Help with PIP Face to Face assesment

caprichos

Hi,

My husband has been on DLA medium care and high mobility since suffering a stroke. He now has to move on to PIP and has been sent a letter saying he needs to attend a Face to Face ( He did not have to attend one with DLA)

The first issue is that the centre for his appointment is 30 miles away. Atos has a PIP consultation centre 1.5 miles from us.

The second issue is that with my husbands conditions we never know how he is going to be on that day until he gets up.

He suffers from lack of mobility on his right side with a lot of !!!!!!!ity on his arm. He needs a walking stick to help him walk and he has drop-foot after the stroke.

He also suffers from COPD , IBS and HSP (the later one is a condition that affects his joints mainly his ankles and knees making them swell up and sometimes causing bruise like stain on his legs.

He battles very day with chronic fatigue and he also suffers from depression.
Many mornings he starts the day with hot flashes and stomach crumps. If fatigue is bad he can barely keep his eyes open.

All this was on explained on the forms and we were surprised when he received a face to face considering a stroke is one of the conditions listed as one of the conditions that dont necessarily require a face to face.

I am asking for help on how to deal with this.
I have also already read so much in here about people loosing their benefit or their motability after having attended this assessment my husband is feeling very anxious about this I we have a car I drive and it is independency for us all as a family. we have 2 young kids.

Can someone give us some advice ?

Many thanks!

w06

You could ask for it to be moved closer, if there's a closer centre. But at the end of the day he needs to attend and just be honest. It's nothing to worry about just answer what's asked and say it as it is.

Worth remembering though that the criteria for PIP are different to those for DLA and so the level of benefit 'awarded' may change, mine increased.

Diary

caprichos wrote: »

Hi,

My husband has been on DLA medium care and high mobility since suffering a stroke. He now has to move on to PIP and has been sent a letter saying he needs to attend a Face to Face ( He did not have to attend one with DLA)

The first issue is that the centre for his appointment is 30 miles away. Atos has a PIP consultation centre 1.5 miles from us.

The second issue is that with my husbands conditions we never know how he is going to be on that day until he gets up.

He suffers from lack of mobility on his right side with a lot of !!!!!!!ity on his arm. He needs a walking stick to help him walk and he has drop-foot after the stroke.

He also suffers from COPD , IBS and HSP (the later one is a condition that affects his joints mainly his ankles and knees making them swell up and sometimes causing bruise like stain on his legs.

He battles very day with chronic fatigue and he also suffers from depression.
Many mornings he starts the day with hot flashes and stomach crumps. If fatigue is bad he can barely keep his eyes open.

All this was on explained on the forms and we were surprised when he received a face to face considering a stroke is one of the conditions listed as one of the conditions that dont necessarily require a face to face.

I am asking for help on how to deal with this.
I have also already read so much in here about people loosing their benefit or their motability after having attended this assessment my husband is feeling very anxious about this I we have a car I drive and it is independency for us all as a family. we have 2 young kids.

Can someone give us some advice ?

Many thanks!

Can you be a little more specific on the help you need from the forum?

You can change your appointment once for PIP and you might be lucky and get one nearer, or the second unchangeable appointment might be even further away. Both my PIP assessments were 40 and 50 miles each way for instance.

poppy12345

caprichos wrote: »

Hi,

My husband has been on DLA medium care and high mobility since suffering a stroke. He now has to move on to PIP and has been sent a letter saying he needs to attend a Face to Face ( He did not have to attend one with DLA)

The first issue is that the centre for his appointment is 30 miles away. Atos has a PIP consultation centre 1.5 miles from us.

The second issue is that with my husbands conditions we never know how he is going to be on that day until he gets up.

He suffers from lack of mobility on his right side with a lot of !!!!!!!ity on his arm. He needs a walking stick to help him walk and he has drop-foot after the stroke.

He also suffers from COPD , IBS and HSP (the later one is a condition that affects his joints mainly his ankles and knees making them swell up and sometimes causing bruise like stain on his legs.

He battles very day with chronic fatigue and he also suffers from depression.
Many mornings he starts the day with hot flashes and stomach crumps. If fatigue is bad he can barely keep his eyes open.

All this was on explained on the forms and we were surprised when he received a face to face considering a stroke is one of the conditions listed as one of the conditions that dont necessarily require a face to face.

I am asking for help on how to deal with this.
I have also already read so much in here about people loosing their benefit or their motability after having attended this assessment my husband is feeling very anxious about this I we have a car I drive and it is independency for us all as a family. we have 2 young kids.

Can someone give us some advice ?

Many thanks!

If it's too far to travel then ring and ask for an assessment closer to home. Remember though that you can only do this once otherwise they may stop his DLA. It maybe that you didn't send enough evidence to support his claim and that's the reason for this assessment. In all honesty i didnt find either of my assessments too bad at all and i've had 2. Some people wouldn't agree. Just be honest and don't just answer any of the questions with a yes or no. If your husband can't do something then explain why or if he hasn't difficulty doing something then expain why. They are trying to get a picture of his daily life. Wo6 was right the criteria is different to DLA. The mobility part is 50 metres or less on DLA it's 20 metres or less with PIP. Don't forget medical evidence the more you have the better his chances. This can be anything from Consultant/Occupational Therpist reports, GP letter, letter/diary from someone who knows him well, including yourself. You can take the evidence with you on the day of assessment. If you can't attend that assessment please ring as soon as you can. The number is on the front of the appointment letter.

caprichos

w06 wrote: »

You could ask for it to be moved closer, if there's a closer centre. But at the end of the day he needs to attend and just be honest. It's nothing to worry about just answer what's asked and say it as it is.

Worth remembering though that the criteria for PIP are different to those for DLA and so the level of benefit 'awarded' may change, mine increased.

Thank you for the reassurance. We have heard so much bad stuff about them...Do you think is possible to have the assessemnt at home?

caprichos

poppy12345 wrote: »

If it's too far to travel then ring and ask for an assessment closer to home. Remember though that you can only do this once otherwise they may stop his DLA. It maybe that you didn't send enough evidence to support his claim and that's the reason for this assessment. In all honesty i didnt find either of my assessments too bad at all and i've had 2. Some people wouldn't agree. Just be honest and don't just answer any of the questions with a yes or no. If your husband can't do something then explain why or if he hasn't difficulty doing something then expain why. They are trying to get a picture of his daily life. Wo6 was right the criteria is different to DLA. The mobility part is 50 metres or less on DLA it's 20 metres or less with PIP. Don't forget medical evidence the more you have the better his chances. This can be anything from Consultant/Occupational Therpist reports, GP letter, letter/diary from someone who knows him well, including yourself. You can take the evidence with you on the day of assessment. If you can't attend that assessment please ring as soon as you can. The number is on the front of the appointment letter.

I think we need to try and move it closer or maybe at home? We gave so much detail information we are surprised. IS there also a physical part? will he examined or asked to do thing there and then?

I think he is feeling anxious because he does not know what will be require of him and he has trouble finding his own words sometimes so he feel uneasy talking about important things and to people he does not know. all this was explained on the form.

TELLIT01

I don't know the criteria for home visits but given the extent of your husband's disabilities I would certainly ask if one is possible.

Alice_Holt

Info on assessments here:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/help-with-your-pip-claim/your-assessment/
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-medical-assessments

Tommo1980

You need your GP to do a letter of support for a home assessment. This can then be faxed/sent to the assessment provider. You need to get it done as soon as you can.

Tom

caprichos

Thank you once more. We have managed to bring assessment closer to home. With being this time of year is very difficult to get GP' paperwork. will be on the 11th so lets hope it all goes well on the day. will post back.

caprichos

Hello,

Finally we went for assessment and we can tell you it was a very uncomfortable experience that has left us both feeling stremely anxious.

The "interview" started and she quickly said we have to be brief as we did not have a lot of time.
Then she went on to ask general questions about medication and disabilities and how this affected my husband.
after this she started asking some of the question we have already answered in the form. What we noticed was that she was that when she was asking the questions she was not giving us options. for example, she ask if my husband could plan a route to "familiar places" which we said yes, he can plan to go to the shops that are round the corner for exmple. she quickly noted this. that will score him ) points. Why didnt she ask if he could do the same with unfamiliar places????? Of course I added that even thought he could plan that familiar route it was not a journey he would do on his own as he stumbles when he walks and sudden noises make his anxious and jumpy. I continue to say he could not do it with unfamiliar places and his is overwhelmed with fatigue most days and his concentration is therefore poor as well as his walking and fatigue gets worse throughout the day.
I cannot tell you for sure if this was typed into the computer???

By this point my husband was getting tired and frustrated and he was feeling sweaty. he asked if the door could be opened but she said it could not as it was a private meeting. my husband had already taken his jumper off at this point.

Then the last question was how far he could walk in minutes??We dont know? maybe a minute? I asked my husband. At this point she was obsessed with this figure. MY husband was trying to concentrate and got even more frustrated and he apologised for that. He agreed to one minute which again she quickly noted down but we added that his walking was very slow and that not two days were the same, some walking 10 metres sometime 10 steps again this at a very low pace as he has drop foot as well as swelling of ankle and knee joint and fatigues caused by both the stroke and COPD. Again We dont think she took this on board?

We are anxious now waiting for the results. It was an very unpleasant experience for both and we did not get much sleep last night.

Any advice on this or information that can put my husband's mind to rest would be very appreciated.

My husband was on indefinite standard car and enhanced mobility on DLA


Many thanks.