Pip assessment

Barbara

xxxxxx

take care let me know if you hear anything best wishes jayne x :-)

I had DLA High Mobility/Middle Care yet when I checked up what scores/points I would have got if I had gone ahead and transferred it only amounted to 4 for the Care element and nothing for Mobility.

Not wanting to waste my time and have loads of stress,along the way, I never transferred over. Although it meant a loss of £250 a week, the relief was worth it not having to go through endless assessments/appeals & tribunals for the rest of my life.

Anything that you stated that you could not do, do not let them convince you that you can. Stick to your guns. And remember that you are the expert on your condition, and how it affects you, not them. Afraid it is too late for me. I believe she tricked me into believing i can do things, that my form stated i could not.  

I don't understand that comment. If what you put on the claim form was the truth why or how were you made to say otherwise?

I have a sore toe! No you don't, you look OK to me. But I have! Could it be that you are imagining it? Yeah maybe I am.

If you are suggesting that the assessor used undue force or manipulated your replies - then you should complain.

The only way that a statement can be overturned by the person who wrote the statement is if the statement was a lie to start with or maybe it was exaggerated.

Michael sorry you feel your assessment didn't go well but in response to les59996 I would say in your defense that during my own PIP assessment with Capita I was asked to carry out some movement tasks.  I did feel obligated to prove to the assessor and myself that I can actualy carry out these simeple tasks such as balancing on one foot, raising both arms above my head, bending down to touch my toes but my friend had previously told me "don't be a hreo". She told me not to hurt myself by trying to prove I can do things. This was good advice as I think it is a natural thing to try to do our best but on this occasion it was better to be real with myself.  Forgive me if I have misunderstood but I thought this would help les59996 understand what you meant.

The idea when questioning is not to allow the individual to think about an answer - normally if you can confuse someone in the way you described the assessor would get answers without any thought being given by the claimant.

A normal ploy to be honest.

No one is going to say - 

Can you walk more than 20 metres -  eerr NO.

Can you wash your the lower part of your body -  eerr NO

The assessor is there to trip you up, suggest that you are lieing and would you agree, as well as to watch your eye &  hand  movements which generally give away that they are not being entirely truthful. 

I'm waiting for the DWP, as insurance companies already do, to level the playing field from those that are serial con artists and the genuine is that every claimant should undergo a lie detector test which is approx 98% accurate.

Michael, it is really awful that they appear to try to 'catch us out'.  It is not just about being honest it is about being able to fully consider how your condition really does affect your daily life.  Before my assessment I would have replied to anyone who asked if I can make a cup of coffee, yes of course I can but during the assessment when I was asked, I had a think about it and then answered more fully, "yes I can however I have a Tassimo machine which makes one cup at a time and does not involve holding a kettle of hot water which would present a risk to myself.  I would also have probably said I can shower myself but when I thought fully about it (and had to admit to myself) that I can't really wash my back or my feet without help as I will fall over.  I think Les59996 is being quite simplistic in his response to how one answers questions.  It is not about telling lies, it's more about thinking fully about your response.  Had I just said "yes I can make coffee and yes I can take a shower" my response would not have been a lie and would have been a quick answer but it would not have fully explained the situation and this is where we let ourselves down, we do not answer fully and explain our limitations and the result of doing tasks without help.  I wish you luck in your application.  I have received a text message today saying they have all teh information they need to make a desicion and I will hear once they have done so. Fingers crossed.

Yes I was being simplistic but only to get a point over. If the assessor just left it at the answers I gave the claimant would have got awards for both Care and Mobility.

Further probing bythe assessor could have resulted in both statements actually being lies.

Asking a closed question will give them an answer - using open questions would reveal more.

Can you walk 50 metres - No -Why? And? What hapens? If you did this..?

No examiner/assessor would want to give you time to think of an answer - they would much prefer to cut you dead midstream of your answer and quickly move on to the next question.

Put simply it is universally accepted that the first answer that you give without being allowed any thinking time would more likely be the truth.

The place to put a longer explantion of the why's and whatfor's of your answer should be on the PIP2 form.

Sorry missed off a bit.

When I had my face to face assessments (all16 of them) my answers were either No, Yes, Yes I can, No I can't.

If then asked an open question to these replies, it was - if you look at the claim form (DLA, ESA, IIDB) you will find the full and complete explanation to that answer.

As for body language - this is an extremely useful tool. In the hands of a good examiner/assessor they would know the true answer before you actually replied.

Insurance companies use voice recognition software that would indicate the stress someone is under when they are telling a lie.