Had assessment today

Marcia54

Had my assessment today omg!!!! The assessor drove me mad repeating same questions over & over. ? Took all relevant documents with me but when i asked her if she wanted to see them i got a big fat noooo back?

Yadnad

Ridiculous!
Why are these assessors allowed to brow beat people into giving up and just saying 'if you say so'?
That type of questioning was outlawed by the government in 1984 when they also banned interviewers assaulting the person being questioned. 
OK yes it applied to the police and most other government departments but seemingly not the DWP.
Bring back Reagan of the Flying Squad and give him a job as a PIP assessor!

Gaina

Marcia54 said:

Had my assessment today omg!!!! The assessor drove me mad repeating same questions over & over. ? Took all relevant documents with me but when i asked her if she wanted to see them i got a big fat noooo back?

I think they actually ask the questions in the order they appear on the assessor's software, hence the repetition. The reason I say this is I had my PIP assessment last Thursdays, and I could see her screen. The questions seemed repetitive to me too. So my answers were equally repetitive. ?

Yadnad

Gaina said:

The questions seemed repetitive to me too. So my answers were equally repetitive. ?

Would it not be easier if you are faced with this continuous questioning to tell the assessor that you have already given the answer 5 mins ago?

Gaina

Yadnad said:

Gaina said:

The questions seemed repetitive to me too. So my answers were equally repetitive. ?

Would it not be easier if you are faced with this continuous questioning to tell the assessor that you have already given the answer 5 mins ago?

I started every answer with 'As I stated on my PIP form....' and 'As I said a few minutes ago'. She really was being instructed to ask the same ruddy question repeatedly so I made sure the Descision Maker know *I* know what's what.

Marcia54

Think the same questions are asked by these accessors to try and catch people out? My friend who was with me told her you asked that same question before so why are you asking it again? Accessors response to my friend was "You are so rude" lmho...

Matilda

Repeating the same questions seems relatively new.  My assessor 18 months ago didn't particularly repeat questions  - though she did ask some trick questions.

Yadnad

Matilda said:

Repeating the same questions seems relatively new.  My assessor 18 months ago didn't particularly repeat questions  - though she did ask some trick questions.

What trick questions? From what I hear the assessors actually read from a pre-prepared script. In all of my years of investigating criminal and civil offences for the government I have never heard of such a thing. To investigate/assess is much better done, in fact it is the only way it should be done, by listening to the answers and then developing another question based on what has been said. Otherwise there would be no need for the likes of I - the interviewee might as well tick the boxes on the screen to the questions asked. What experience do these assessors have in the art of investigating?

The three that I have had the misfortune to come by for my PIP award were in my opinion complete amateurs.
There is one thing in an interview that is the most powerful tool you can have for both the interviewer as well as the interviewee and that is silence.

Human nature is such that when someone imposes silence either after a question is asked or an answer has been given, the opposite party has an unbreakable need to fill that silence.

I used it in all three of my assessments and the assessors didn't really know what to do or say simply because they were reading from a script. they had to move on to the next question. I honestly think that they had no idea what was happening.
Another trick is to never give the investigator anything that they could latch onto to form part of another question.

As an example:
Do you have a dog - yes, what type of dog - one with 4 legs, what is it's colour - black, do you take it for a walk - no, who walks the dog - not me.

All that has been gathered from that is that I have a black dog who has 4 legs and I don't walk it.

As I have said the assessors are no more trained in interviewing techniques than my goldfish is.

Waylay

Thank you @Yadnad ! You made my night.

poppy123456

They very often refuse to take evidence at the assessment, which is why i always make sure it's sent with the form.

Yadnad

poppy123456 said:

They very often refuse to take evidence at the assessment, which is why i always make sure it's sent with the form.

Correct. The documents if they are that important will not be read at the assessment despite what the guidelines say. To do so would prolong the assessment.

Pin

Seriously, why are people advocating being so rude to assessors? My assessor apologised at the beginning and said some of the questions might sound repetitive but there was a reason for that.

giving no answer, a stupid answer or being rude isn’t helpful. If you give evasive answers how can they make an award?

LittleGizmo86

Pin said:

Seriously, why are people advocating being so rude to assessors? My assessor apologised at the beginning and said some of the questions might sound repetitive but there was a reason for that.

giving no answer, a stupid answer or being rude isn’t helpful. If you give evasive answers how can they make an award?

@Pin

To be fair i wish i would have done this.

I was very polite. honest and explained everything properly. She was rude, arrogant and made up a pack of lies on the report to award me zero points that i was lucky enough to be able to prove were lies at the MR stage. I wish i would have just acting thick and answered like that. Least i would have been happy when i got a copy of my report that made no sense as at least there was a reason for it lol

Yadnad

Pin said:

Seriously, why are people advocating being so rude to assessors? My assessor apologised at the beginning and said some of the questions might sound repetitive but there was a reason for that.

giving no answer, a stupid answer or being rude isn’t helpful. If you give evasive answers how can they make an award?

My experience of them (three) was nothing like yours. You can't assume that because you had an assessor that was good, that all of them are the same.
If someone is rude and arrogant how would you expect the claimant to be in return?
If you go into the assessment expecting to see a report that is far from the truth then it doesn't matter what you say or how you say it.
I found all three of mine comical in a way, all they did was ask questions that were prompted by some computer software - where is the professionalism in that? At the least I expected to be interviewed by someone that had experience in obtaining information out of people.

Pin

Whether you get a pleasant assessor or not, being rude, evasive or silent helps no one. Yourself included.

Yadnad

Pin said:

Whether you get a pleasant assessor or not, being rude, evasive or silent helps no one. Yourself included.

Why not? The report based on my own experience would be a foregone conclusion in that it will be a littered with incorrect assumptions and ill thought out conclusions. 
I work on the basis that if someone is arrogant or rude with me then 
don't expect me to be friendly and accommodating. Play right with me and treat me with respect and that is what you would get back from me.
I keep saying this - are these assessors supposed to be able to interview someone and no matter what they are faced with should be able to extract the relevant information needed?
I fear not. Well from my own experience they aren't

Pin

What’s the point in even applying then?

Clearly if you don’t engage you can’t expect any helpful outcome.

Yadnad

Pin said:

What’s the point in even applying then?

Clearly if you don’t engage you can’t expect any helpful outcome.

Why apply?
Firstly because my DLA was changing to PIP. At the time I considered that it would be a simple transfer over given that in 2011 I was re-awarded DLA at the high rate for both components and the application was backed up with good relevant evidence. How wrong was I. It came back with 0 points. I asked for a MR and based on the DLA evidence that I had sent in as well as reports from the spinal unit + a 3 page report from my GP I was given a revised decision of Enhanced Care & Mobility.
The second time I applied 2 years later, the same thing happened again 0 points to Enhanced both via a MR.
The third time that I applied 2 years later the same thing happened - 0 points but this time the MR came back saying no change.
In all of that not one assessment was carried out in accordance of their guidance and not one report was actually fair, complete or truthful.
I applied throughout on the basis of that I knew what I was entitled to which had been evidenced by the changes at MR stage.
Engaging?
As I have said earlier it all depends how someone treats me.

Overall there is my mental illness which really hit home with me throughout these assessments. Evidence of the effects of PTSD & Depression and how they impact on my life were completely dismissed by the assessors. In fact one assessor came up with 14 or so different reasons why I was not suffering from mental health issues.

I have said what I expected to happen and I also expected the DWP to re-examine my evidence which they did twice and in doing so dramatically increased my award. The third time I had had enough. The thought of 2 yearly assessments for the rest of my life (70 now) gave me the reason to stop the claim.

Waylay

@Pin I'm glad you had a good experience, but in the 6-7 times I've applied for ESA, PIP and DLA, I've had a good assessor who wrote an honest, mostly-correct report (and the mistakes could definitely have been just that, mistakes) TWICE. The other 4-5 either weren't paying attention, didn't care, were incompetent, or lied outright. My last one said I had no psychiatric or CMHT input, nor did I have specialist input for my chronic pain. On the contrary, I see a psychiatrist through the CMHT programme I've been in for 7 yrlears, and was in a pain clinic pain management programme at the time of the assessment. Both clearly stated in my forms, talked about in assessmemt, and evidenced with letters/reports. He clearly didn't look at my forms or evidence. Neither did the CM, or the MR CM. Got tribunal date today - 13 days short of a year from that assessment. I've had no PIP that whole time.