PIP face to face assessment - Need some advice.

SaitenMar

Hi all, I apologise if this is rather long. 

So my advisor at my local Job Centre as been pushing me to try for Personal Independence Payment benefit because he thinks it would really help me due to my disabilities  and I applied around December of last year. It took a while to get the form and I was advised to get help from Citizens Advice although after ringing them for four days straight I could never get through and at to fill in the form myself. This past week I got a letter stating I had a face to face assessment booked with Capita some distance away from where I live. The problem is I once had an assessment some years back and was treated like absolute dirt by the people doing the assessment, this as resulted in me being very anxious about going through that again as it led to a severe spell of depression and suicidal thoughts because they made me feel like I was no better than dirt on the floor and I don't want to put myself through that again.

To go into more detail the company (Atos I think it was) basically didn't give a damn about me when I went for the appointment and the individual I saw even informed me that he wasn't a medical professional which at the times didn't seem strange as I didn't think that was required. He didn't have any knowledge of my medical condition and I only saw him for like five minutes at most and came out feeling like I was worthless. It's hard to describe how it made me felt and took me some months to get over the way I was treated. I'm really not sure I want to go through that all again, even if I'm trying to get some help. 

So I'm looking for some advice, whether I should just cancel the appointment so I don't have to go through that all over again or get help from somewhere if possible. It's not the easiest to get to the location the appointment is at (especially with my limited mobility) but I feel like I don't have any choice. I'd really appreciate it if anyone as been through a similar experience and can give me advice on what I should/could do to help me cope with it better. 

Sorry if this was rather long, thank you for taking the time to help me. 

Robbie64

You're allowed to cancel one appointment so you could try and negotiate F2F at an assessment centre closer to home.

If you've got an assessment you may as well go to it rather than what would amount to withdrawing your claim. It's unfortunate you've had one bad experience but most people have assessments without a problem (other than the outcome afterwards that is!).

Out of interest, when you said you applied for PIP in December last year do you mean 2020 or 2021? If 2021, given the backlogs that are supposed to exist, waiting just two months for a F2F assessment is good going.

poppy12345

If you only applied in December 2021 then that's extremely fast because a lot of people are waiting several months for an assessment.

The assessment provider doesn't need to have any medical knowledge in any conditions because PIP isn't awarded based on any diagnosis. It's your responsibility to fully explain exactly how your conditions affect you.

If the appointment is too far for you to travel and there's an assessment centre closer to home then you can cancel this appointment and ask for the one closer to you, providing you've not canceled an appointment previously.

If you're thinking of cancelling and forgeting about this claim then please think carefully before doing this. When you claim benefits like this you have to go through the process and most people have assessments, paper based assessments are rare.

Do you have a friend or family member that can go with you? Advice agencies very rarely attend assessments with people because they just don't have the funds to be able to do this.

Having been through these many times myself, i don't think anything will help because it is a stressful time. I would personally rather go and get it over with. You do get some nice assessment providers, although that's probably hard to believe because you had a bad exeperience previously. I've never had a horrible experience and found them all very nice and understanding. Hopefully, it won't be such a bad experience this time.

Spoonie_Turtle

As poppy says, this is (unfortunately) the process.  Most of us have to go through it if we claim.  You give yourself the best chance of an appropriate outcome if you understand the criteria and how PIP is assessed, so you know what to emphasise in your assessment.

If the assessment results in terribly inaccurate report, don't take it personally.  Some assessors do a good job and some don't - it's ridiculous and unfair but is the way things currently are.  If you don't get what you feel you should be entitled to (based on understanding the criteria) then you should challenge it, and keep challenging until you get the correct decision.

Some reading about how it's assessed and the criteria (which are prescribed in law, so assessors' opinions are ultimately irrelevant):
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/help-with-your-claim/how-decisions-are-made/ - including the PDFs linked

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/help-with-your-claim/fill-in-form/ (in case you didn't see this before)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria (full guidance, a long read but quite thorough)

If you're unsure about what you think you should score for any of the activities, or if anything is not quite clear, please do feel free to ask here

SaitenMar

Hi, first of all a massive thank you for the quick replies. Didn't expect that. 

Just to clear up some confusion on my part, I actually started the application process in October of 2021 and it took about two months or so before I got the forms in to fill out. Sorry I wasn't very clear on that. There is someone who could take me to the appointment via car although I have just found out that the location of the assessment is found within a congestion charge so I have to figure out how to pay that now as I've never done it (another thing to worry about). The letter provided does inform me that I can get travel expenses back for the journey though I'm not entirely sure if this includes the congestion charge. Think I'd have to ask when I go there. 

When I mentioned my previous face to face meeting, the experience was partly so awful because the assessor had no medical experience whatsoever and told me so. He wasn't at all interested in really dealing with me and looking back I should've complained, but I was left so pained over the experience I never brought myself to do it. Even found out some time later that the company (and specific assessment centre) had received quite a few complaints over the way they were conducting interviews. 

I really appreciate the advice you've all provided, it really helps. If I have any other questions I will ask because I think I'll need the help. Thanks again, very much appreciated. 

Alice_Holt

Just to add that a flawed assessment, isn't necessarily the end of the road. 

If you get a decision you think is wrong, it carries appeal rights and you can ask an independent tribunal to check if the DWP decision was incorrect. 

Around 70% of PIP appeals succeed at tribunal.

SaitenMar

Hi folks, 

So I had my assessment today and I don't think it went very well. First of all I didn't sleep a wink last night due to anxiety and pain/discomfort which didn't help and getting to the assessment centre wasn't exactly easy due to getting a little lost. When I did go in we at to wear face masks (which I knew about) and found communicating with the assessor very difficult. I struggled to get a lot across to him and I didn't always understand him as he spoke very quietly (plus wearing the face mask didn't help).  

So it didn't go well. I'm exhausted and in quite a lot of pain. I do appreciate the help though, I very much appreciate it. 
Thanks. 

poppy12345

I think it's impossible to predict anything at this stage. All you can do is wait for the decision, which can be anything between 2-12 weeks. Once it's made if you're not happy you can request the MR.

Spoonie_Turtle

I agree it's really hard to tell from the assessment - mine seemed to go rather well over the phone and then the decision was no award because the assessor didn't believe me anyway!

One thing you can do at this stage, if you want, is in about a week (or if DWP send you a message to say they've received the report from the assessor) ask DWP for a copy of the assessment report.  It's unusual for the decision maker to go against the report so if you get a copy of it before the decision is made, you'll have an idea of how it's likely to go and can start preparing for an MR if need be.  [Or you might get the decision through before the copy of the report, but no harm in asking anyway.]

SaitenMar

Thanks for the replies and advice. I might look into getting the report once I'm informed they've received it, to see if it's worth disputing the decision or not once I get that. Like I said I don't think it went very well and it's so hard to sometimes get your points across, especially when your very anxious about the assessment in the first place.

I'll have to look into disputing the decision and how I go about doing that, it's already been stressful enough. 
Thanks again. Appreciate the help.  

MalMonroe

SaitenMar said:

Thanks for the replies and advice. I might look into getting the report once I'm informed they've received it, to see if it's worth disputing the decision or not once I get that. Like I said I don't think it went very well and it's so hard to sometimes get your points across, especially when your very anxious about the assessment in the first place.

I'll have to look into disputing the decision and how I go about doing that, it's already been stressful enough. 
Thanks again. Appreciate the help.  

Hi, you don't know what the decision is yet so try not to worry too much. Although I know that is much easier said than done. 

I just wanted to say that one of my friends received some valuable and excellent help from an advisor at Citizens Advice last year when she had to appeal her PIP claim decision. I don't know if you've tried them but it seems that you're doing this on your own and that must be very daunting indeed. My friend's mental health was not helped by having to appeal but the advisor she had was very knowledgeable and helpful and she was awarded PIP after appeal. I think it's a great shame that people have to be put through the wringer but I guess they have to weed out the genuine cases from the not so genuine ones. 

Here's some info for Citizens Advice just in case (as you don't know the outcome yet) -

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/appeals/apply-to-tribunal/#:~:text=You can get help with,they're not always available.

Don't despair, all is not lost.  Good luck with everything