Health Assessment (my journey) :-(

Gordon wrote:

Stressed wrote: So the pip would be the main benefit?
I thought maybe there would be a special type of UC.

As I said, PIP is nothing to do with UC.

UC and the benefits it replaces are called income replacement benefits. PIP is paid to help with the additional costs of being disabled.

Gordon

Oh ok, I thought pip run alongside main benefits (esa, jsa,uc...etc) and that you could claim both at the qame time.

But your saying that you only claim pip on its own.


I've read that some people call pip and request a copy of the assessors report as it also shows what points I have scored.

Do you think this is worth doing now?


I've also just seen a few people mentioning new style esa
Have they brought back esa now or is this new style esa what the old one was called?

Gordon wrote: Stressed

You have misunderstood.

Of course, you can claim PIP alongside ESA, UC etc. as I said in my previous post, they are awarded for different reasons, it's no different from your claiming DLA and other benefits.

It's really up to you whether you request a copy of the assessment report of not, some members want to know what the Decision will be, others do not.

New Style ESA is a new benefit that runs alongside UC, it is a Contribution Based benefit for claimants unable to work due to sickness or disability.

Gordon

Sorry my brain really isn't functioning very well at the moment

I just remember someone at the dwp telling me that pip wasn't a main benifit and that I would need to claim a main benefit even if I applied for pip.

I just thought this was because pip didn't pay much as it wasn't meant to be s main benefit.



I was thinking it would be a good idea to request my report now as I could start to prepare for the MR.

I called the pip number and they transferred me to the dwp.

The person I spoke to was very helpful (although a bit dim) and said he would send me the report today.

I asked him if he could see what points the assessor had suggested and he said there wasn't any points at all as they are added by the DM.

He then went on to say all the "yes" ticks the assessor had put, although he was saying it as a positive a lot of the yes marks were for things that shouldn't have been a yes and will go against me.

He also said there wasn't many things on the assessors report, but I think that's because the assessment was so short and not many questions were asked.

I know I'm REALLY jumping the gun here but a few things have been playing on my mind.

First the phone call I had with the dwp when requesting my report.

The person on the phone seemed really positive when he was telling me about all the "yes" marks the assessor has put on the report.

I've been thinking these were negatives buy thinking about it the report could be wording it from another angle, for example it could say "does the claimant require an aid to walk 20 metres " as opposed to "can the claimant walk 20 metres unaided ".

So maybe the "yes" marks are positives ?

Also the person on the phone said there were not any points on the report and there also isn't much on the report.

So I'm not going to be able to work out how many points I have scored?


Another thing that's on my mind is...

I'm not sure what there woul be that I could appeal against.

The assessment centre wasn't far from me, the assessment room was a door that was almost in the waiting area and I was seen almost instantly.

The assessor hardly asked me any questions and so the report doesn't have much on it.

If the DM isn't going to take everything I said in my application on face value I don't know how they would be able to make a fair judgement ?

But then I suppose they sometimes make decisions without there even being a medical assessment.