Very Lengthy Telephone Re-Assessment!
PIP phone assessment today — 5.5 hours long! I took two full away from the phone breaks for around 5 minutes as well as pauses to move position etc. The assessor was INCREDIBLE. The kindest I’ve ever had. She was so patient, so kind, and just kept telling me that it didn’t matter how long it took and that she would rather do it all properly so she got all the right information so I got the award that was right for my circumstances. She really made me feel like a person and not a number. My anxiety is now telling me though that maybe she was being overly nice to try and put me at ease and catch me out with something, or to try and say I was managing better with the assessment etc. Has anyone had a really nice assessor and still got a good outcome?
At the end we were talking about evidence as they hadn’t received it and I asked if they could call me back (she was waiting for her manager to reply to a query about the evidence and what was best to do). She agreed to call me back one hour later but no call received. Checked emails and texts and nothing there either. Should I be concerned because they didn’t call back, or because of how long the assessment took? As never had one take so long before - max has been roughly 2 hours.
Was told up to 8 weeks for decision. West Midlands folks: how long did your decision take?
I’m on enhanced daily and standard mobility, and this is my second or third reassessment (plus tribunal).
Comments
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5.5 hours ?? 😮 disgusting. So, they were they testing your resilience and patience? I used to have very long telephone calls but that beats my record.
"she would rather do it all properly so she got all the right information so I got the award that was right for my circumstances."
PolarBear, you already have the award that is right for your circumstances. If it is reduced, you should ask what evidence they have (clue; none). Then be prepared to take it to a Tribunal for the "error" to be corrected.
If it's increased, great!
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5.5 hours is a working shift..... Keep us informed of whatever happens and we will try and help if need be.
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Wow, that's incredibly long! My goodness!
My last re-assessment was a telephone call, the lady was very kind and understanding, the reassessment lasted around 30 minutes.
At the end of the call she said ''I know you're clearly very worried, so I'll tell you now that I'm going to make the recommendation that your award remains exactly the same..'', surely enough not long afterwards (around 2 weeks later) I got the letter from the DWP confirming the award had been granted for another 3 years at the same rate.
Good luck, hope you get a good outcome!0 -
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 😅
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PolarBear, I may be completely wrong and really didn't mean to worry you. I hope you don't have a long wait to find out. It's a torturous exercise.
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What on earth can they ask you in 5.5 hours? Both my face to face assessments were about 15-20 minutes!
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I know it seems crazy but we didn’t even go over anything twice! In the moment I genuinely felt every bit of time on the call was justified but in the same respect don’t understand how it managed to go on for so long. It’s a bit of a blur!
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Please don’t apologise! I really appreciate you jumping on the post to try and help!
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