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PIP Telephone Assessment

kelliepapillon

I have my telephone assessment this coming Weds at 9am. Diagnosed with ASD, anxiety, depression and stage 4 Endometriosis I would just like to know what are the likely questions they'll ask? Say any trick ones? With these conditions I honestly do not have any good days- either one of them is with me everyday of every week and the medications I take just exacerbate the symptoms. I will have a copy of my pip form in front of me, I did write details answers for each activity. My anxiety is through the roof right now , I'm trying to be prepared as much as possible but then don't want to come across as too obviously organised- it's like a no win either way 🙄

TIA xxx

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chiarieds

Hi @kelliepapillon - & welcome to the community. Do read through your copy of your claim form beforehand.

-Ideally you should have given 1 or 2 recent, detailed examples of thdifficulty 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 the link below, 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 withoutyour disability. If you can't do an activity 'reliably,' say so, explaining why.

-see if there were any gaps where you didn't give those important detailed examples for each applicable PIP activity/descriptor inyour 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 someonethere to support you, put your phone on loudspeaker so they can listen in. Good luck.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/asset-library/personal-independence-payment-descriptors-and-scores-april-2023.pdf

Jimm_Alumni

Hey @kelliepapillon, a warm welcome to our community 😊 The telephone assessment certainly can seem a little scary. Do you have anyone who can sit with you while you go through it? You can have someone with you to help remind you of things to mention and to be support through it. I think that is my top tip, which Chiarieds also does mention. Remember to try and give real world examples of when your conditions affected your day to day life.

Fingers crossed for you, do let us know how you get on Wednesday!🤞

kelliepapillon

wew asa wellwelwew asa Thank you both for your replies and advice. Mum will be sitting in on it with me, and she is my appointee so she can step on when I will get into a tizzy. I did make it clear throughout each activity on my form that I am almost completely dependent on my mum. I need her supervision, prompting and assistance and to know where she is at all times- which I truly am; be it cooking, dressing, managing treatments, money and mixing with other people. I never go anywhere independently., the least thing overwhelms me. I sufffer with significant memeory and concentration issues. Any sort of social interaction causes me overwhelming psychological distress causing with complete shutdowns apllor meltdowns. I have given examples of incidents and accidents that have happened.

I will keep you updated after Wednesday x

kelliepapillon

Thank you both for your replies and advice. Mum will be sitting in on it with me, and she is my appointee so she can step in when I definitely get into a tizzy. I did make it clear throughout each activity on my form that I am almost completely dependent on my mum. I constantly need her supervision, prompting and assistance and to know where she is at all times- which I truly am; be it cooking, dressing, managing treatments, money and mixing with other people. I never go anywhere independently and least thing overwhelms me. I suffer from significant memeory and concentration issues due to my health conditions. Any sort of social interaction causes me overwhelming psychological distress leading to and causing complete shutdowns or meltdowns. I have given examples of incidents and accidents that have happened.

I will keep you updated after Wednesday x

poppy123456

If shes your official appointee, which has been set up by DWP then you shouldn’t be answering any questions during the assessment. They shouldn’t even need to speak to you. That’s your mums responsibility to answer all questions.

kelliepapillon

If I did answer any questions would that be used against me. I was informed by the DWP that before anything that I needed to make her my appointee just so she could be allowed to SUPPORT and CONTRIBUTE towards my assessment since I have a cognitive impairment?

poppy123456

It shouldn't be used against you but the whole point of having an appointee in the first place is because you're unable to manage your own claim. As you have an appointee then they are wholly responsible for the claim, including receiving any money into their bank if you're awarded.

nalanoo

Hi just wanted to update you after I had my telephone assessment last Wednesday morning (24th July). The assessment itself was conducted by a woman with a nursing background and had previously dealt with the sort of health issues I have. She was very, very understanding . A lot of time I became overwhelmed with it all and broke down- especially as I have enormous difficulty in talking about myself let alone the significant problems I have have daily. As is normal my speech become jumbled, stuttered and I lost track of what I was saying, and I made sure the HP knew I had a copy of the form in front of me so wasn't relying on my memory- that would have been absolutely impossible!!! My Mum had to step in on almost every step, which as my appointee was absolutely fine. She listened to what we both had to say as my Mum (despite being my appointee) felt it best that I at least tried to talk to her and answer some of the questions so she could see/hear the difficulties I had. The HP herself, suggested several times that I "should take a moment" of which I did. The whole thing lasted 2hrs 20mins and was recorded by both sides. By the end I was completely drained both physically and emotionally and just took the rest of the day to decompress, and tried so hard not to dwell on it too much afterwards.

This last Monday (29th) I received a call from an 0800 number and duly handed it straight to my Mum(my appointee) as I panic whenever my phone goes- it was the case manager who told me she was handling my claim and had been working on last Saturday as her overtime- I thought it might be to clarify a few issues as I have heard this from other people as might happen, but NO it was to say that my claim had been looked at and I am to be awarded Enhanced with a significant amount of back-pay!!!!!!! (she did ask if I was OK to receive a large sum of money into my account).

I honestly hoped I wouldn't have been waiting up to 8 weeks but certainly never expected it to be that quick, to say I am pleased is an understatement as it will now help me so much in trying to deal with my daily debilitating conditions. All I did was tell the truth and try to get it across as best I could but it wasn't without the help of my Mum. Just shows there are some decent assessors out there.

Xxx

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