessments is more rule of thumb than any other assessment. Many will fear them for the articulated reasons above. Many won’t fear them.

DLA doesn’t have f2f (because children I suppose) but I’d welcome an assessor to view my daughter at any time.

She’d enjoy it too - she loves attention and medical appointments, which is just as well as she gets lots of both.

On the other hand, I’d feel sorry for the assessor who had to try to get a verbal response from her.. she’ll sing along in babble to “Bonkers” by Dizzee Rascal and dance by shaking herself from side to side with a happy face, to Motley Crue and ABBA too.

She will say “hurrah” if someone says “hip hip”,

But she won’t say “fuck off” to the cunts that wrinkle their nose at her in disgust or the parents who pull their children to them for fear it might be catching I suppose (very few but even one is too many) or push in front of her in a queue because she doesn’t understand queues or cunts.

She can’t answer the fuckwits that tut when her mum (me) jumps out of her FREE wheelchair accessible vehicle with loud music on and who ask if I have a blue badge / I tell them I don’t and they can ask her and they see her - she can’t even enjoy their embarrassment when they blush because unlike a lot of people she’s happy, secure and sweet even if she can’t speak or walk or eat.

Let them come I say!

PS if any of you have the names and addresses of those pip cheats DM me - I’ll happily shop them for you!

This is what people don’t understand. Thank you.

No they don’t 😂

It’s staggering that this isn’t in place already.

So how come they know when child benefit claimants have gone overseas? The Guardian has been running articles about how families from Northern Ireland lost child benefit because they came back via Dublin so the Gov thought they were still overseas.

I've wished they were for a long time.

Never had an issue previously when every assessment was face to face. Was awarded every single time when I was assessed face to face, and yet both time over the phone I've been denied. (Amazing how they can say that you "showed no signs of distress" over the phone....despite having such a bad panic attack they threatened to stop the assessment if you didn't calm down 🤔🤦🏼‍♀️)

In fact the fact they still try and say they've carried out a mental state exam over the phone is utter bullshit as that's something that's only supposed to apply when you can physically see/assess someone.

So yes bring back f2f and hopefully they get less decions wrong

All it will do is add to the costs of administering the benefit…far more than believing medical staff …imagine all the extra medical appointments trying to gather evidence too…it will just add to service and cost pressures

This is a good move
All those who require benefits need to be proved it

They’ll have to employ more people though

My son would enjoy a face to face assessment for DLA too. I'm not sure I'd say the same about the assessor 😂

When I helped a friend in her PIP assessment, the assessor turned up without the claim form (it was against regulations apparently), refused my offer of a couple of printed spares ("one for you and one for your boss" I said) as also being "get me sacked" and totally missed the fact my friend was partially sighted.

"Does she have a certificate ?" the assessor asked.

"It was with the claim form" I said.

Guessing there’s a passport / Hmrc link up

@BrownTroutBluesAgain
Do you think this (made up news story) is new?
Did you not know most at least initial PIP assessments are f2f?
Just so you are prepared and don’t choke on your tea - under 16s don’t get assessed f2f.
They have extensive records from birth usually and often don’t have speech or mental capacity to lie.

Well I certainly hope they'll be offering home visits in that case. My assessment was over the phone as I'm not able to attend an assessment centre. Attending would wipe me out for several days afterwards and it wouldn't 'prove' anything as my disabilities are invisible, you can't see them in person any more than you can over the phone.

I'm so sick of the benefits bashing on here. I wish people could experience my health conditions for a few months, they'd soon change their tune.

??

They do whether its intentional or lack of medical knowledge in the specific area they are accessing im not sure but one of my accessors went against what my neurosurgeon who has known me for 20+ years said and then stated something that was scientifically and medically impossible. I had to make so many calls to get it corrected, thankfully it was but I never got an apology and I've heard so many stories of the most ridiculous things so I know mine wasn't a one of mistake

Face to face assessments are not better. I had three face to face, each time the assessor ignored medical evidence, wrote down fictional answers that I didn’t give, misrepresented my condition and abilities, resulting in me not scoring high enough to qualify for PIP. It took three applications and three court tribunals, a huge waste of public money, to get me £400 a month and a blue parking badge. I have chronic, clearly diagnosed and easily proved life long conditions, with pages and pages of medical evidence, including occupational health reports and recommendations from my NHS job, but each time the assessor ignored everything. PIP assessors can currently choose to ignore medical evidence, face to face doesn’t guarantee more accurate results.

There are many things that need to change to make PIP fairer, but this isn’t one of them.

Its not even true the op made it up just to benefit bash a bit more

Absolute rubbish! My ds claims pip for a medical condition and they have never accessed his medical records or contacted his doctor! He has never provided any evidence other than the form to apply! Benefit fraud is not minuscule, its a massive problem with only tiny amounts of it being detected. I literally know lots of people who commit benefit fraud and have done for years!