PIP Telephone assessment

cynthia57

Hi

I had my PIP assessment last week, I have been on PIP since 2016 and DLA since 2006 this was a change of circumstances I had asked for as I have degenerative arthritis and it had gotten much worse in the last year

I had previously been on it for mental health issues so had reported “no change” on those boxes and an advice centre filled the form in for me

So this wasn’t their review it was that my circumstances had gotten worse with the arthritis so it was the shorter form I had to fill in

It was a nurse doing the assessment, she questioned my medication why was I on this dose or that, and why wasn’t I taking more, if things were so bad, I explained that I am not a doctor, and was taking exactly what was prescribed and seeing as I was on different types of medication the doctor probably prescribed the dosage around the various drugs but she was saying “you can have up to 800mg on that so why are you not on that amount”?

I told her that I could only take what the doctor gave me and there wasn’t enough in the box to take many.

I haven’t had an assessment since 2016, but found the questions bizarre, and I did suspect she invented some of them especially “How often do you change your underwear”?

I felt humiliated and ashamed and refused to answer this, I asked her “is this a real question, is this actually on the form or are you making this up?” She said it’s a legitimate question and if I didn’t answer it would affect the outcome. I still refused to answer. I kept pointing pit that there had been no change in that criteria she said she still had to ask me anyway

Here are some of the questions, is it just me, or are these now genuine questions?

Do you wear dirty clothes or stay in dirty clothes?

How long does it take you to walk around a shop?

Do you mop your bathroom floor?

Can you put fuel in your car?

Are you suicidal/how many times have you tried to kill yourself/what did you do/what were you thinking as you attempted it? (I refused to answer any of these questions I kept pointing out she was traumatising me and triggering me and she just kept saying it would affect my claim of I didn’t answer she said a few times “I’ll just record that you don’t want to answer” but I would reply “No, can you please say I am not answering because your triggering me and I suffer from severe PTSD and I’m trying to protect myself”

What happens when you have a panic attack do you do slow breathing?
How often do you shower/Wash down below?

Do you have a driving licence? (In 2016 they took PIP off me because I could drive, I appealed it and won at Tribunal, but I’d had it since 2006 with a driving licence, so it didn’t make sense when they took it off me because of having a driving licence)

That’s as much as I can remember there was other questions but these confused me and made me feel violated and ashamed and completely traumatised and I was home alone but I genuinely believe the question about my underwear was bizarre.

I had a phone call yesterday from a survey company to ask me how satisfied I was with the way the assessment was conducted when I told the woman conducting the survey about the underwear question she burst out laughing embarrassing me all over again and to be laughed at too.

Can anyone throw any light on this please any input would be appreciated with much thanks.

Meg24

I'm pretty sure they are NOT allowed to ask you about details of suicide attempts or suicidal ideation precisely because of how triggering and dangerous that can be. I would definitely put it a complaint about that because it sounds like this assessor was not up to date with the safeguarding advice around MH.

I think it is standard that putting 'no change' is not a good idea because the new assessor does not necessarily have access to previous information and they have to assess you on the information they have in front of them. There's lots of anecdotal evidence to suggest doing so carries a high risk of having your award reduced so as much as it was very upsetting to be grilled about your MH, it's probably a good thing because it means they will have the information they need to confirm your status hasn't changed.

You can ring to request a copy of the assessment report now, you don't have to wait for a decision. If you find they have misrepresented your difficulties based on incorrect information then you can start to prepare notes for an MR if necessary, you can do this alongside lodging a complaint with the DWP if you wish. Good luck

Rosie_Scope

Sorry to hear you had such a rough time with your assessment @cynthia57, it sounds really stressful. Some of the questions can feel really personal, so I can understand why you're feeling upset about them.

I'm afraid I'm not too sure what the standards are on the mental health questions, but you're not the first person I've come across who has been asked about underwear and washing down below. I think they may have asked this question to understand whether you might need prompting to put on fresh clothes appropriately, and whether you're able to wash yourself and keep up your personal hygiene needs. I believe these questions would come under the assessment parts for Dressing and Undressing and Washing and Bathing. I can understand that it still feels pretty intrusive to be asked things like that if they've not done it in a sensitive way.

It's really inappropriate for that person on the second phone call to laugh at you when you were expressing your concerns, I'm sorry that happened too.

As Meg24 mentioned above, if you feel like you've been treated poorly, you could perhaps look in to making a complaint. There's some information about it on the government's website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure