Pip assessor reporting me to social services

gothicqueen

Hi all, looking for some advice if you can help 😁, been on pip for 5yrs now, moved to Scotland so transfered to ADP, now I've moved back to England, I had to start the pip process over again, just had a phone call from the assessor, completely out the blue, no warning.  I mentioned that my 14yr old daughter helps me with personal care (changing my dressing if I can't physically do it myself) I'm female also.... that was it really, explained my 20yr old son does the cooking and cleaning when I'm unable to,  she then proceeded to tell me she is informing social work.... as I'm struggling????? I never once said I'm struggling, just explained tht there is times I need lil help to change one of my many dressings.... 2hrs after the initial phone call she rang back wanting all my daughters details name, d.o.b ect.... has any one had any similar experiences? 

Jimm_Scope

Hi @gothicqueen, welcome to the community Did they mention they were an assessor? Did your receive any texts to let you know? Did they say which assessor they were from?  Capita or Independent Assessment Services?

Hopefully we can help you figure out what happened here.

gothicqueen

Hi 👋,  yes they said they were an assessor from independent assessment services.... 

gothicqueen

No text to say I was receiving a phone call either 

Jimm_Scope

I'll move this over to our PIP section so people with more PIP knowledge can see it.

Do you want to give us a little timeline of what's happened so far @gothicqueen? When did you restart the PIP process and when your application went in? 

Regarding being "reported to social services", that is likely a safeguarding concern. They are worried that you aren't getting all the support you need and so have contacted your local authority who may send someone out to assess any support they can give you.

Ramonica

@gothicqueen I am really sorry to hear this has happened to you, it must be very worrying. We had that in our family, in our case it was a UC application. The referral went to Children Services, and they popped at the door of my relative without warning.

The process is quite intrusive, they will ask to speak to the child alone, in our case, again out of the blue they went to his school. You can not stop them from talking to your child alone at school, or home. If you are married they will speak to your partner separately, if divorced they will contact your ex and ask court children arrangements or what agreement you have. I wont lie, if you have a difficult relationship with the other parent, things will get seriously messy.

They (come in pairs) will visit and ask neighbours about anything they want to report that could raise a concern. They will ask you if you have problems with a specific neighbour to take note their input may be intentionally false, but if someone does that, it will make all a lot more difficult.

With all that said, as long as its all ok, and your daughter doesnt cause any concern it will all be ok. I assume she is not suggestible to their "questions and suggestions " and she will not look scared or unwilling to speak. The least of hesitation, like "do you like helping your mother" and the reply is "its boring, i'd rather do my homework" will be disastrous . However, keep in mind, currently some social workers will focus to any detail, no matter how small, as recently quite a few horrible incidents have hit the news.

Your home and child's bedroom has to be pristine. As she is 14 and they other child is a boy at 20, she must have her own room.

I wont lie. You need to prepare yourself and the child, and yet, it must not look as if you didnt. Try to read forums of this kind of situation to gain an insight of what to expect. The assessment can be really tricky, and uses psychological training looking at body language and many many open question, yet with closed questions that can raise a flag in a single moment.

This will take a long time to settle down. Their first visit will be followed by a few days of silence as they will have a meeting with a their manager to make a n initial assessment and decide on the level of risk involved, and then they will appear again, or at the school, with who they will make contact initially before they come to you. Dont call the school and tell them to not let them speak to the child, they cant stop them and they will let them know you did that. The school will be asked to provide a full report on the child about everything. If homeschooled, you will have unfortunately a lot more to prove at this stage to make them happy.

Expect them to visit again at least 3 times and interview the child. They will make the next appointment close to their first visit and most likely weekly thereafter.

Your door may knock at any moment. You have to open, the referral is of high priority and they can call the police to gain access on grounds of wellbeing. If you refuse, it will only raise suspicions.

Good luck.

Ramonica

Just to add: in our case, we were told the referral was to Adult Social Services (meaning the applicant needed support), but the referral mentioned the child and that triggered the Children Services. Since you mention they called asking the child's details, it is 100% the system flagged a child is involved and Children Services had been informed already.

WhatThe

Ramonica, that's an appalling account, poor you   

gothicqueen

Hi, thanks for the reply, I started my new pip process on the 28/12/23 and had my tel assessment on the 24/01/24.... got the txt msg to say they MIGHT get intouch on the 25/01/24.... to give a little more context, on the phone call I explained that my daughter helps change my dressings if needed and my 20yr old son helps with house chores and preparing meals, my 14yr old daughter suffers mental health and got placed on 24/7 suicide watch in Oct 2022, social services were involved due to her mental health until March 2023.   I explained that social services applied so much pressure on her that self harming was on a daily basis.... since social work signed us off there has only been 2 incidents of self harm, me and my son lock everything away.... gp is aware and agreed social work didn't help the situation, which I explained to the assessor on the phone. 

I didn't think to much of it as it felt like a sly dig at the end of the call, she wernt nice nor polite. her words were " right that's all I need now, just to let you know I'm going to inform social services as you are struggling!" 

My anxiety wouldn't let me say anything back as I was dumbfounded by the last remarks....

2hrs pass and a lot of crying, I've worked damm hard to get my daughter to were she is now mentally! And she rings back asking for my daughters name and d.o.b, I gave her name but refused to give d.o.b, to which the assessor repilied " so your with holding that information then ye" i politely explained again the situation, an if she contacts the g.p she will know alot more about the situation and why social work won't help the situation.

To give more context in 2022 my daughter decided she wanted to transition to male (I was fully supportive, calling her by her chosen male name, took her to support groups, buying her males garments, and told her once she's 16-18 we can look at going down the medical route) social work wanted me to get my daughter meds straight away, I refused so they took that as I wernt supportive! Less than 9 months later my daughter detransioned, and is female again (by her own choice).... 

My daughter was still under 24/7 suicide watch when we got signed off....


I'm really bad at explained things so I hope this makes sense 

carbow32

Please don't worry.  There are plenty young carers about.

I ended up in a psychiatric unit and my children had to go into foster care.

I had them back with me pretty quickly after discharge.

They remained involved for about a year after.  There was a few changes of Social Worker (they keep getting signed off with stress).  Not once did anyone horrible come to my home.

I made sure my home was clean and tidy.  I also made sure there was food in the fridge.

I worked with them and not against them.  I actually become reliant on them.  In the end they told me I didn't need a social worker and blocked me from calling them.

There would be more concern if the children were little.

woollywonder

Try to remember that not everyone's encounters with Social Services are awful, as scary as it may seem - poor Ramonica's account sounds dreadful.  It may be that you yourself can have a needs assessment, and that your daughter may be referred to support from a Young Carers group.  Of course they will need to feel satisfied that your daughter isn't having too many demands on her, which the occasional help with a dressing change doesn't sound as though it is. It's very sad that we live in a society where a family caring for each other can be viewed with such suspicion but hopefully your GP will be able to support you all to some degree.  I hope that when they do contact you, they do so with respect , kindness and professionalism

gothicqueen

Update.....

Had a phone call from safeguarding nurse today. The pip assessor told her my 14yr old daughter is suffering from gender dysmorphia... 

My daughter doesn't suffer with this. And even if she did what has it got to do with her!!! 

I've rang pip to complain, they were shocked that the assessor has diagnosed my daughter on my claim... they informed me I had to complain directly to company who assessed me. Which I did, and they couldn't believe what I was telling them, I screen recorded the phone call as I know how they like to make things up... 

They said she has no right to diagnosis my daughter with anything, so I've raised the complaint and someone is getting back to me on mon/tues of next week...

Social services are coming out also! 

Albus_Scope

I'm glad you've made the complaint against the assessor @gothicqueen, they're usually not medically qualified to make any medical diagnosis. 

And as others have said, you tend to only hear horror stories and second hand information regarding social services, but there's so many stories about how they've really helped people too, so please try not to worry too much. 

Albus_Scope

Ok some have some medical qualifications, but often not enough to make a tricky diagnosis like that. 

gothicqueen

I agree some are medically qualified, but not to diagnose my daughter when it's my pip claim... my daughters identity should not be there problem! 

Albus_Scope

woodbine said:

Albus_Scope said:

Ok some have some medical qualifications, but often not enough to make a tricky diagnosis like that. 

Thats why I said "some" rather than making a sweeping statement like you did that they are not qualified

And my comment has now been edited to reflect that. They're often registered nurses, physiotherapists and similar.

WhatThe

Regardless of the occupation of the HCP, it is not in their remit to make any diagnosis, as gothicqueen says  

Have to disagree some are medically qualified.
One would hope so considering the title but let's just give the new member advice and support..