Pip assessment process

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MarkH75

Hello all.
New to the forum. 
I applied for pip at beginning of march and sent completed form back on the 17th then received a text from IAS to say they have received my claim on the 23rd march and today received a further text from them to say my telephone assessment is booked for the 18th of may. 
I suffer from PTSD and have gone 14 years undiagnosed and very isolated because of it and late last year I mustered up the strength to go to the doctor and was immediately passed onto a mental health department for further help going forward. I've had 15 F2F sessions of EMDR and they have all been extremely upsetting and made me very anxious they have also made my depression worse and now coming towards the end I've been informed that the next process will be CBT. I have issues with going out in public if it's too busy, even a shop with 10 people sets me into shaking and hot sweats before having to leave. 

I'm glad I am having a telephone assessment as going to the assessment centre would have been difficult to manage. 

Does anyone else have any help in ways to make sure my PTSD affects me is made clear to them as have seen many posts on here saying that the assessor hasn't taken how things affect those who have applied for pip and thus triggering the appeal process which cause more stress and worry to be heaped on. 

Also how long is expected to wait from assesment to receive a decision. 

My sincere thanks. 
Mark. 

chiarieds

Hi @MarkH75 - & welcome to the forum. I'm sorry for all you've been going through, but pleased you have applied for PIP. You might find the following website helpful as it's geared up to show how a claimant might be helped that has mental health problems: https://www.mentalhealthandmoneyadvice.org/en/welfare-benefits/pip-mental-health-guide/help-with-your-pip-claim/how-to-fill-in-the-pip-form/  This is still relevant if there's anything that this prompts you to realise where you have difficulties.

If you didn't do so with your claim form, then your assessment will be a chance, when asked, to try & give a couple of recent, detailed examples as to the difficulty you face for each applicable descriptor, i.e. when did it happen, where, what happened, did anyone see this, & were there any consequences to attempting/doing an activity?
Say if you can't do an activity 'reliably,' i.e. safely, to an acceptable standard, repeat as often as one would reasonably expect, or if it takes you much longer than someone without a disability.

It can take anything from 2-12 weeks to get a decision letter after your assessment. Please do come back with any other questions.