PIP Home assessment

diggingdude

Hello I applied for PIP for the first time early this year. They have come back with an appointment for next week at my home. I did not request a home assessment and believed them to be as rare as hens teeth. I was wondering, do they do more practical tests at home than in an office, will they want to see my bedroom etc? Sorry if its a crazy question, I'm just quite surprised by it.

Many thanks all

Edit - I have upper and lower limb nerve damage/metal plates following an accident and surgery. Maybe they think the journey would be hell, but I thought their aim was to punish you as much as possible in these assessment days

poppy12345

diggingdude wrote: »

Hello I applied for PIP for the first time early this year. They have come back with an appointment for next week at my home. I did not request a home assessment and believed them to be as rare as hens teeth. I was wondering, do they do more practical tests at home than in an office, will they want to see my bedroom etc? Sorry if its a crazy question, I'm just quite surprised by it.

Many thanks all

Edit - I have upper and lower limb nerve damage/metal plates following an accident and surgery. Maybe they think the journey would be hell, but I thought their aim was to punish you as much as possible in these assessment days

The only difference between a home assessment and going to them for one, is it's in your own home. Otherwise it's exactly the same. They will not want to look around your home. They will come and ask you questions based on those descriptors and how your conditions affect you daily. You should answer those questions with as much detail as possible and avoid answering just a yes or no.

They most likely gave you a home assessment because you sent in enough of evidence to prove that it would be needed. It's not a good or bad thing.

You can ask for a copy of the assessment report a few days after the assessment by ringing DWP. This will give you some idea what the decision will be as mostly they go with that report.

If you have further evidence then you can give it to the HCP on the day of your assessment, hopefully they will accept it. I've heard many times that they can and have refused to take it.

Good luck.

diggingdude

poppy12345 wrote: »

The only difference between a home assessment and going to them for one, is it's in your own home. Otherwise it's exactly the same. They will not want to look around your home. They will come and ask you questions based on those descriptors and how your conditions affect you daily. You should answer those questions with as much detail as possible and avoid answering just a yes or no.

They most likely gave you a home assessment because you sent in enough of evidence to prove that it would be needed. It's not a good or bad thing.

You can ask for a copy of the assessment report a few days after the assessment by ringing DWP. This will give you some idea what the decision will be as mostly they go with that report.

If you have further evidence then you can give it to the HCP on the day of your assessment, hopefully they will accept it. I've heard many times that they can and have refused to take it.

Good luck.

Thanks for that, its crazy I deal with these sort of things all the time in work but its so different when its about yourself, never been through this before. I would happily show them around, currently got more aides than room

Danday

poppy12345 wrote: »

The only difference between a home assessment and going to them for one, is it's in your own home. Otherwise it's exactly the same. They will not want to look around your home. They will come and ask you questions based on those descriptors and how your conditions affect you daily. You should answer those questions with as much detail as possible and avoid answering just a yes or no.
If you have further evidence then you can give it to the HCP on the day of your assessment, hopefully they will accept it. I've heard many times that they can and have refused to take it.

Good luck.

Personally I would not say that they won't want to look round your home. They may want to look. They can ask but you can refuse.
It is not unheard of for them to ask to see the aids in the same way that if you are prescribed hearings aids they would want to see that you are wearing them.
In attempting to get a conversation going with the assessor you would have difficulty if the assessor only uses closed questions which only generate a Yes/No reply. Even if you attempted to qualify a yes/no reply by saying but, you might well find that the assessor has already moved on to the next question.To force the issue back to a conversation and make it your assessment not their's, would be difficult by most claimants.

I agree, and I have had that done to me. Handing evidence to them can be refused and handed back to you.

Prinzessilein

I have had a few home assessments.

On one occasion the assessor asked to see my bathroom - the council had recently given me a refit - the old bath had been removed, and a level-access shower had been put in et.c....I had no worries about showing them......For my most recent assessment (I have moved house twice since that earlier assessment) I was asked what adaptions/aids I have in the bathroom - I explained that I have a level access shower...grab rails for the shower and by the loo....seat in the shower....and offered to let the assessor see the room, but this was declined, all they wanted was a list of aids. (The same question was asked about my kitchen.)

The assessor was very observant (at what they wanted to see!!!!) ...and spotted my walking stick - standing against the bookshelf , and my walker (kept in the kitchen which the assessor never entered, but clearly must have seen the walker as they walked past the open doorway to the kitchen).

There may well be a physical examination made....just as there would be in the centre....be honest if you cannot manage the activities requested....in my case, the assessor actually stopped this part of the assessment as it was all to clear that I couldn't manage.

Don't forget that you can have someone with you throughout the assessment if you want.

bspm1

I have had two PIP assessments in the last six years, both at home, no, they did not ask to see anything,

Like the previous poster aids I used (other than in the bathroom) were visible, the assessors sat with me in the lounge, completed the assessment and never left the room other than to leave at the end of the assessment.

I was not asked to do anything physical but obviously, hopefully, assessors should have enough common sense to make a decision on whether any physical examination is necessary, whether during a home or centre based assessment.

carlislelass

OH had a home assessment (not asked for),assessor asked to see bathroom plus OH had to try and walk as far as he could. Got result within 2wks(high rate)

Alice_Holt

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/help-with-your-claim/your-assessment/

diggingdude

Massive thanks to everyone, lets see how it goes

TOBRUK

diggingdude wrote: »

Hello I applied for PIP for the first time early this year. They have come back with an appointment for next week at my home. I did not request a home assessment and believed them to be as rare as hens teeth. I was wondering, do they do more practical tests at home than in an office, will they want to see my bedroom etc? Sorry if its a crazy question, I'm just quite surprised by it.

Many thanks all

Edit - I have upper and lower limb nerve damage/metal plates following an accident and surgery. Maybe they think the journey would be hell, but I thought their aim was to punish you as much as possible in these assessment days

Try not to worry, I know it's difficult. I had a home assessment for PIP beginning of August 2017 (I was on DLA) which I did not request and really didn't know what to expect.

The assessor was a woman who was pleasant enough. She was very observant, she was at my home for around an hour and a half asking all sorts of questions. She said, and showed me some physical excersises she was supposed to ask me to do, but said that she didn't want me to attempt them. She stated that she wasn't going to say that I had refused to attempt them but that she would not let me attempt them. She asked about what my daily life was like etc She did see my bathroom - when she was asking questions about washing, if I had adaptions in the bathroom etc and I showed her.

As she was leaving she did ask which room I was in when she rang the doorbell, it was after she had left that I realised why she asked .... she obviously timed me so she had an idea of how long it took me over a certain distance!

However pleasant the assessor (she even said at the beginning that she was on my side, which I thought was strange) they have a job to do and will know what to look for. Within 3 weeks I received a decision letter and was placed on highest care and mobility, enhanced rate until August 2028.

Good luck, keep calm, be pleasant and answer all the questions honestly and with as much detail as possible.

Danday

TOBRUK wrote: »

Try not to worry, I know it's difficult. I had a home assessment for PIP beginning of August 2017 (I was on DLA) which I did not request and really didn't know what to expect.

The assessor was a woman who was pleasant enough. She was very observant, she was at my home for around an hour and a half asking all sorts of questions. She said, and showed me some physical excersises she was supposed to ask me to do, but said that she didn't want me to attempt them. She stated that she wasn't going to say that I had refused to attempt them but that she would not let me attempt them. She asked about what my daily life was like etc She did see my bathroom - when she was asking questions about washing, if I had adaptions in the bathroom etc and I showed her.

As she was leaving she did ask which room I was in when she rang the doorbell, it was after she had left that I realised why she asked .... she obviously timed me so she had an idea of how long it took me over a certain distance!

However pleasant the assessor (she even said at the beginning that she was on my side, which I thought was strange) they have a job to do and will know what to look for. Within 3 weeks I received a decision letter and was placed on highest care and mobility, enhanced rate until August 2028.

Good luck, keep calm, be pleasant and answer all the questions honestly and with as much detail as possible.

That was a good result. Not just the award but also having an assessor that cared enough about what she was doing to make sure that she fully understood how your life has been impacted. 90mins! Having had 3 of these none lasted more then 30mins probably helped by them refusing to ask any open questions relying on yes/no answers only then moving swiftly on to the next question before I had time to try to explain my answer in more detail. In all three it was pretty obvious that they all doubted the claim I had made from the start.
I do agree that there are good, bad and indifferent assessors, it just seems to be the case that I was allocated the 'bad' ones.
As a matter of interest how on earth did you manage to get her to accept that a 10 year award was the most suitable?