To record or not to record that is the question

CockneyRebel

The current situation is that you can ask for an ESA assessment to be recorded and the DWP should provide the equipment.

PIP is a different matter. You can ask to record your PIP assessment but you need permission and you need to supply equipment capable of producing two identical copies at the same time. The only  acceptable media for recording is either cassette tape or CD,  digital recording or making a second copy is not allowed.

Professional equipment as used by the police, for interveiws, is expensive and hard to come by. The alternative is to aquire two cassette recorders that take standard size cassettes not mini dictaphone types. The quality of the recording can be improved with the use of external microphones. New, unopened cassettes should be used. You may also need a supply of batteries as not all centres will allow access to the mains for eqipment that has not been PAT tested.

If you decided to go down this route, who is going to operate the machines ?

If you set up and manage the recording by yourself, in what is going to be a stress situation, what will this say about your capability ?

When your assessment is over, you must hand one of the cassettes to the HCP and keep the other for your self.

So having gone to all the bother of recording your assessment, what will it achieve ? and what use is it to you ?

You will be able to listen back on everything that was said. Often, what we think we said and what was actually said are different. We know what we wanted to say but when under stress you will often say things differently but still think you said exactly what you had planned.

If the decision that you get is the one you hoped for and deserved then all is well and good but if you intend to challenge the decision then how can you use your recording ?

Case managers and or tribunal panels are not going to listen to an hour long recording so you will need to pay for a professional transcription that is attested to as being  accurate. With a hard copy you can then reference by page and paragraph any valid point that you want to make but your claim should be set out in the PIP2, AR1 and any other supporting evidence, what is there on a recording that is any different ?

The most common reason for wanting to record an assessment in the first place is to make sure that a fair and accurate assessment is done. We hear so many stories of Lies and untruths being told in the reports but in a lot of cases it is just a difference of opinion. Even if an HCP has fabricated the whole report, the Case manager and or tribunal are not interested in the inaccuracies, they are only concerned with finding the truth about how your functionality is affected and a recording is not going to provide any evidence to support your claim.

It may be that you decide to maka a complaint against the HCP, in which case your recording may be of some use

As always this is just my take on things and I am sure that many will have their own opinion

Ami2301

Very insightful and informative, thanks for sharing @CockneyRebel I wonder why ESA will supply recording equipment but PIP will not - I have never recorded anything before so I am just curious

zakblood

after 20 years in the system, my advice is don't do anything without a recording, then it's easier to prove when you get lied to, and hopefully makes it happen less, and yes i did say hopefully as there's no rule of thumb it seems on story telling now days with written assessments not matching verbal replies,...

CockneyRebel

I believe that PIP are trialling recording in some areas