2 pip assessments

Zwill0811 · January 2022

I'm a 48 year old woman who has had mental health issues since I was a small child.
I've had many mental breakdowns over the years but the past 6 have not been good at all and have led to new diagnosis of Borderline personality disorder and C-PTSD.
Along with mental health I suffer with severe back problems, hip and joints , disease of the bowel , Rhinosinutitus and fibromyralgia.
I am heavily medicated with 2 full dose Antidepressants, long term opioid pain medications and medication for my bowel disease along with others.
I had been claiming sick pay from the DWP up until I became unable to cope living by myself and was no longer entitled.
At no point during that being awarded did anyone tell me I could apply for pip and to be honest I don't deal in claim forms or money it's too stressful.
I made a claim for PIP on May 4th 2021, I was finally given an assessment on the 12th November 2021.
This didn't go as I would have liked the person calling me did so when we were all covid positive which meant I had my 10 year old son isolating with me it was very difficult to discuss things like self harming and suicide attempts.
I was called again at the beginning of December to say the assessor had not got enough information and that I had to have another Call on December 15th.
I then received a text to say it was a video call, I feel as though they read my form and decided it was a great thing to really do all the things I said I couldn't do.
I was called the day prior and it was changed to a telephone call with the same assessor.
I still have not heard a thing about it.
I wasn't asked about who dresses me as I really struggle with my lower half I Don't wear socks or shoes that have laces and all my leggings have zips due to me not being able to push my leg into them.
I have given them all my psychiatrist details, all copies of my procedures and medication and as the form did not cover mental health I sat for almost 3 weeks writing a summary of my mental health and traumatic experiences all documented by all authorities so that my assessment would not trigger a complete breakdown.
They haven't even contacted any of my doctors or support workers.

Why does it take so long for this procedure ?
It's so stressful and as it's the DWP I had 2 previous face to face assessments for long term sick pay so it's not like they don't know I am sick

poppy123456 · January 2022

Hi,

I'm assuming when you say "sick pay from DWP" you mean ESA? When claiming this, it doesn't automatically entitle you to PIP. They are 2 different benefits with totally different crtieria.

It does sometimes happen when they don't get enough of information during the first assessment, so they have to arrange another assessment to get the rest of the information.

They very rarely contact anyone for any evidence, the onus is on you to prove you qualify, not theirs.

Medical evidence is always useful because mostly it states diagnosis, medication and appointment details. Diagnosis, isn't often in dispute and it doesn't tell them exactly how your conditions affect you, which is what PIP is all about, not a diagnosis.

At the moment, backlogs are huge and it's not unusal for the whole process to take 10 months, at least. We have members here that are waiting the same as yourself.

If the 2nd assessment is now complete, if they have enough of information to write the report, this will be done and returned to DWP. A decision maker will then look at that, along with all the evidence you sent and make a decision. This can take between 2-12 weeks, sometimes longer.

Zwill0811 · January 2022

The Man who did my Assessment was not very pleased when he had to do my assessment again.
He did however assure me that he would be detailing every aspect.

I wasn't to bothered at having the Assessment done twice I was able to go into far more detail in my second Assessment and the Assessor was aware of why we had not done so in the first Assessment.

My problems are both physical disabilities like not being able to walk properly.
My legs giving out so I have very serious falls.
I am in constant pain and I honestly couldn't tell you one month for the past 2 years where I haven't had to take Antibiotics.
I have diverticular Disease , Slow transit colon and more recently have started with left hand colitis.
I suffer incontinence.

I have around the clock assistance and care.

2 pip assessments

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