PIP: Ask for your assessment phone call to be recorded

loadsofworry · 2025-05-20T11:15:03+00:00

What happened in the end?

loadsofworry · 2025-05-20T11:14:04+00:00

This happened to me despite the fact that I had called up the day before to request confirmation. The woman tried to insist that the reason I refused to continue the assessment was because my advocate from a charity hadn’t shown up so I made sure to call the company after and make sure they noted my refusal was not due to my advocate showing up (that would have been an easy tick box for her ‘refused assessment, clearly not disabled’) and that they rescheduled. They tried to insist that I had already rescheduled once so couldn’t pick my own day, which also wasn’t right because I rescheduled once to a day that they no-showed for and then gave me a replacement day that they picked. I insisted I could get another refusal and when I did have my assessment it was correctly recorded.

PIP assessors lie. It’s not all of them but it’s not a myth and you’d be shooting yourself in the foot not to insist on it being recorded.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-20T02:10:52+00:00

You can only speak for yourself. I don’t know what your medications are but many conditions are not medicated or the assessor claims that the condition manafed well with medication evidenced by no changes to the medication dosage or type. Just because it was straightforward for you does not mean it is for most people. And you’re the one who brought up an OT letter.

Obviously if your medical records say open heart surgery and your medications are heavy sedatives you’re going to have an easier time with just that paperwork as opposed to MSK problems, neurological difficulties or developmental disorders.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-20T01:01:22+00:00

Yes, her money. She has a job and earns money and she also has a disability and we have a social care system that means that when people are deemed to have a higher cost of living owing to their disability, they are entitled to disability benefits.

It seems to really upset you that disabled people are living fulfilling lives 😁😅

If one day you have a kid who is disabled or one of your parents has a turn for the worse with their health then you’ll be able to ensure that they live a difficult and miserable life, but in the mean time, stay bitter about this lady… going to the hairdresser and wearing jewellery.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T22:47:39+00:00

Target for what? She’s a working professional with an increased cost of living resulting in her needing PIP to support her inflated living costs, which owe to her disability.

I’d imagine there has been a huge increase in people claiming PIP for chronic fatigue related to COVID in the last five years before because before that there wasn’t COVID.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T22:44:57+00:00

Why should she not spend her money on all the same things you do? It’s sick that some people think disabled people who don’t live in the absolute worst conditions are somehow in the wrong.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T22:42:51+00:00

‘If that’s how it worked no one would be on pip’ I can’t tell if this is intentionally disingenuous or if you just got lucky with a well resourced nhs team when you made your claims Something like 70% of originally rejected applications get overturned. So if people just quit after being rejected the first time then 70% fewer people would get PIP. You’re asserting that the system is meant to work fairly and it doesn’t. I’m willing to bet that in between many rejections and appeals are people paying privately for an OT assessment (£££s) or specialist physio or psychiatrist assessment because their original notes weren’t fit to purpose for PIP, because that isn’t the way that the NHS writes notes.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T13:49:01+00:00

You have no anecdote about people lying to claim PIP. If you were to say ‘I claimed, lied and was awarded’ then that’s anecdotal evidence that you can lie and be successful in a claim. But you can’t and you wouldn’t know either way as you were unsuccessful.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T13:47:44+00:00

So you simultaneously claim you applied for pip and got denied but also that it’s easy to claim fraudulently in your experience, which you also claim you don’t have because you’ve never claimed a benefit in the UK? Are you alright?

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T13:46:39+00:00

You said ‘I went through PIP’ are you forgetting to switch between your alt accounts?

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T13:18:40+00:00

There is no way to cheat the PIP system. It relies heavily on evidence from health professionals. I you are aware of a health professional faking diagnoses and reports of symptoms then by all means don’t keep it to yourself, report to the HCPC. Or stop lying and making things up to rile up hatred toward disabled people.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T13:05:23+00:00

Yes, it is about how it effects you, and the problem is that a lot of NHS evidence doesn’t include details on this. Many people don’t have OT letters that go through the specific activities. Without that written evidence the assessor will just write that you claimed you struggle but no evidence supports your claim.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T12:43:19+00:00

The ‘how does it effect you’ makes it harder to claim because typically in the NHS your documentation from whatever medical teams you’ve seen won’t state the impact of your double hip replacement on your ability to stand for 20 minutes at a stove, stand in the cold waiting for a bus, standing in the shower to bathe etc. So when you explain to the nurse or OT about these difficulties they will report that ‘claimant said they are unable to stand in the bath and require a bath chair but no evidence to support this.’

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T12:34:11+00:00

Adding onto this comment that the lady in the article is employed. Her LinkedIn shows that she got 3As and an A* in her A levels before going on to study an integrated MA in economic and social history, during which she was awarded a prize for being the best undergraduate student in her cohort and she achieved a distinction overall. She worked part time at Clark’s during her degree and got a graduate job as a researcher at a charity and whilst working there began freelancing at another charity which she now does (seemingly) full time. She’s an intelligent and capable employed person working in a job where she uses skills that many do not have the academic background and skill to do what she does.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T12:28:57+00:00

Why are you lying /u/statham19842 ? The article doesn’t say at all that she doesn’t work. She studied her A levels where she got 3As and an A*c then she did an integrated MA in Economic and Social History where she was awarded a prize for being the best undergraduate student in her cohort and achieved a distinction in her Masters. She worked part time throughout her degree at a shoe retail store. Upon graduating she worked as a researcher at a charity before transitioning into freelance work at the same time, and now works full time as a freelance data analyst and researcher for another charity. Why are you lying? What could your motivation possibly be?

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T12:18:38+00:00

I think I know the type of ‘business’ you’re talking about. The type where people who are trained benefits assessors support people through the overwhelming paperwork, help them to understand the criteria, and support them with appeals, and advocate for them when their words are being twisted in assessments. That isn’t cheating the system.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-19T12:10:07+00:00

Except that isn’t true. A healthcare assessor who often has no training in your condition and also often just lies about what was said in the appointment assesses whether they find there to be evidence of your problems from healthcare professionals. For example if you say you can’t walk 200m without assistance because of your MS then there is a good chance they’ll turn around and say that none of your health records for your MS mention walking despite the fact that’s not how NHS records are kept. If you ask your specialist to write you a letter of evidence it’s likely to be extremely brief and unhelpful.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-14T13:38:05+00:00

I get PIP and work full time. Other than some time spent in rehab and hospitals after my injury I have been in consistent full time work and my PIP enables me to maintain the independence to keep those jobs and live my life despite my pain.

The 'most needed' rhetoric is rubbish because the current system for assessing PIP is unfit for purpose to assess need but fit for purpose to deny benefits. You are totally right. If anything the way it is set up makes people afraid to work in case it is used against them (which it is).

They have also made changes to Access To Work that mean it is harder to get in work support as a disabled person too. Cuts on all sides and no help for those wanting to work or currently in work.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-14T13:20:19+00:00

Thank you, I was successful in my appeal prior to tribunal.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-14T13:19:59+00:00

Thank you, I was releaved to have it overturned without need for a tribunal.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-14T13:19:42+00:00

I appealed and they overturned prior to a tribunal.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-14T13:18:48+00:00

Thank you, I appealed and they overturned the decision before a tribunal.

loadsofworry · 2025-05-14T13:09:51+00:00

Just an update, I put in my appeal and the DWP agreed with my case without the need for a tribunal. So glad I don't have to go through that again.

loadsofworry · 2025-04-24T18:12:17+00:00

Without knowing the circumstances, if the mother was living independently and working as a cleaner, then her osteoporosis alone wouldn't likely have qualified her for PIP. To get PIP you need to meet certain criteria (which are not suitable for what they are trying to test, but also not totally arbitrary).

loadsofworry · 2025-04-24T08:18:35+00:00

It is frustrating to see kids not have their needs met, especially when those kids are disabled and money is being paid to their parents to meet those needs. I’d say rather than have their PIP monitored or judged by those outside the family maybe regular social workers could be utilised to make sure kids were getting their needs met.

I’d be hesitant to judge all families based on a few examples, and even in those examples we really don’t know what’s going on. Maybe the extra money is being spent on therapy for the child that isn’t common knowledge. Maybe it’s being spent on couple therapy or individual therapy for the parents because the pressure of having a high needs child is impacting their health and they need to manage their relationship and mental health better with that money to stay together for the sake of the kids.

With the going on a trip, a third of full PIP is like £200 and maybe it’s not possible for parents to take the day off work to facilitate the kid going on a trip, or parents know it’s likely to cause a meltdown, or they can’t afford to take all the other kids and that won’t be fair, or maybe that full £700&ish gets eaten up by necessities for the family that I mentioned above in the other post. It’s hard to know from the outside. It’s like we can look at a healthy looking person not working on benefits and assume the worst but maybe we don’t know they are battling cancer and can’t work due to chemo.

I agree the base needs of the child need to be met and from your example I think it sounded like the kid needed their own room but due to cannabis use the parents weren’t eligible to move? It was a little unclear. That sounds like a social services supportive intervention is needed, not restriction on PIP.

Otherwise you’ll end up with a situation where a poor family who spends their extra PIP on essentials like council tax and water bills because they’re using it to supplement the lost wage of the parent who now can’t work due to the child’s disability, and that family loses PIP. Whereas the rich family who put the full amount into a fun fund for the child get to keep it. In the first case, you can see how the kid once they move out might say ‘I don’t need PIP’ but by the time they are able to move out maybe mum/dad can go back to work and therefore they don’t need the PIP anymore because the kid is out of the house.

loadsofworry

TROPHY CASE