DLA transition to PIP - evidence?

GlasweJen

Gypsywoman wrote: »

I know their are a lot of appeals, from what I have read. I know some people have settled for less because they are worried they will lose what they have been awarded. A couple of people I know have said the assessor was nice or friendly but providing they are polite and respectful being nice or friendly is irrelevant really for one of the women was not awarded PIP at all and said she cannot go through it again. Another woman I know was awarded the standard care and had been getting high rate in both care and mobility. Their disability needs remain the same.

You said he listened to what your mum had to say and seemed interested in your mums views as your carer. Which most people are not allowed to have a carer speak you said, but you needed to because of two of your conditions, so that would have been further support for your claim I would have thought and yet it appears to have not been of any assistance for the evidence needed. So your carer/advocate who you needed to speak for you was not really listened to, despite his apparent show of interest in your carers views. although he made a show of listening to my mum nothing she said has made it into the report

When you scored yourself you said you "sit at enhanced for both" and you even acknowledged a bias. I also read on one of your posts of your different conditions and I think there were at least 5. If it it was like a chat about the answers you had given and was informal he must have been typing his assessment notes throughout. Did he not ask you how your different conditions affect you in your own words or did you need your mum to do that?he didn't ask about the conditions at all really, he mentioned that his wife fainted once and ended up in the back of an ambulance but during the assessment he focused more on my day "what do you like to eat" for example but didn't directly ask who does the cooking or insinuate that was what he wanted to hear, it was quite weird but I thought he'd surely know by looking at me that I'm not cooking in a galley kitchen unless I was hovering to do it!

I thought the people doing these assessments had to be medically trained in some way sorry I work in a hospital, medically trained = doctor in my head but he didn't seem like a doctor, possibly some sort of allied health professionaland I also thought they had to tell you in which way they were medically trained? he introduced himself like "hi I'm Paul, if you follow me we can start your examination"How can they be health professionals if they are not medically trained? Surely they should be introducing both themselves and their profession. Eg "I am Mike Brady I am a physiotherapist and I am your assessor". Quite how a physio or many other medical professions, for I presume they could be a podiatrist etc, can make any more relevant notes to type into a report and, in some cases, It seems even less relevant notes to assess a person with any condition and its affects on their lives outside their own speciality, I do not know. I don't think they employ many doctors so just make use of what they can get

Is there any set up I wonder that takes into account the very complex affects of mental health issues on an individual and the affect they may have on a claimants ability to complete certain very basic day to day needs without support. You have both physical and mental health conditions and yet you felt the assessor didn't have any medical training. I am sure you have met enough professionals in your time who do have very highly and extensive qualifications in their own medical specialities to have been more in a position to know that someone appears not to be. they haven't taken any cross over between the conditions into account, they've barely acknowledged that I have a medical condition in any of the documentation.

You filled in the form and sent relevant evidence of how your disabilities affect you and then spend 50 minutes, less than an hour, in an office for someone to just assess what? What are they assessing? They have all the evidence and specialised medical reports and I should imagine you had sent in quite a number of them, like others have. Your diary and so on. How can they make any assessment in 50 minutes on how at least 5 complex medical conditions affect someone day to day if they only specialise in feet for example. It seems ridiculous and surely an expert in a condition and the impact on day to day life and the ability to do certain basic tasks in the form of a letter should be evidence that stands alone. unfortunately no reports due to the timing of the change over, I was done just before Christmas so getting hold of my consultants was impossible but they had my DLA file and they was only last reviewed a year ago so they have fairly up to date information - nothing I have is curable and most are degenerative

I do not understand it at all. If you cannot walk and yet they say you can walk 200m how can that happen. You get no mobility help for taxis or whatever, what do they expect really expect you to do? I know you spoke about being housebound if you do not get at least some PIP. If that means leaving your job how is that suppose to be helping getting people back into work?the letter said I can apply for access to work but the Glasgow office already told me if I lose PIP they will stop my award as the PIP is the evidence to justify my A2W award

I hope this makes some sense and would ask that sunnyflower can tell me what is a DA and are they the old HCP's? Sorry if I seem out of my depth here but I am. It seems the assessors medical training is so pointless and any individual could make these notes on anyone. Are any of the assessors people with disabilities? Or just a random mix of people who may have some medical training but little if any knowledge of the ways in which many people with disabilities need support to have any quality of life? sorry I have no idea what a DA is, disability assessor maybe?

More question than answers I know but I can tell by other posters that seem very shocked you only scored 2 points and who appear to know your medical history well that it appears something is amiss here. I've been here a while lol

I hope it works out for you and you are awarded what you are entitled to. xx

Thank you. My claim is mostly because of the blackouts, vision and mobility problems. I have mentioned the rest but didn't want it to seem like I was using something like high functioning autism or a bit of hearing loss to over egg the pudding. The fact that the only thing they picked up on is the hearing loss is hilarious as all I wrote under that descriptor is "I have a cookie bite hearing loss and have been prescribed hearing aids for both ears by the hospital".

zaksmum

GlasweJen wrote: »

Thank you. My claim is mostly because of the blackouts, vision and mobility problems. I have mentioned the rest but didn't want it to seem like I was using something like high functioning autism or a bit of hearing loss to over egg the pudding. The fact that the only thing they picked up on is the hearing loss is hilarious as all I wrote under that descriptor is "I have a cookie bite hearing loss and have been prescribed hearing aids for both ears by the hospital".

Am I mistaken, Jen, or did you have a heart op at some time previously?

Memory isn't what it used to be..!

GlasweJen

Yeah, transplant and pacemaker. Something happened during the transplant and I've never walked unaided since

Gypsywoman

Thanks for replys to my post. None of your experience so far and it appears many others experience of PIP, make much sense to me.

A heart transplant also. Does that not take some heavy usage medications to maintain or am I behind times? Do these PIP people even take the side effects of medication into account? for those who are on several different medications. One of the women I spoke to was on morphine patches and high dose tramadol + several other medications and said she could not even get out of bed some days unless her daughter came round and helped to get her out of bed.

I guess one of the things people need to remember is these PIP assessors appear to be quick to assume anything that is not spelt out for them. If their questioning is along the lines of "What do you like to eat?" and a person answers "cooked dinners" they will, whether it is feasible or not by the evidence, assume the person cooks their own dinners. So it needs to be made clear " I like cooked dinners but I cannot cook them". Is that how spelt out it needs to be?

Disability and the affects on day to day life can never be black and white, they are many shades of grey. If you try to fit them into black or white then many will not be given any award or some may be given reduced awards. I wonder how many are given higher awards when they are changing from DLA to PIP in the black and white world of PIP? I will try and see if I can find any unbiased numbers.

I am beginning see now how the woman I speak of who was given PIP but at a lower rate care and no mobility may have decided to just give up and not appeal. I do not know the full story I just know the whole experience has put her off and she said she still cannot always get out of bed cannot shower or wash her hair, struggles to make a sandwich due to severe arthritis and to top it off she also has a history of severe depressive episodes and anxiety.

Apparently her daughter now needs to do the lunch sandwiches for her also because she cannot afford to have her daughter shop for ready made. I guess by that she meant sandwiches and the price that they are will be one she can no longer afford.

Her daughter lives close she did say and is supportive and does bring evening meals down for her Mum and helps in other ways but what of those who have no-one how do they manage? I wonder if applications for places in residential care will go up? If you still have the disability but no longer have the financial means to live independently by ordering in shopping or buying in ready meals and can neither bathe or shower or take care of other personal needs without assistance, other than that of a family member or friend and they have neither.

I know many say DLA was too easy but appears it is all now getting too hard for some who are genuine and would be willing to have regular assessments, if they had not been scared off by their first encounter and experience of the system. I know some did fraudulently claim DLA or the wrong rates, does that mean now though that there may be too many falling through the net.

I honestly believe there should have been a middle ground between DLA and PIP. Perhaps it will be adjusted when the appeals are heard. I have read there is a fairly large backlog and more being added daily. The cost of administration of all this must be astronomical. What was the true expectation when this was put into practice I am starting to wonder. Perhaps it was that people like the woman I speak of would just give up and accept a lower rate or no rate. Perhaps it was also expected that the family would help but not everyone has a supportive family.

I do hope you get that which you are entitled to. I hope all that are genuine do. I am just sorry to hear of people going through some bad experiences with the process. I must say I am shocked at some of what I have read and yes, I have read of people that have been transferred with no problem. I still think there is something very amiss when someone with the medical reports/images and ways in which they are affected both ticked and an overview given on the form provided is given no award.

What of those with severe and enduring mental health issues. Surely there must be awareness that the ability to communicate the ways in which a person is affected, may not be made clear when the person is at the assessment.

I will not wish you luck for it is not luck that you need to claim a disability benefit. I just hope you get the result you should.

xx

GlasweJen

I'm on some heavy duty immune suppressants, I was threatening to reject it but that's settled a bit since a new drug came out so as long as I take the drugs it works like pretty much any other heart.

Drug size effects from the anti-rejection bundle are fairly minimal now but some of the other drugs like the nerve pain killers and the drugs for the blackouts are quite bad, they try varying the dose and things but it's hard to strike a balance.

I was asked about drug side effects but none of them have made it into the report.

nannytone_2

do you think the nerve pain killers may be making your blackouts worse?
my daughter takes them ( hyper mobility, CFS and chronic pain syndrome ... the consultant also says theres something else going on and she's still having tests)
they had to change her pills because the first ones they tried were making her have 'lapses'. she said she felt as high as a kite most of the time.
not good with a full time job and a toddler to look after

GlasweJen

No the black outs are genetic. The big nerve that controls heart rate and blood pressure has gaps in its cover that cause the signal to go haywire so my heart randomly stops or my blood pressure suddenly drops too low to maintain standing up.

sunnyflower

Going back to your earlier question, DA's are all health professionals ( nurses, physiotherapists, OT's, and paramedics) with at least 2 years of relevant experience. We have 4 weeks of pretty intensive training, pass mandatory exams and modules, and then supervised for several weeks.We have to ask lots of seemingly obvious questions because the person who makes the decision is not clinical , so our job is to present a very clear picture of the persons disability without discrepancies.
I can see why people get confused and hope this helps

GlasweJen

Well I'm a HCSW in the NHS and can't make assumptions on a blind persons lifestyle based on asking what food they like and what hobbies they have but hey ho, at least the reports I generate help people unlike the George R R Martin worthy works of pure fiction that are generated by Salus (who ironically wrote a completely different occy health report when they were assessing my suitability to sit in a room and chat to sick people)

nannytone_2

things they ask, like ' what do you like to watch on television', seem on face value to be about relaxing the claimant and building rapport.
but we all know what is meant. can you concentrate and sit still long enough to follow a programme.

in my case, i said ' i don't watch television, but i do listen to it'.

just the outside chance that they would have stated that i could see well enough to 'watch' television, when in fact i can't.
i still say i 'watch' it though