PIP medical assessment

My husbands assessment to be done with Captia what exactly should we expect at the assessment? What physical examinations will they do and do we have a right to record the meeting?

I know assessors can and have lied through their teeth when it comes to these meetings.

My husband has an autoimmune condition, he suffers also with arthritis caused by his condition as well as being on high doses of morphine. (over 100mg a day)
He also has a brain condition called Anti nmda which causes a whole set of its own issues but the problem is one day he can appear to be completely normal and the next be a different person altogether

We are both currently self employed but when they ask him questions about work im concerned that they will assume just because he can work for himself that he can do all sorts of other things when he cant. He can drive and we have already had to change the appointment as we are moving house. We dont want them coming to our home either tbh snooping and what ever we run our business from home we have dogs etc it would be worse for him to have it here.

His issues are mobility, going out alone due to the brain condition causing him to forget where he is, where he is going or what he is going for. Then the autoimmune condition causes huge amounts of pain for him in his pelvis and spine but this isnt constant although he is always in pain he has flares. Im assuming they will take the fact that he is self employed and use it against him?

The reason we are self employed is because of his health there is no way an employer will keep him on when he is phoning in 3/4 times a week sick with migraines, or swelling so badly on his fingers that he cant even hold the wheel properly.
Im just hoping for a bit of insight when it comes to the medical assessment, if he is unable to to the physical exercises because he will be in too much pain to drive home will this go against him ?

Any help will be great

Hi and welcome to the forum. On the assumption that you are also new to the site this FAQ should help you find your way around.

Welcome to Benefits and Work

There is a section about the face2face assessment in our PIP guide, I think it is around p64. You should be aware that this is not a medical examination and any physical exam that is carried out will not be comprehensive. If there is anything that would cause your husband pain then he is at liberty to refuse. However, you should ensure that the reason for this is understood and noted so that it is not just recorded as 'refused'.

PIP help for claimants

You are not allowed to overtly record the assessment (unless you have access to very sophisticated equipment which is outwith the purse of many claimants), if you wish to do so covertly, for your own records only, that is up to you. If the assessing HCP becomes aware of this, the likely outcome is that the interview would be terminated and your husbands file returned to the DWP.

You should consider that the assessment starts when you leave home and does not finish until you leave the building after your appointment. How your husband gets to/from the assessment centre and how he copes with waiting around will be taken into account.

If/when you have further questions, please reply to this message and we will do our best to help. You will find it easily if you bookmark/favourite it on your web browser now

Ive read through the guide and the members stuff - we did that before filling in the forms, my concern is the questions they may ask about him working. I dont want them to assume that because he does 16-20 hours a week self employed which in reality means he can work those hours around his illness taking days off when he needs to moving around when he can so the only reason he can do these things is because he is self employed. He struggles with memory and taking his medication as well. Are the assessments similar to those of ESA medicals?
Also how will we know what they are noting down?
I have access to a phone with a recording device, I was under the impression that your allowed to record anything as long as it is only ever shared with the parties present at the meeting or a court.
Im preparing in advance for any appeal we may have to do and wondered if I would be able to then 'quote' ourselves from the recording against their report so they cant lie (we had this happen when we claimed esa)


When you say the assessment starts when we leave the house does that mean if we have said he can only be out for 2-3 hours that we should leave if the assessment goes over that time etc? My husband isnt very vocal when it comes to asserting himself over people like that but they tend to ignore me if I try and speak for him so im not sure how we would be able to convey to them that he was in pain or wanted to go if you know what I mean.

What if when we attend he is not having a bad day? What if it is one of his good days where his memory is ok or his not having a flare etc

Thanks