Stressful PIP interview

Welcome to the community @Lucymariah. The PIP application process can be really upsetting. I know you won't be alone in having a bad experience with your interview, many of our members will know what it's like to feel you weren't listened to at all. It can be a really disheartening system to tackle.

Has this happened to you recently? If you're thinking of appealing a result, you can often get some useful advice from local benefits advisers. Turn2Us have a tool to search for local help if that's something you'd like to look into: Turn2Us Advice Finder

Hi luvpink

From my experience the so called disability advisors are ignorant incompetents.

I was told to move from DLD to PIPs in 2018 initially my application for PIPs failed the Department of Work and Pensions denied that my disability existed,

In 2019 at an Appeal Court hearing the so called disability advisor again denied the existence of my disability, and my appeal failed. I told the Judge that I have multiple medical research papers that define and explain my lifelong disability. he told me that there would be another Tribunal Appeal and that I would be sent an envelope to send 6 research papers to my next appeal.

I received the envelop a few months later, and i sent the 6 what i considered key research papers that explained my Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) including a few research papers from the Medical Research Councils APD research program run at Nottingham University 2004-2009. Due to Covid I was told that my appeal would be held online, and I sent a reply with links to what I considered to be important recent research papers. A few weeks later they sent me a copy of one of the new 100 page research papers.

it was a Zoom Appeal Meeting. and i told the Judge that I have the Sound turned off due to my APD, and that we could type in the ChatBox. he told me that I had won the Appeal, and that i would get a back payment of my now PIPs during this Zoom meeting only the Judge and I communicated. The so called Doctor just sat there and never moved, and the so called Disability Advisor just stood up and then wondered about ignoring my Chat with the Judge.

So we have to educate these incompetents using international medical research to explain our lifelong disabilities.

Hi luvpink

Part of the problem is that most so called assessors are not trained regarding most medical disabilities, and all of the possible symptoms of each medical condition.

I was the first adult in the UK to be clinically diagnosed as having Auditory Processing Disorder in 2003 at Sheffield University to help the UK Medical Research Council get government funding for a 5 year research program 2004-2009 run at Nottingham University by Prof. David Moore who came to Hemel Hempstead in 2002 to help me set up the required support organisation, i set up and helped run APDUK 2002-2014.

The Temporal type of APD is the main underlying cognitive cause of two important symptoms Specific Language Language Impairment, and Developmental Dyslexia. the key assessment test is the Random Gap Detection Test which attempts to measure the size of gap between the sounds the ears hear, the brain is able to process and identify. When i did the test in 2003 it did not include a gap between sounds large enough for me to identify, which explained my problems with rapid speech which to me is one continuous noise, and it explained why i am cognitively not able to use phonics.

i was made redundant in 2004 when Virgin closed our local CD shop, and a few years later I was asked by the local JobCentre manager to explain my lifelong disability, how it affects me and how it affects in the work place. I provided a typed doc explaining these three issues regarding my lifelong Auditory Processing Disorder. 2 weeks later the manager of the JobCentre told me that I was unemployable, and should stop claiming ESA, and start to claim DLA.

Back in 2019 a member of Scope who had previously worked in the NHS added a comment to a Scope Thread explaining that the government has threatened to sack and NHS staff willing to explain, assess, diagnose many recently explained disabilities including Auditory Processing Disorder as they did not want to pay to retrain the related NHS medical staff, and retrain the staff working in the education system, and explain these issues to employers.

So the so called assessors still have a great deal to learn regarding the complex lifelong disabilities an individual may have and the possible alternative compensating skills and abilities they may develop from birth to work around their lifelong cognitive limitations

Most of 'em are though IMO.

Trust me, 27 years ago I suffered greatly from Job Centre Plus staff on a weekly basis.

With respect, back then I wasn't diagnosed as neurodiverse till October 1999, it wasn't until I eventually fell out with the Job Centre and told them to shove the poxy 35 quid a week Dole money up their ****, sideways, that I eventually got into the process of formal diagnosis.