Pip assessment

[Year7mom]

Hi,
I need some advice on the pip assessment process.
If I am currently down on the claim form as an appointee for my adult, Autistic/adhd son who was transferred from spa to pip three years ago and I have filled a renewal form some months ago.
I received a text last week saying the following..
^^
Hello from Health Assessment Advisory Service. We conduct Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments for the Department for Work and Pensions DWP. This is for information purposes only, to let you know that we are managing your PIP assessment. We will look at the available evidence and will contact you with an appointment if we need to have a consultation with you. You can find information about the service we provide at www.haas.ingeus.co.uk You do not need to contact us.

Does the above mean they will be needing only to speak with me or will they want to speak with my son as the claim I manage is for him.
Also what may happen if he refuses to speak with them or possibly just as bad if he decides to speak with them and says he can do everything - which he can’t but always says yes to everything.

I had the same for my DD, they were happy to just to talk with me.
Make sure you write any assessment to reflect his worst day. I tried to be optimistic when I did the first assessment and she was given lowest level of pip. I went to tribunal and when I wrote it from the perspective of worst day she got awarded the higher rate.
Good luck, there is a lot of gate keeping, but don't give up.

thanks so mich for your sharing. It’s quite a worry waiting for the phone call tbh.
in my son’s annual review which I sent in as evidence a teacher praised him for completing his barista course and getting a job in the community market.
the truth is a small (local to his special school) coffee van come into his school once a week for eight weeks to teach the student to make barista coffees. The van then offers them three hours of work on a Saturday morning for a limited number of weekends helping with customers serving from the van. It’s all run and overseen/supervised by an amazing teacher/parent who used to work at the special school my son goes to. My son ‘worked’ at the van for one term, along with three other students. There are always students working there - I’d have to say it’s a kind of socialising help for them, and fully supervised by the parent/tracher.
I was reluctant to send this annual review in because of the comment about my sons ‘job in the community’ as I had a feeling they’d see this as big independence.
the annual review also listed that my son was still stuggling with organising, time management, was struggling with independent travel etc…
which was why I thought I’d have to send the report.
the report is portrayed in the most positive light as it’s his last report and the school knew he’d need positives to enable a college to consider him.
i can only explain that to the advisor and hope I get someone normal and not one of the gate keepers 🤞

You don't answer the questions just based on a worst day. If a condition is variable, the assessor will need to know this and decide whether the descriptors are met based on how often bad days are. To score points for each descriptor, your child would need to have difficulties for over 50% of the time or days. They are very particular about meeting this criteria. It's fine to describe a worst day but also explain how often these happen. A bad day could be one day a month in which case the criteria wouldn't be met as it's not 50% of the time.

Well if my son had 50 percent of his days as bad days that would be a life not really worth living. He has support to avert having bad days and the support working means he doesn’t have 50 percent of bad days….
i would have thought it would be how much support he needs each day….
surely they cannot award a person with mental health difficulties based on them living through at least half their days as bad.
on my original forms I documented everything as it was, and listed the support in and out of school that he had to keep him regulated. He was awarded higher rate for both just on his reports, paper based assessment only, with no phone assessment or f2f. What my concern now is is that it sounds the assessors will decide on my son’s level of need without even knowing him. They then make whatever notes they want to take from the assessment and provide what they want to DWP for them to make the decision.
seems very unfair the way the system is working atm.

It is down to the 50/50 rule. Remember that the DWP aren’t concerned with people living lives of brilliant quality. Just lives that have some quality.

For MH cases, if the person has 4 days where they’re functioning (ie going to work, getting out, managing to shower/dress), then the other 3 days don’t matter.

RE the appointee status - he’ll be expected to be at the call with you, but you can speak for him. He will be expected to answer his security questions at least. Appointees can only do the call without the claimant if there’s a medical reason (can’t speak due to head injury, severe LD etc).

Wow! Unbelievable, but thanks for letting me know.
so that explains why so many people end up at tribunal. It’s either the claimant has minimal or bad support that’s failing them so badly they’re having more bad than good, or if you have good support, there are less bad days so the award is less or none.
the system is broken beyond belief. I’ve heard over 70 percent of claimants who take DWP to tribunal win. Where is the sense in having these assessors try to prove the claimant has minimal need when eventually a tribunal judge is just going to read through all the paperwork, statements and everything else and just come back with a different decision. I wonder how much extra things all costing the tax payer. The system is so so broken.
but thanks for the heads up with how it all works and for your advice.
im preparing myself for the worse so anything less will be a bonus!