ADDING EXTRA INFORMATION AT TELEPHONE ASSESSMENT

scape1960

 I don’t know if anyone has had any experience of this but I would be grateful for any advice. I completed my review form in January and I have now received a message saying I have a telephone appointment next week. When I checked the copy of the form I sent, although I had listed Ménière’s disease and the symptoms, I had not explained how it affected me, e.g. going 
out alone, crossing road etc. I have multiple and complex, long term medical conditions and think I just felt there was too much information, given the number of problems I have. Will it be possible for me to tell them this during the assessment or can I only discuss what was in the form? TIA!

poppy123456

You need to tell them everything. The whole point of the assessment is to gather more evidence to support your claim. Try to not answer any questions with just a yes or no.

scape1960

That’s great, thanks very much Poppy, without that information I don’t think I would stand a chance of getting the ‘getting around’ section. It does concern me that I do have so many separate problems that I’m not sure if s/he will have time to discuss them all.

Jimm_Scope

Hi @scape1960, I don't think I can add much more than Poppy already has but if you want to read a little more Scope have a page about preparing for your assessment here Preparing for PIP assessment. Good luck with it! Let us know how you get on

scape1960

Thanks Jimm, I’ll definitely look at it. Do you know if time is given during the assessment to go over things that I missed out on the review forms, even though I sent in pages and pages! Thanks for your advice.

poppy123456

During the assessment there will be a standard set of questions they will ask plus any other additional questions they have. Whether there's enough of time to tell them everything you missed on the form will depend on how much you didn't tell them.

The most important part of a PIP claim is the form you fill in, whether it's a new claim or a review. There isn't always enough of time during the assessment for you to tell them everything.

scape1960

Well, finally had my assessment yesterday. Appointment was at 9.00am, but actually rang at 8.50, so luckily (I thought 🤨) I was prepared. The assessor seemed nice and personable, but found that, to some of my replies, she constantly kept say ‘we’ll come back to that’ but didn’t.

One word of advice I would give was that I had my review, all typed out, with added comments and highlighted areas to support me, in front me as a reminder. However, the line of questioning was very different and completely threw me, making it useless as I couldn’t find relevant sections without losing track of the conversation. After it finished, checked the PIP Points Score Table of Descriptors and realised she had used that.

I definitely feel my answers would have been much better placed if I’d known that! Not particularly confident for the Enhanced mobility I was hoping for. I’ll just have to wait and see!🤞

poppy123456

They have a standard set of questions they ask. They may also ask some additional questions too. As for writing up notes before the assessment, i personally don't find this helpful either. It's impossible to know exactly what questions they may ask you and for this reason i just don't find it helpful for the notes.

I prefer to just concentrate on answering the questions with as much information as possible.

Once the report is returned a decision can take up to 12 weeks.