Greetings all

Cantilip

Greetings all

Nice people keep inviting me to intro myself, so I’m 68, single, always have been, living on the south coast, alone without carers but with family around for odds and ends, on a combination of State Pension, PIP, Housing Benefit and a small NHS pension. I don’t have problems with any of these – my PIP assessment contained a downright lie, but it didn’t change the points. Is the application still forcibly handwritten? If so I recommend if at all poss photocopying or scanning: it pleased me to send what I’d actually written to the liar, even though it didn’t change anything.

Fixed malady, severe scoliosis, walk with rollator, Variables: polymyalgia rheumatica, a tedious autoimmune disease supposed to burn itself out – 4 years on it’s hanging on in there – how far, fast and fluidly I can walk, how my hands and arms are feeling. On Easter Monday I developed a haematoma, a sort of high-class glorified and highly painful bruise on my leg which is nearly better but standing up is still like baby’s first steps in ballet, slide feet together and hang on tight.

30 years as a medical secretary/PA in London teaching-hospitals, so if anyone’s got any questions about how the system works or doesn’t, I might be able to answer them.

Look forward to talking to you all.

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66Mustang

Welcome 🙂

I have had mostly good experiences with PIP in truth, but I remember one time. I explicitly told them during the assessment that I had no physical issues, and that there was no point in asking me to demonstrate how far I could walk, as I thought this would save time. The report stated something like "you mentioned you have physical difficulty moving around, which I saw no evidence of". It made me scratch my head 🤔

To answer your question, I typed out all my PIP answers and attached them to the form. I just signed my name on the form and hand-wrote the one word/one line answers. There was no problem with this at all

Cantilip

I thought of doing that, think it prob comes down to not trusting glue! Yes, I know that sounds silly but visions of my form being chucked around and pages coming loose. Think I was a bit unwell and so readily twitched at the time.

Anyhow, yes, a reasonably decent experience, unlike others.

Albus_Scope

Heya @Cantilip and it's a warm welcome from me too. 😁

I'm glad to hear the haematoma is clearing up, they're no fun at all! I'm learning best practices for filling in PIP forms and it's very interesting seeing how easy it is for assessors to bend the truth somewhat. I'll be starting to make copies of all my forms from now on.

Cantilip

Hi Albus, thanks for the welcome. I was terriified! Of the haematoma, not PIP - thought I had a DVT and on a bank holiday too. Hideous visions of A+E. Maybe it was just luck but I actually got the NHS at its best against all today's odds. I did the online assessment at 111 and that said call 999, so I did, went through it all with the paramedic who said she thought I didn't need an ambulance but 'a colleague' would call me back, which he promptly did. He listened and took on board that I was alone with no-one to drive me and that I'm not fully mobile to start with, and said he'd make an appt for me to be seen at my GP's the next day. I thought double wow! This was dented slightly when I turned up and they hadn't heard of me but the duty doctor saw me anyway - the record of the 999 call was on the system - and all diagnosed and sorted.