PIP Review - paper-based assessment

Amathyst

Hello,

I am wanting to request a paper-based assessment as nothing has changed in relation to my conditions, I've so far been awarded PIP twice enhanced for both for 5 years each time. I know that it's rare that they give paper-based but I'd like to try and request one anyway.

I've drafted the request letter out from me but I was wondering what I ought to ask the GP to put because my advocate has drafted something out where she's asking them to give an outline of my conditions which I'm not sure is correct, I thought something like the following would be ok? "I support (name) request for a paper-based assessment as a telephone/video or face-to-face assessment would cause her overwhelming psychological distress due to her mental health difficulties and would also impact her physical health."

Thanks in advance.

Muttleythefrog

Ultimately the decision lies with them (DWP DM/Assessment company if contracted) as to what they feel is required to assess entitlement including at review...

However... you could indeed make a case in additional info and/or with supporting documents that an in person or telephone assessment would be harmful. They may already have such a marker on file. Combine with argument that conditions and disablements are unchanged (just as per previous assessments if the case).

Advice generally would be at review if no changes... to state no changes... to agree with previous award details as applicable.. but detail in full your problems associated with all relevant activities almost as if a new claim and perhaps refresh any real life examples demonstrating the problems.

So a case of leaving minimum possibility they get things wrong and maximising chances they do a paper based review. This is the strategy I used at last review (last year) and a Decision Maker didn't even bother referring to the assessment company for a paper based assessment. 

Regarding the specific details of supporting evidence.... confirming conditions and saying an assessment by phone or in person would be harmful... may have value... as would of course any document from healthcare professionals confirming disablements relevant to PIP and any indication of long term or permanent durability.

pumpkin60

          I've recently had a pip review and asked on my form for a paper based decision and an ongoing award as I will never get better. I got both, if you don't ask you don't get. They can only say no.

Amathyst

Hi @pumpkin60 thanks for responding, did you need to ask your GP for a letter of support? Yeah I was considering asking them for an ongoing award as well, 5 years isn't bad but my conditions haven't changed from one assessment to the next apart from becoming a bit worse but I'm already on enhanced.

pumpkin60

    No I didn't send anything from a doctor, I'm not on enhanced  for both but still got an ongoing award. You have nothing to loose by asking on your form. Good luck.

Amathyst

Hi @Muttleythefrog sorry I didn't see your response at first!

Thanks for the information, the problem is due to my conditions not changing as such I've had no further treatment for any of my conditions as such, so I don't have any specific supporting evidence. 

The DWP do know that I have certain conditions obviously, there is also another issue and that is I believe that around 6 years of my medical records are missing and my previous GP was either not adding my conditions or not coding them correctly which has left my records inaccurate and caused a few issues in regards to my care with the current medical centre that I am with. The current medical centre is having to look into it for me but they are also a tad pants because it's taken them over 2 years to get back to me about a complaint and my medical record concerns and they still haven't dealt with it all after 2 and half years of me and my advocate nagging them. Also the DWP did request GPFR's for both my last PIP review and my ESA review, I received a paper-based assessment for ESA and was moved to SG (I know it's not the same as PIP), so I thought I'd mention that as well.

The medical centre do know that I struggle and have put me down and housebound and needing a communication partner which I've put on the form.

Amathyst

Thanks @pumpkin60

Amathyst

I should have added yesterday as well, my previous forms do concern me a little bit, so when I first applied an advice centre helped me, I can't remember exactly how much info the put on the form but it wasn't a lot, but I was awarded enhanced for both as the person seemed to fully understand my mental health issues although she did still tell porkies about certain things, like saying I'd told her things like I could read when I actually need help with complex written writing, also claiming she did a peak flow when she didn't.

The second form which was the review form was filled in by Welfare Rights, I had no idea what the person put on the form as he took it away with him but when I saw that the form had been partly used as an excuse to claim it didn't say it on the whatever, I asked for a copy of it as Welfare Rights said the officer who had left didn't upload it to their system, when I saw the form I was shocked due to their being hardly any info on it at all. This time I ended up appealing the decision and it was overturned I believe by the DWP without needing a tribunal, I think part of the problem with this as well was that the CM disputed the report, Capita then requested a GPFR from the wrong medical centre which then took them 2 months to rectify by which time my award was running out so the CM went a long with the report anyway and lowered my award and anything indicating that I had mental health conditions was removed. After the appeal they then gave me points back in relation to my mental health but they dropped mixing with people from 8 to 0 then gave me 2 points, NOTHING had changed in between assessments, there was no reason for them to remove the points for this and they also removed points for reading.

I've been advised that I can mention this on the form and tell them that I think I ought to have gotten x amount of points for each.

Also, if something wasn't properly mentioned or mentioned at all on my previous review form but I mentioned it during the assessment because the assessor made notes of what I said, am I ok to put more in depth information on my current review form? For example, I have problems with swallowing, it was mentioned previously to the assessor, but I scored 0 points, my swallowing problems affect all of the time, I cough up food daily because it feels like it's getting caught, I swish my drink around my mouth before swallowing, I have choked when eating and drinking which in turn has caused me to have negative thoughts around eating and drinking and makes my anxiety worse, my son needs to sit with me a majority of the time when I eat and to be honest, if it wasn't for my son I probably wouldn't eat at all as it's not something I enjoy, I'd go on a liquid diet if I could, there's other things related to it which I won't bore you with but would it be ok to explain about this on the form if it wasn't explained before on the previous form but it was mentioned to the assessor?

At the moment I can't eat much at all because of some sort of issue with my throat and I've lost about 14lbs in a few weeks (I struggle to lose weight usually), I haven't spoken to a GP because of my mental health and due to the ongoing issues that I'm having with the medical centre, plus I was referred to SALT a couple of years ago but the woman didn't listen properly, she assumed my issue was globus, it's not, I think it's dysphagia caused by GERD, the help that was offered was unhelpful and limited partly due to my anxiety and being pretty much housebound.

I did manage to get a paper-based assessment without requesting it and moved to SG for ESA though, the assessment company requested a GPFR from the right medical centre and that also helped.

Not wanting to an assessment is also related to me not being able to talk much due to the pain in my jaw and me having sore throats, not just my mental health, although it is more so about the mental health.

Sorry for the waffle there, I tend to get quite anxious, overthink things and get frustrated because I feel my brain doesn't work as well as it should, so I get quite flustered and anxious when filling out forms and obviously my previous experience hasn't helped at all. I hope people understand what I'm trying to ask, if not, please free to ask but go easy on me because I am a very anxious person and tend to find it difficult to post on forums and such and even ask for help.

Edit - I checked the form that Welfare Rights filled out, he wrote literally one line of text for each thing, never explained anything, just said still needs to be prompted etc and that was it, as for eating, he never explained anything about it, it wasn't something I'd mentioned in my first assessment because I wasn't having a massive problem with it, it's been more of an issue since about 2015, he just put just needs prompting which is partly correct but I also need my son to sit with me, I know part of the problem was my lack of explanation as well during the assessment but I couldn't help that, not just the form but as I was trying to avoid an assessment, shouldn't the welfare rights officer put more info down.

He did request a paper-based but never explained why exactly...

It's partly why I ended up doing my own ESA form, the company was trying to go off a 4 year old form that someone other rubbish place had written, they were insisting on assessing me and messed the appointments up several times, because of their mess ups I made a complaint and they let me do a new form with the help of my son and 2 other people I managed to do a form that had more info on it with real world examples and as I've said, they requested a GPFR and I had a paper-based assessment and was moved to SG.

Spoonie_Turtle

Explain everything that's relevant to the PIP activities.  Doesn't matter whether it was on a previous form or not, what matters is you giving yourself the best chance of getting an appropriate award this time round (and hopefully without needing to fight for it).

Amathyst

Thanks @Spoonie_Turtle

So I've done it right then because that's what I've done this time around, I did pretty much the same as I did with the ESA50, however, some of the info fills up an A4 sheet, is that ok or is it too much info? This is for mixing with people and the swallowing issues. The info relevant to my conditions and how they affect me.

In relation to communicating with people, would a person get points in that if they have social anxiety or complex PTSD or does it just relate to those who have conditions such as Parkinson's, extreme Autism, hearing problems etc?

peteuk

Technically at review the is only the need to write about any changes since your last assessment.  So if there has been no change you can simply write no change.  So dont get too worried about what the welfare rights person did or didn’t write.  Any assessment will go from your last report.   Having said that I was taught not to look at tribunal letters.  

As others have said you can request a paper assessment, but your claim will be triaged and a decision made as to the type of assessment required.  Dont ask dont get springs to mind,

Having said you can write no change, I personally would.  Face to face appointments were regional, so had Covid not happened your face to face assessments would have been at the same office, potentially with the same assessor (depending on how big the office was) now with telephone assessment your not guanteed to get someone regional.   So if you can and youve got the energy write as much as you can.

If its easier bullet points and do one activity at a time, taking breaks between or only doing a couple a day.  Try not to get anxious and rush the form.  Dont forget the majority of the time principle so give examples like choking twice every meal (if thats the case) it takes X minutes to eat a meal etc etc. 

Good luck!  Hopefully they will see sense.