On papers PIP assessment

9babiesnutjob

Hi,
I applied for PIP in early August, and I was preparing myself for the dreaded assessment. Yesterday, out of the blue I had a call from a number I didn’t recognise. I didn’t answer. My husband rung it back. It turned out to be a HP assessor from ISA. She only spoke to me briefly to get my date of birth and then did the very brief assessment (18mins) with my husband! I had no prior warning and no time to prepare anything.
I got a text from DWP about 30mins later saying they’d received my assessment. I’m now really stressed, I’ve stupidly been googling this and there are SO many horror stories regarding my situation.
Why wasn’t I pre warned? Why wasn’t I able to prepare? Why wasn’t I included in the assessment? The call was so brief, I don’t feel that my husband could’ve told them the full impact of my situation.

sorry to waffle on but my husband is sick of me going on about it! I just needed to vent.

poppy123456

I think using google has only made your anxiety even worse because you'll mostly only hear the bad stories on the internet. If someone's had a decision they are happy with they have no questions to ask so we don't hear their story.

Seems like to me that because they only had a few questions to ask they were then able to do a paper based assessment. Though 18 minutes is rather long for just a few questions but i wouldn't look too much into that. When they only have a few questions to ask they don't send appointment times out, they will just ring out of the blue.

Is your husband your appointee by any chance? If so then i wouldn't expect them to want to talk to you.

Paper based assessments are rare but possible and mostly they are a good thing. Now the report is returned you should have a decision within about 12 weeks. Once a decision is made you will be contacted.

9babiesnutjob

Thank you for responding so quickly!

My husband isn’t my appointee. I’m just can’t do the whole social thing so talking on the phone (without having time to prepare what I want to say) is very stressful for me.

It was 18mins only because my husband likes to talk!

I guess I feel that the HP couldn’t possibly understand the full extent of my condition without including me in the assessment.

If my claim is refused should I appeal it? I just don’t know if I could go through all that stress again.🤦‍♀️

bg844

If my claim is refused should I appeal it? I just don’t know if I could go through all that stress again.

The first step after a decision is something called a Mandatory Reconsideration, this is a good chance to fully explain your health conditions and how they affect your daily living and mobility activities in line with the PIP descriptors. However, only around 20% of cases at this stage receive good news.

After the Mandatory Reconsideration stage you can then take the decision to a Tribunal, this has a much better success rate of 68%. 

Paper-based assessments are mostly a good thing, as pointed out by Poppy above and I don't think you will have a problem. Please try and relax and await your decision (which I hope is good news). Any further queries after this, please do come back and ask. We don't want to jump too far ahead of ourselves when you haven't even had a decision yet.

9babiesnutjob

Thank you!
I’ll try and chill. It’s hard though. I’d been psyching myself up for the HP assessment. Feel a bit cheated.

 Thank you for the help

Hannahmarie1234

@9babiesnutjob
I had a paper based assessment  and phone call out of the blue lasted about 20 mins in total no prior warning. I had decision about 6 weeks later enhanced for both so there can be good outcomes 

9babiesnutjob

Thank you! Nice to hear a positive story.
Its such a stressful process, I’m sure it’s done on purpose to stop people applying!

Hannah_Alumni

Hello @9babiesnutjob

Just wanted to welcome you to the community! I can see our members have already been able to support you. I hope you continue to make friends here!

9babiesnutjob

Thank you!
 It’s really great to be able to vent to people that know what I’m going through.