PIP T/Phone Assessment Never Happened

Many thanks BIS - I feel like I'm turning into a female Victor Meldrew nowadays - Biggest question I keep asking myself is "why can't Gov't & NHS follow the same sort of Policies that is expected of the private sector - Quality Assurance/external auditors/training etc" - really annoys me when I come across glaring inefficiencies/errors - and the public are incorrectly blamed/paying for them!
According to the guy from the DWP today the different assessment bodies work in totally different ways - In my mind how can anybody be fairly assessed if differing criteria is followed? (I'm not expecting an answer - there really isn't one )

Hello Sheila 966,

I have been following your posts on this subject and your previous posts about your daughter's situation, as it appears we are in a similar position. My son had an indefinite award of DLA - our troubles with the DWP only really began when we met our first PIP assessor! I did not know when my son had his face-to-face assessment some years ago or, indeed, his recent telephone assessment that, as his appointee, I could have spoken for him - the assessor wouldn't listen to anything I had to say. He has lost his enhanced care and standard mobility as a result and both the decision letter and the M/R letter state that is due to what he said in the assessment. The assessor's report mentioned over and over again that because he works full-time he is assumed to be able to do everything else. However, he would be unable to get to work at all if his father or I did not get him up every morning and take him to work, then collect him in the evening. We are still deciding whether to appeal (and I have several questions I would like to put to the forum, but I will do this in a separate post), but in the meantime, I just hoped it would help you to know that there are others out here who sympathise and wish you all the best. Please let us all know how you get on - we're hoping you succeed!

Best wishes,

Wendy Woo

Many thanks for your reply - indeed, we do seem to be in the same/similar boat here.
It's exhausting - our previous PIP assessor had a teenage child with similar difficulties as my daughter - in fact that's where all of her 'points' came from - but scored no points on the cognitive side of things - at the time I wasn't too concerned, as she had scored over 12 in each category - but now I'm beginning to worry about how that will reflect on this next assessment!
I think it's the whole "you deserve this payment as you were born with a disability, but we reserve the right to back track, change our minds, totally ignore the knock on impact of your disability, totally ignore medical advice from those with a lot more knowledge of your condition than any assessor we may instruct!" - it's totally vicious - especially as our children are contributing to society, not sitting at home doing nothing!
I'll update when I am able, best of luck to you and your family too x