Very Lengthy Telephone Re-Assessment!

Oh gosh now I’m worrying it’s not a good sign! 😭

I guess she meant that she wanted to make sure I got the right award (that it wasn’t taken away)? And also that the mobility got increased if it should have been (I did tell her that I’d been told by a disability charity that it was appalling it wasn’t awarded at the higher rate previously). So I took it as her just being overly nice. Maybe naive of me. But she really didn’t seem to be trying to catch me out at all whereas on previous assessments I have been suspicious of that. I did ask her what she would be recommending and she pointed out that I had a “number of significant changes” which she would be focusing on. They were all changes for the worse such as waiting to see new health professionals (Pain Management, pain Psychologist, specialist physio), increases in more than one medication since last assessment, an OT assessment at home which recommended different aids and adaptations. So I’m hoping that goes in my favour!

It genuinely didn’t feel like an interrogation, she was so so lovely. She explained things over and over in so much detail that even with my brain fog and memory loss, at times I was thinking “ok I get that part now”. So I definitely got the impression she genuinely wanted to take her time with me which was so refreshing and not something I’m complaining about. I didn’t feel she repeated any questions unless on a couple when she repeated them I realised I probably didn’t answer her properly the first time so obviously her asking again was completely expected. So it was weird really as it just seemed to take that long to get through it all! I did struggle a lot with finding my words, forgetting what she had asked etc and obviously I had two breaks but I don’t think that those aspects should have resulted in the assessment being 3-4 hours more than what they usually are! So I really can’t put my finger on how on earth it did take that long 🤯 or what that means for me! The only thing I know is that I’m in a lot of pain now 😅

Please don’t apologise! I really appreciate you jumping on the post to try and help!

thankyou so much for your replies. And thankyou for understanding what I was trying to get at in relation to still disputing even though I’ve got the maximum award. I’ve just checked and I actually scored 4 points on two of the daily living descriptors. Which is a huge relief in relation to this tenuous 4 point change. When the 4 point rule was nearly pushed through, I hadn’t actually scored 4 points on anything, so to go from that to 2 x descriptors is such a relief incase they do ever bring the 4 points in.

I’ve actually just had a call from the decision maker - the organ grinder as I called him which he found hilarious 🤣 he was so so nice!! He confirmed I’m on enhanced for both AND he’s backdating it (which i was told on another forum is hardly ever done now?!) the reason for the call was that he wanted to know how long it had been since I’d been unable to walk more than 20m. I went into full blown panic as I really didn’t know! Then I was panicking as I didn’t initiate the review and whether my answer would affect that. So I just had a majorly rough guess whilst shaking like a leaf because of the unexpected call and good old mother anxiety feeding off of it. I told him 6-12 months (it was after this that he confirmed the award and backdating). Does anyone know why he might have asked this? Have I shot myself in the foot? As my memory is so bad from brain fog and lack of sleep etc that I’m thinking it may have been longer than that now.

also just another question sorry…Initially the DM kept telling me I’d got nothing to worry about and would get the decision by the weekend in the post. But I told him I was really worried (and he acknowledged earlier in the call that he knew I’d been really anxious as I’d called a few times to see if there was any updates available), and so I asked if he could do what the previous DM a few years back had, and to call me once the decision had been made to let me know. At that point he said he didn’t need to call me back and could confirm my award had increased and been extended (but when I asked how long for he said he hadn’t yet decided as he needed to look at what the assessor had suggested and whether he agreed, but that it would be “a minimum of 2 years”. I’m not sure what he meant by this as surely extended would mean for longer than 2 years as my last award was 2-3 years 🤷🏼‍♀️

I understand backpay is typically paid in 2-5 days, so when he said I’d find out the decision via post, would I not receive the usual call re backpay to confirm I’m happy to receive a lump sum and that I hadn’t been away or living in prison etc in which case I’d find out the decision because of that call?

sorry, you can see my mind does total overtime. I know it’s so easy to say “just wait for your letter”. But when your heart is constantly racing and you feel sick, that’s not so easy to do 😕

thank you so much for your advice and kind words so far x