Im sure everyone must be bored senseless by the dreaded 3 letters.....PIP

cornishmaid · June 2018

Hello everyone, I had my PIP assessment today following my review form sent back 3 months ago, almost a year early!!! Maybe Im a little naive but I am feeling numb and shell shocked from the experience. It was absolutely dreadful in every way. The lady was miserable, abrupt, didnt ask questions clearly, didnt ask what I thought she should have, told me my anxiety was 'odd', belittled the relentless pain from widespread Osteo, told me to try to move neck to the left when I had said I couldnt due to the cervical spondylotic myelopathy but she insisted causing searing pain, told me some of my medication was wrong and so on. I felt so small, insignificant and quite frankly a scrounger, though her attitude did improved slightly when after asking me if I work, I told her I had worked for 48 years and was now finally retired. Im beginning to think its really not worth this stress but I have paid for adaptations in my home, no private pension etc. etc, and stopping would cause genuine financial hardship, but half jokingly I told my daughter Lidl's baked beans were actually quite tasty and the thought of never having to feel like this again maybe worth considering calling it a day and stopping my claim.
Anyone else out there had such a bad experience? If so I would love to hear from you, maybe we could cry into our beans together LOL.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I apologise for the rather depressing post

JennysDad · June 2018

Hello @cornishmaid and a warm welcome to the community. A bit of a sad welcome on my part, both because of what you have been through and because it is a story one reads so very, very often here.
"Anyone out there?" Scores, perhaps hundreds on this site alone.
I have no doubt that others will be in touch to share their similar experiences, and if you want to find such conversations you'll find plenty in our 'Talk about PIP/DLA forum' here and probably in most of the other categories too.
So very glad to have you with us, @cornishmaid, but so sorry to know that you have been put through all this.
Don't hesitate to ask us any questions or to tell us anymore about yourself. We're here, and we're listening, and just looking for ways to be of service.
Warmest best wishes,
@JennysDad

cornishmaid · June 2018

Hi Jennysdad, Thank you so much for your warm welcome, I wasnt sure if i was posting in the right place but now I know should i copy cut and paste into that forum? This probably sounds strange but its good to hear Im not the only person with such bad experience (not that I would wish it on my worst enemy)
Thank you once again,
Kind regards,
cornishmaid

JennysDad · June 2018

Hello @cornishmaid and good to hear from you.
There aren't really any 'rules' in this instance - most people make their first post in the welcomes and introductions section, where it is perhaps read by a wider audience, and Scope's admin staff will subsequently reassign that post to a specific thread if they think it will get a better response there.
There's no reason you shouldn't duplicate your post in, say, the PIP/DLA thread, but the likelihood is that once that 'wider audience' have had a chance to say hello to you this post will be relocated there anyway

Hope that makes sense?
And believe me, your words don't sound strange at all. It makes a huge difference for a lot of members (and with a wide range of issues) to discover they are not alone.
Warmest best wishes to you,
Delighted to meet you,
@JennysDad

Pippa_Alumni · June 2018

Welcome to the community, @cornishmaid! I'm so sorry to hear about your experience- I've moved this post into our PIP/DLA category, where I'm sure there will be plenty of others who can empathise with this. If we can be of any assistance, do let us know.

Matilda · June 2018

@cornishmaid

Welcome to the community

. Unfortunately, your experience is very common.

Have you phoned DWP for a copy of the assessor's report?

cornishmaid · June 2018

Hello Matilda, Thank you for your reply, I did try ringing today but gave up after being on hold for 46 mins!!! I am going to try again tomorrow morning when I dont have to do anything else.
How do these people get away with treating us so badly, Im coming up 65 years old and quite frankly I think I deserve better even though I admit to being 'old school' and maybe my standards are too high for the modern world. My heart goes out to everyone else who has been treated so badly.

Many thanks again

Matilda · June 2018

@cornishmaid

The DWP want us to be intimidated into not applying for PIP. But don't give into them. Fight the DWP all the way to appeal if necessary even though it's a hassle, as 69% of appeals succeed.

Waylay · June 2018

@cornishmaid @Matilda is correct. If they treat us horribly, some people assume that they don't deserve the benefit and some people just can't handle fighting anymore because of the stress and mental health damage it causes. After an MR (which usually) fails, more will drop out of the process. During the long, stressful wait for an appeal, more will give up. A few will die. Basically, they're making it so horrible that people who are already poor, vulnerable, often isolated, in pain and/or mentally ill simply can't fight for their rights. Oh yeah, and they've dropped funding for CAB and other such groups through the floor, and cut access to legal aid, so many of uscan't get help.

The sad thing is, it's working.

Even sadder, people are being made miserable, getting sicker, developing mental health problems or pre-existing MH problems are getting worse, and some people are dying (due to stress and/or suicide) because of the DWP's obsession with cutting the benefits bill.

Even sadder than that? The public either don't know, or don't care.

(I'm not blaming or questioning anybody who has dropped out of the process, btw! I would if I could survive w/out it.)

poppy123456 · June 2018

PIP reviews are always done 1 year before the award ends. During your assessment the HCP should NOT have made you do anything that caused you any pain and discomfort! The way you were treated by this person is wrong. If it was me then i would have already made a complaint to the assessment providers about her. It most likely won't get you anywhere, but the least you can do is try.

Give it about 1 week then ring DWP and ask them for a copy of the assessment report, this will give you some idea what the decision is likely to be because they mostly go with the report. It will also come in handy if you have to go down the MR route.

If a decision goes in your favour then you'll have a new award date. If the decision doesn't go in your favour and you're refused PIP then your money will stop 4 weeks after the decision is made, regardless of when your PIP end date is.

Evidence would have been needed, so hopefully you sent that in with the form? If you didn't and a decision doesn't go in your favour then i'd advise sending evidence with the MR request letter. Hopefully for you it won't come to this. Good luck.

cornishmaid · June 2018

@waylay. @poppy123456. Thank you for your replies. I find it incredible that these problems are looking to be the norm and not isolated cases. I am hoping the anger will kick in and I will continue fighting, at the moment I still feel hurt, upset and saddened.
I cant help thinking of my GP, who is marvellous, he made a very valid point to me some years back at how angry and offended it makes him feel, that these people actually take no notice and doubt the evidence provided by himself and consultants.
I rang the DWP yesterday to request a copy of the assessment report, which they say will take around 8 days, which is fine.
My first reaction was to put an official complaint in immediately after the assessment but as my daughter pointed out to me, if I did that it could look as though I knew it went badly and wanted to blame the assessor. As I dont trust them I will wait to see the report and take it from there. One way or another I will lodge an official complaint.
Im very proud of my daughter, whilst she is a fine young lady, polite, well mannered, she is also VERY fiery and looks out for me. Once I became overwhelmed by it all and much to my embarrassment, I actually broke down, I glanced at her and could tell how angry she was but she managed to keep quiet.
When it was finally over she then voiced her opinion about the stress and waste of time and money asking everything that they already knew, was on forms, evidence letters and computer and how disgusted she was by the whole system. The assessor did actually look uncomfortable but smiled at her and said 'not everyone writes the truth'

Anyway, onwards and upwards as they say, today is another day and I feel a walk on the beach with my adorable dogs coming on............. Along with a bacon sandwich, of course!!!

Yadnad · June 2018

cornishmaid said:

Hello Matilda, Thank you for your reply, I did try ringing today but gave up after being on hold for 46 mins!!! I am going to try again tomorrow morning when I dont have to do anything else.
How do these people get away with treating us so badly, Im coming up 65 years old and quite frankly I think I deserve better even though I admit to being 'old school' and maybe my standards are too high for the modern world. My heart goes out to everyone else who has been treated so badly.

Many thanks again

The easy answer to that is that they can!

I'm 70 and up to a few weeks back was completely p****d **f with the DWP and the PIP saga.
I decided to ignore them and not go for an appeal after the MR came back - no change.
OK I'm down on money but up on being free of their endless quest in trying to get me off the benefit.

Waylay · June 2018

@cornishmaid Who knows whether this is the norm - few people who are happy with their decisions show up on forums to talk about it.

I suspect that it's fairly common, though, just from the numbers of people who get knocked off benefits. Maybe I'm paranoid....

Good for you, and good for your daughter!

Bekind241 · August 2022

@cornishmaid I hope you don’t mind me asking, how did you get on with PIP. I have the same as you but mine wasn’t found straight away, so not sure if I will regain full function. I have had surgery.

Alex_Alumni · August 2022

Hello there @Bekind241 and thanks for reaching out on this thread, you might've noticed it is it is quite a few years old now, so any members involved might take a while to get back to you if they are less active now.

How did you find the surgery? And is there anything we can help with about PIP at all?

calcotti · August 2022

Bekind241 said:

@cornishmaid I hope you don’t mind me asking, how did you get on with PIP. I have the same as you but mine wasn’t found straight away, so not sure if I will regain full function. I have had surgery.

Cornishmaid has not logged in for 4 years.

Im sure everyone must be bored senseless by the dreaded 3 letters.....PIP

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