Encounter with a PIP HP

zuchon1975

I’ve recently attended a conference (not the Tory party one !!! ) as part of this conference we had breakout workshops. One of the workshops was about pensions so I wheeled along. 
Sorry I’m rambling, anyway the guy who sat next to me in the workshop identified himself as a PIP HP in the round table intros.
Later in the evening at the bar I got talking to him and said I’d just been through the PIP assessment process, he asked me the outcome of the claim and I told him I’d been lucky enough to be awarded PIP.
His response then left me speechless - he asked me how I’d come to be in my chair (car accident) he knew I worked FT as we had to say what we did in the workshop. He said well you’d get PIP easily as it’s meant for genuine people like you !
I asked what do mean genuine? He responded well your not like these ones who try and claim for depression, social anxiety and bloody fibromyalgia and you actually go to work. He then went off on a massive rant about the amount of people he has to see with fibromyalgia and depression and anxiety and in his opinion there was nothing wrong with any of them and if they are trying to play the system and PIP has found them out !!! He continued to go on about the people converting from DLA to PIP stating how the majority of them had got away with claiming and not working for years but PIP soon puts a stop to them ! (I really wonder if he’d grasped the fact PIP has nothing to do with ability to work but actually day to day living - and he’s the assessor)
To say I was schocked and stunned (as well as fuming) was a understatement. I removed myself from the conversation before I lost my temper. 
Firstly I couldn’t believe how unprofessional he was being, but how the hell do people stand a chance if this is a PIP Assessors attitude and belief ?
He also had a rant about people with nothing wrong with them wasting GPs and NHS time just making appointments and hospital visits to get more evidence for their PIP claim. 

wilko

I CIA can see where he’s coming from, PIP is about as you know your abilities to do things in your daily life. So people who suffer depression ect can cook, wash and dress their selves so do not meet the PIP descriptors and are mobile enough top to get an award. Reading and hearing people’s hope for a free mobility car or moving from DLA to PIP and lose their car does cause upset and anoyouns to those who work and struggle to make ends  meets and see us live JG on benefits having the free car rent and council tax paid taking holidays ect ect, it’s no wonder he had a rant I have heard it so often about people having blue badges and walking off to the shops as nearly as well as an able bodied person and retuning with loaded shopping bags makes you wonder.

zuchon1975

I think what shocked me most was the hatefulness in his voice and the resentment. 

Yadnad

[Post removed at user's request]

Yadnad

Hi Mike the more I read what I have written the more I realise that I was wrong and have probably fallen into the trap of answering a troll. I have asked the mods if they could remove the post for me.

Government_needs_reform

I can't believe what I've just read here either @Username_removed I know some people here feel hard done by but to say this isn't this just wrong and your right it's what this Government wants us to do turn against each other. Sad days

As for cooking and eating I sometimes don't or can't eat for 3 or 4 days at a time, and I certainly can't cook because of physical disability's, mental heath and self harming and cut myself I will trying to cook once in a blue moon when I may get a day or so I feel a littler better after being doped up on my medication as I've taken to much... So for people swinging the lead for a few quid I'd rather have a proper life than live like this.

So people in future be mindful thinking what you write, don't we deserve a little help then. Good day.

ps as for the PIP assesser mentioned in this thread certainly needs to get a life and I really hope he doesent become ill.

[Deleted User]

mike you posted?A person who surrenders their mobility component to get a Motability vehicle may gain some independence but be financially close to destitution.i say nonesemnse i can obtain a car for 250a month and still have 320left from my pip some do have cars that i also feel do not deserve them plus i pay no councle tax and have
another benifit but then i do not fake the fact i am dieing nor that i suffer daily  but some do and i suspect we all know someone who does

poppy123456

sweet said:

but then i do not fake the fact i am dieing nor that i suffer daily  but some do and i suspect we all know someone who does

Sorry but i totally disagree with this too. Benefit fraud is very low. You or anyone else has no idea what goes on behind closed doors, it's very easy to put a smile on your face and pretend there's nothing wrong, to hide the severe pain you experience every day because what's the point of moaning to others, they won't understand if you did. Mental health and autism to name just two, are invisible conditions.  A lot of people will suffer in silence and i'm most certainly one of them. I certainly don't know anyone that claims fraudulently! You simply can't judge a book by it's cover!

miilreef

I feel PIP is very hard to claim despite the rhetoric from the DWP about who actually qualifies. I say feel because I can only provide the facts of my experience. 
The DWP have created an assessment where the name of your condition is immaterial but often the diagnostic criteria for your condition is the best way to illustrate the difficulties. It’s a perfect example of a theory practice gap. I completely understand the theory, it’s very similar to the basis of patient assessment and care planning by nurses known as the Activities of Daily Living. 
The theory is an aspect of daily living for a healthy person unaffected by disability will create a norm, having a shower for example. Difficulties with this activity are graded and given points in practice. But those points are only awarded if the person experiencing difficulty does so on a consistent basis. It all sounds so simple but it isn’t, never has been and never will be under this system. 
It may seem like it’s obvious to some people that someone dependent on the use of a wheelchair may experience difficulty showering while someone with pain, fatigue and depression won’t. But it isn’t obvious, the adaptations and aids available for physical disabilities are designed for people with the former problems to be as independent as possible. People in the latter category have very few aids and adaptations available to them other than medication and the support provided by other people. 
As someone who has a mixture of physical disability, not necessarily obvious unless I’m wearing splints and/or using crutches, as well as pain, fatigue and dysfunction of my autonomic nervous system that isn’t visible, I can assure the people questioning who is ‘deserving’ that anyone who has difficulty performing the everyday tasks that the majority of people take for granted is both deserving and entitled. But that people suffering the ‘invisible’ disabilities actually face an added layer of discrimination, quite often from all angles. Some people struggle for decades before even being diagnosed, people like me who for twenty years remained undiagnosed and denied the support to which I was entitled and desperately needed. PIP is supposed to recognise this and take account of how people actually function, not what their illness labels are, but in practice that doesn’t happen. 
I have a Blue Badge, I qualified for the enhanced rate mobility of PIP. On a good day I can look like a ‘normal’ person. On a bad day I can’t get off my garden path without falling on my face and ending up cut, bruised and with my confidence further undermined. But I’ve had people accuse me of being drunk, someone wrote ‘piece of ****’ on my car, I’ve had the looks, tuts and general disapproval of people who think they can judge by looking. I had a ‘normal’ life and what I’ve lost leaves me crying myself to sleep at night. I would trade every penny of PIP to have my life back as it was. The whole process of PIP destroys people further, it isolates and undermines, compounding people’s struggles. 
Frankly, it’s both cruel and ignorant to place lesser value on someone’s disabilities because you don’t understand them. But to do that as an alleged healthcare professional is nothing short of disgraceful and in complete breach of all allied healthcare professionals codes of conduct.
A measure of a civilised society is how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable members, a lot of people seem to need reminding of that.

wilko

To all who have had a rant thinking, saying the government wants or hopes the sick and disabled and benefits claimants will turn on each other over falsely claiming. It’s totally untrue, yes those with mental illness find it hard to cope but most can and do daily living activities that puts them outside of meeting the PIP descriptors and claiming PIP. There those who claim and have been claiming DLA for a child claiming they need to care 35 hrs per week yet the child now a teenager can fend for himself, cook a simple meal, travel by bus to school and across the city where he lives. When he was asked to fill in the claim form for PIP as he had turned sixteen he refused so his mother still claiming DLA till he’s eighteen, has worked but now claiming UC so managed to get a park time job 16hrs per week so she can still get all her other benefits, housing,council tax relieve. Yet can still have a holiday abroad mobile phone for herself and three teenagers. A person had three acessments for a blue badge refused each time talking to a friend who is a HP who wrote on the form and a blue badge was granted with out further acessment.

zuchon1975

Yadnad I mostly definitely am not a troll ! and I resent the suggestion. 
I’m just simply recounting a encounter I had that shocked me.
If my post has caused offence to anyone ( I don’t see how it could) then I apologise. 
I’ve decided to take no further part in this online community it seems to be dominated by a few posters who are hostile to others and don’t believe in healthy supportive debate. 

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @zuchon1975, I'm sorry to hear this.

Messages over the internet and forums can often be misinterpreted, and so we encourage all members to bear this in mind and present their views with tact. If there's anything further we can assist you with, do get in touch at community@scope.org.uk.

Matilda

I'd say that the HP concerned is envious because he would be ineligible for PIP.  Evidently, he knows nothing about MH ( not that I know much).  There must be descriptors that apply to MH as there are people with MH problems who do qualify. For example many need prompting to do anything.

poppy123456

wilko said:

yes those with mental illness find it hard to cope but most can and do daily living activities that puts them outside of meeting the PIP descriptors and claiming PIP.

Sorry but i totally disagree with this. People with mental health do claim PIP because they need prompting to do a lot of things associated with daily living and the PIP descriptors. It's not about a diagnosis, it's how those conditions affect you daily.

sarah50

Wilko I'm extremely offended that you state people with mental health find it hard to cope but don't meet the descriptors. I can only put your comments down to the fact that you yourself are lucky enough not to have experienced depression anxiety etc If you have experienced this you should know better. In my darkest depression I could not get out of bed or speak. I am very lucky to have someone in my life that washed me changed me fed me brushed my hair but there is no way I could have gotten through it on my own I would have died in bed in my own filth. So the descriptors do cover mental health.

poppy123456

@Username_removed i applaud you for such a fantastic post! WOW i'm completely blown away. Thank you for that and for all the other advice you give people here..priceless!

sarah50

@Username_removed thankyou for your post I wish I was as eloquent as yourself.

Government_needs_reform

zuchon1975 said:

Yadnad I mostly definitely am not a troll ! and I resent the suggestion. 
I’m just simply recounting a encounter I had that shocked me.

I’ve decided to take no further part in this online community it seems to be dominated by a few posters who are hostile to others and don’t believe in healthy supportive debate. 

@zuchon1975 Don't be put off sharing your thoughts and your experiences with us, I've seen many on here that believe they own the place, I don't rise to them and I would advise you don't.  Jealousy gets the better of some people and I really woulden't let it get to you.

I for one found your thread/post okay as you've explained about someone you met and shared it with us.

Dont walk away as many of use respect you and your input.

sarah50

@zuchon1975 I don't think the troll comment was directed at you. As you say you recounted a situation you found shocking, as did I especially if that attitude is widespread among HCP assessors. Not everyone will agree with everything you say but you should feel able to speak up and supported.

[Deleted User]

poppy123456 said:

sweet said:

but then i do not fake the fact i am dieing nor that i suffer daily  but some do and i suspect we all know someone who does

Sorry but i totally disagree with this too. Benefit fraud is very low. You or anyone else has no idea what goes on behind closed doors, it's very easy to put a smile on your face and pretend there's nothing wrong, to hide the severe pain you experience every day because what's the point of moaning to others, they won't understand if you did. Mental health and autism to name just two, are invisible conditions.  A lot of people will suffer in silence and i'm most certainly one of them. I certainly don't know anyone that claims fraudulently! You simply can't judge a book by it's cover!

so a man walking with a frame held off the ground? digging his garden ?up a ladder washing windows?with spine injurey ?has benifits plus mobility car is just a fantasey ???ohhh and runs around playing football

[Deleted User]

Removed by moderator