Hi
just wanted to tell someone about my PIP assessment (test). I arrived in a dreadful state. Nervous and afraid of what was going to be asked about me. I had travelled an hour in a car with my hubby and was so stiff I could hardly get into the building. I spoke to someone for reassurance but didn’t receive any. No one would talk. I was called through into the room. I hobbled in and sat on a very hard chair.
The first question I was asked “did you talk to anyone in the waiting room. I said yes! We went through the form and all I remember was being asked how does this effect you over and over and over and over again. All I could focus on was the chaps filthy finger nails and thinking he must have rushed out of his garden to get here on time.
Some questions were so personal I cried when trying to answer them. Which was do you wipe your bottom, through your legs or from the back. I was in awe. And then that question again and again how does that effect you. All I could say is I don’t know or the same way as the last question. I didn’t tell him some days I wanted to go to bed and not wake up.
Throughout the assessment I was in so much pain. After one and a half hours of gruelling questions and being asked to squeeze his hands it was time to go. I couldn’t get out of the chair. I hurt everywhere. My husband helped me to the waiting room where I had to sit down. Dizziness swept over me and so I asked for a drink.
I half hobbled and half fell out of the office. I cried all the way home, I couldn’t sleep that night as I was trying to remember my queastions and answers. I told my husband that I did really badly and hadn’t come across as I should. The pain over the next few days was awful. I feel in my heart that I will be rejected. I was 64 when I applied and 65 when I was tested.
I was told if you fail you cannot try for the PIP again and will lose the opportunity of the mobility side of it. My husband has to drive me everywhere because my wrists hurt too much to steer. I later discovered that the assessor lives in the next village to me and works in a care home just around the corner. He even knows where I live. I feel all assessments should be in our own homes. ??????
