Potential change to PIP Assessment Process

Hi everyone

We have made this post to make everyone aware of a potential change to the PIP Assessment process, at this time we have little detail but we felt, even though it may cause additional worry to many members, that it was better that you are aware of this so you can manage how you deal with it with as much information as you can.

Apologies in advance for the length of the post

So what has changed?

Regular visitors to the forum may have noticed that we have had a number of posts over the last 4-6 weeks from members who have received a phone call from an assessor in advance of an arrange face to face appointment, similar posts have begun appearing on other forums as well. Claimants who received these calls have in the majority of cases been questioned in depth about their conditions and the limitations that result. At this point I want to stress that as far as we are aware the booked face to face has still occurred as arranged.

What the law says.

The PIP legislation allows an Assessment Provider to make a recommendation to the DWP based on three groups of information or any combination;

(1) The PIP2 form, any evidence attached and any comments sought from the claimants GP or other health care provider.

(2) All of (1) with the addition of a face to face assessment either at the Assessment Provider's premises or in the claimants home.

(3) All of (1) plus a telephone consultation to seek additional information or to confirm the information already provided.

As you can see, unlike ESA, there is no requirement for a face to face assessment or one of these consultation to be done before a PIP claim is refused.

Also, it is important that members are aware that a failure to complete and return the PIP2 form or to attend of participate in an assessment or consultation can result in their PIP claim being closed.

Up to now we have seen no potential examples of (3) on this or any other forum, but have as indicated above seen members on B&W and other forums have these calls, we have seen several examples of claims being refused with no face to face assessment being done, although none of these have occurred on B&W.

At this time we do not know whether this is the result of a change in guidance by the DWP or an Assessment Provider, whether it is a trial, whether it is national, regional, or even a single office, or any combination of the above. We will have to wait and see how the situation develops, but we will be updating the PIP Claim guide to offer advice as to how members can deal with this.

How do claimants deal with this today?

Until the guide is updated, we recommend that members consider the following.

Whether you take the call or not has to be a decision that you make, we cannot say that you can miss this call or if you do, what affect it will have on your claim, but there are things that you can do to help yourselves.

First, to those who are physically or mentally unable to answer the phone at all or only if it is from a known caller. Make sure that you have included this information on your PIP2 form and wherever relevant on any attached documentation, explain why you cannot take the call and what would happen if you did, specifically require the DWP and any Assessment Provider to only communicate with you in writing.

For those who may answer the phone but would be unable to participate in any consultation. First, if you could manage the call if it was made at a time of your choosing or in the presence of someone providing you with support then you can ask for the call to be made at a more convenient time, you should explain why you cannot take the call at that time and what would happen if you did. Make sure that you ask for the callers name and write it down with the date and time of the call.

If you feel that even with notice that you cannot manage the call then you should include this information on your PIP2 form and wherever relevant on any attached documentation, explain why you cannot take the call and what would happen if you did, specifically require the DWP and any Assessment Provider to only communicate with you in writing.

Finally, if you can manage the call, prepare a short set of notes for each of the questions on the PIP2 form including all of the points that you want to make, keep this with a copy of your PIP2 form and any evidence attached next to the phone so that it is in easy reach should you receive one of these calls. If you have more than one phone, do not be afraid to ask the assessor to wait while you retrieve the information.

We are going to keep this topic unlocked and near the top of the forum in case any members have further questions, although this post includes all of the information that we have at this time. We will even allow limited discussion on this matter!

On this basis I would ask all members to only post in this topic, the only exception to this being if you have actually received one of these calls in which case we will be happy to help you in your own topic, posts made on this subject in other topics will not be answered, we will attempt to move them to this topic if time allows, but may be deleted without notice if not.

Many thanks

Gordon

sheeps68 wrote: A simple concern for me is if they ring up how are they going to evidence they are who they say they are. When we call so many agencies that ask us security questions. now that is right and correct however I want to be sure if they call us they also pass some security questions. I must be so many agencies nightmare as I refuse to answer those questions until they can prove to me they are genuine and legitimate.

The Assessment Providers will have access to basic information about the claimants; name, address, NIN, what I can't say is whether the assessor would have this information at the time of call and whether their procedures require them to ask any security questions in the first place, perhaps one of the members who has received these calls can comment.

Gordon