had a PIP phone assessment overturned in 8 hours.

PIP application for son. I am appointee.
Ive got twins each with PIP app's submitted for turning 16.
Non physical disabilities is the premise for both.

Likely most people when they ring PIP they are only calling about a single application so its not automatically something anyone would know- when you ring PIP that person you speak to will only deal with a single PIP claim. If you have anything to discuss about a second PIP claim they wont deal with it and you have to ring back in again.

So firstly- having multiple PIP apps running is not known by the DWP- whomever you speak to sees only in isolation- that PIP claimants info- they do not have access then and there to whether a sibling or relative is claiming PIP.
I had a call on Monda from a PIP assessor wanting to arrange a phone consultation. We attempted it the following day. It was a odd event- I picked up on something being not right but you assume whatever it is , its someone having a bad day, youre misinterpreting a question etc.

I did get upset when the assessor used my sons disability and how it affects him as leverage/threat that if i failed to provide him with the answers he was satisfied with my son would have to go to an assessment centre or home face to face.

It was impossible for anyone accessing my sons PIP claim (and evidence) to not undertsna dthe risks of that for my sons safety and well being. I believed at that point the assessor was using this knowledge to pressurise me into "saving" my son from the harm that could befal him were I not to say what he wanted me to say. I became upset,we rescheduled for the following day.

That conversation- which should have been me calling him- happened when I was unprepared as he called me- unkown number, thought it was some telesales call,and it was the assessor instead.

We continue- or at least i try to, he keeps interrupting me mid response to ask another completely different question.

I struggle through with a line of questioning that had nothign to do with fact finding or attaining information and wasclearly soneones idea of disruptive technique designed to throw me off guard/affect me/break me down .

He signed off with the flourish that it was a shame he was sending my son for a face to face, he had done everything he could to avoid him having to undergo this and it was my fault that my son was now going to have to undergo it.

I knew I was dealing with someone who for reasons I dont know- was being nasty. A professional makes a decision thats the end of it. A nasty piece of work says the above , a cruel and also untrue statement that had no plave ever being spoken.

I spent the rest of yesterday going between pure outrage, to fear, to guilt that as mum its my job to make things right for my kids irrespective of who or what is getting in they way and now he was faced with being subjected to this situation that simply should never be hapening in the first place- no sleep last night either.

Today I started by calling the Independant Assessors up. PIP had given me the number a week-ish ago for something unrelated to this.

I called spoke to someone and the upshot of it is this:

Yesterday my son was going to have a face to face assesment. As of right now my son is not having a face to face assessment and I have just completed a *new" phone assessment from a completely different assessor and I already know their decision and recommendation and its enhanced across the board.

Now I didnt know PIP assessments could go down this way. Nothign I have read elsewhere suggests its actually possible to not only overturn an assessors decision in less than 12 hours but to skip the whole paper assessment process and jump to a new assessor simply rining me up and we do the whole assessment again and get the decision sorted then and there too.

But that is what has happened here and here's how it happened for anyone else who wants to go down this route:

This morning I called Idependant Assessors. I believe firmly that appraoching them in a non rant manner helped me but also that I was lucky enough to have my call picked up by one of their call reps who was just ok/nice.

If id been ranty I believe id have been at most prvided with the bare bones of the basic complaints process just to get me and my rantiness off the phone asap. If id been put through to soneone who was bored,indifferent, for some reason just took a dislking to me- I dont think Id have been granted the option of what is possible instead of/as well as the complaints process.

I explained the phone calls with the assessor were just wrong. I firmly believed that anyone- anyone at all would not assess my son as sbeing someone who should be sent for a face to face (home or assessment centre). It put him at risk and as his mum the panic in my voice is because I am scared about what harm could happen to him in this assessment scenario.

I also pointed out some easy to verify problems with the assessors assessment. SO the fact that he was referring to tings which were marked DRAFt as being actual categorical evidence (whilst also electing to ignore other actual legitimate evidence supporting my PIP answers). That I had tried my best not to antagonise the PIP assessor in pointing out he was using draft documents as evidence, but I suspected he was ticked off at this and inspite of my best efforts to phrase things in such a way as to try to avoid him being put out that he was maing mistakes and I was having to tell him so- I think I inadvertantly was still managing to irritate him more and more each time.

So I was able to provide tangible and readily available supporting evidence to back up my claims that the assessor was flawed/making mistakes and I was also providing plausible explanations as to why he would be beaving in a less than professiona manner. I was believeable and things I referred to were able to be verified by the man I was than speaking to.

It was his willing ness to help, or his wllingness to not curtail- my attempts to make it right, that enabled me to learn that from a phone assessment you can not oly complain (request complain pack,write in yourself without one, do it over the phone) but you can also instigate a process that immediately halts everything that has been decided and freezes that process . It is the request for a paper assessment process.

That involves the Independant Assessor rep youre speaking to taking info you provide (accurately you hope) from a series of medically themed questions. It was not in your own words tell us why you think the original phone assessment decision was wrong or should be looked at again- had nothign to do with that and the phone rep i was speaking to said he wanted to concentrate ont on pointing out megatives from the previous assessor but instead to provide complelling reasons for a request for a paper assessment to be considered.

Thats the perspective this form was completed from. So he asked me questions- related to the same questions the original phone assessor asked. I answered them- he typed it in and also he offered not advice but explanation as to what the paper based assessment was about and from this saw I had filled in the 3 medical professionals to contact on the front of the IP form and asked if there were any more as a paper based assessment was comprised of Indepedant Assessors contacting them and using the replies to arrive at a paper based assessment decision.

So the more medical professionals I provided the greater the pool of info and (hopefully) the more plausible attempting a paper based decision would look when someone was deciding if they would send the PIP application for paper based assessment.

I was on the phone easily twice as long as I had been in any phone call with the original phone assessor- but it was done. he advised that by sending off the request for paper based assessment that this immediately halted and overode any previous judgements and arrangements. So the expected face to face assessment appointment the original assessor said I should expect a letter appointment for in a few weeks- forget that. Thats cancelled out.

The next step was the decision either a yes or no to having a paper based assessment.It may be a few weeks to find out. If its a yes- the process for that begins which will take weeks longer especially as it may involve contacting numerous health professionals and them responding might take weeks etc.

In the mean time DLA continues.

if its a no, it reverts back to the original decision of requiring a face to face assessment.

I was profoundly appreciative- frankly the hope that there was a possibility this could be avoided was something I was prepared to hold onto as a positive.

In less than 2 hours after this- I receive a phone call., its a different medical professional wanting to do a phone assessment.

Could have knoocked me down with a feather. We had the assessment- which was as contrasting as night and day in attitude and professionalism to the previous phone assessor (called Alan)- she was a learning disabilities nurse.

It took a while- wasnt over in 5 minutes but she listened and I genuinely felt she really did have a working knowledge of kids like mine.

End of it was she tld me she was sending a medical report to the DWP for this. Her recommendation is enhanced for everything and it could be a couple of weeks for this to filter through to the DWp.That ultimately although this is her recommendation its then up to the DWP to make a decision on the award and she was also going to try to opt my son out of the review stage which she explained was a standard process for anyone under the age of 19 to undergo but if she could facilitate my son avoding that process she would recommend it to be not in his best interests or necessary.

And she signed off with take care of yourself and son.

End result has gone from a definate face to face assessment (from a flawed assessor) but the premise being that you cannot do anythign about it- to ultimately the complete turnaround of all of that and a new phone assessment from a new assessor and a decision being made on his award level from them arrived at.