Telephone assessment booked with adult nurse, will she understand my difficulties?New claim

luna_moon12

Hello! I have a telephone  assessment booked with IAS on the 20th November.  My difficulties are severe dyselxia, chronic back pain, anxiety and depression.  I have submitted to the dwp my prescription list, my dyslexia report, a full statement of my difficulties and how they affect me day to day according to the descriptors, also statements from my partner and mum who help me and also  a 2 day diary,I'm also waiting for a MRI of my brain and back ( brain one before assessment and backMRI the day after assessment) i'm also accepted for help by the occupation therapist but waiting a home assessment. I also have a musculoskeletal physiotherapist but ive only seen her once when she refereed  me for the spinal MRI. Anyway, reading some post here  I called this morning to say that I will be recording the assessment which they said was problem. 

I then asked who would be conducting the assessment as she advised it would be an adult nurse called [Name removed by Moderator]. To be honest I'm rather worried ifshe will understand my difficulties? Am I worrying too much? Its so important I am awarded to get the care I need.. I'm worriedshe won't understand and I've read so many horror stories about assessors lying. 

Thankyou x

chiarieds

Please try not to worry. It sounds like you've sent relevant information to show where you have difficulties. What you now need to get across with your assessment is whether you can do any of the PIP activities/descriptors safely, & the assessor may not ask you about all of them, just those where they feel they need some more info. So it's less about your actual disabilities, & just more about how these affect certain activities of daily living & your mobility. A few pointers:

- If you have kept a copy of your initial claim form, have a read through it.

 - Ideally you should have given 1 or 2 recent, detailed examples of the difficulty you face doing/attempting each applicable activity/descriptor that is looked at with PIP, i.e. when exactly did this occur, where, what exactly happened, why did you have difficulty, did anyone else see this, & were there any consequences to this, if applicable?

 - have a look at the PIP descriptors in this link, reading the notes at the end. The word 'reliably,' which is so important, isn't mentioned as such, but it's if you can't do an activity safely, to an acceptable standard, if you can't repeat it as often as would normally be expected, or if it takes you longer than a person without your disability. If you can't do an activity 'reliably,' say so, explaining why. Please see: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/asset-library/personal-independence-payment-descriptors-and-scores-april-2023.pdf

 - see if there were any gaps where you didn't give those important detailed examples for each applicable PIP activities/descriptors in your initial claim form. Try to include these in your assessment if asked about any

 - you may be asked questions which you feel don't directly address the PIP descriptors, but they will, sometimes looking across a few, e.g. do you drive, do you have a pet?

- if you're unsure about any question, just ask for it to be repeated. Take your time in answering, & don't just answer yes or no.

- make sure your phone is fully charged, & if you'd like someone there to support you, put your phone on speaker phone so they can listen in. Good luck.

luna_moon12

Thankyou for your reply. It has helped alot. I think I need to stop reading the horror stories as its making me so anxious and stressed. So much is resting on this 😢😢😢 x