My experience of claiming PIP.

Prometheus2020

I successfully applied for and received a full ESA award summer of 2018 identified as severely disabled and in the support group. It went through relatively easily. I then applied for PIP thinking it would be as painless. My application was submitted in August 2018 followed soon after with a work capability assessment. I made the mistake of going to the toilet 3 times, (diabetic and both hips borked) from the window and air less room, (AC was supposed to be broken). The assessor was a young, former nurse with  a thick northern Irish accent that I found hard to understand. Suffice to say little eye contact was made between us as her pc screen was 90deg to me as she typed away...for nearly 3 hours. Month after month went by and I heard nothing. So I sent up a few flares, emailed my MP, the Sec of State Amber Rudd etc. He had asked my GP to provide more info and blamed them for the delay. Just before Xmas I finally received their decision. It did not impress me at all. So having done the statutory reconsideration I finally attended tribunal in May 2019. A humbling and degrading experience, me begging for a fair outcome. Thankfully they overturned the DWP decision  and awarded me a significant uplift. I still think I have been short changed on the mobility component as did my advisor. However I did not want to chance my luck making a further appeal. At every stage the DWP can increase, maintain or reduce your award. 

I requested a review 2 years ago as my mobility has reduced. I had a telephone assessment and guess what the decision came back in 2 weeks! No change. Which lead me to believe the decision had already been made.

Now I await the new Scottish version of PIP to contact me.

Alex_Alumni

Hello @Prometheus2020 and thanks for sharing your experience with the community. When you say Scottish version of PIP do you mean the Adult Disability Payment (ADP)?

For information on transferring from PIP to ADP, you can visit Turn2Us, but the key information provided says:

It will take until Summer 2024 for Scottish Government to finish the move. 

You will continue to receive the same rate of benefit. You won’t have to fill in any forms or go to a new assessment. You shouldn’t see any gap in your payments. 

Prometheus2020

Thank you for this. I had guessed it would take time. I heard although they have dispensed with private sector assessors they have retained the same format of the written assessment. I am going to insist on a home assessment this time. I cannot get into a taxi/car anymore and I think phone assessments do not provide the full picture.

poppy123456

For PIP the no longer do home assessments. It's mostly telephone but some are video and face to face at an assessment centre.