Dla to pip - phone call no assessment paper based review

Hello there
I’m my sons appointee and we applied for pip in August, I received a phone call out of the blue today from a health advisor to say as they have a lot of evidence which includes why my son struggles to engage with others they don’t want to put my son through the stress of an assessment, they just asked a few questions to clarify a few things but I was only on the phone about 8 minutes and I’m now worried 😟 I didn’t cover everything. I only answered what was asked, The advisor was lovely and did say I don’t need to send in anything else and will make sure he gets the support he needs but I’m concerned I didn’t go through the application form and each descriptor. Is it worth me calling them again or shall I just wait and see?

I would just wait*. It's very likely that the assessor had enough information to write a report but wanted to clarify one or two things. If this is the case then the assessor wouldn't normally go through everything. If the report has been written then it may have already been submitted to the DWP as it is done electronically and usually almost instanteneously after the report is written.

* if you wish, you can phone the DWP and ask for a copy of the report in advance of any decision being made by the DWP. I believe that this is classed as a paper assessment, in which case the form completed by the assessor is a form PA3. A PA4 form is used when there has been a face to face or telephone assessment and I don't think the latter is what has happened in this case. It's usually a good sign when you get a phone call like this, even though it can cause anxiety in advance of a decision being made. If the assessor needed a lot more information you would have received an appointment for a face to face or telephone assessment.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply, I’m going to try to forget about it now and hope for the best

BIS wrote:

Hi Ruth You can ask for a copy of the report as Robbie suggested - but most people are finding there isn't one for a paper-based assessment these days. They stopped doing ones during the pandemic. Some people have then put in a Subject Access Request to see if they can find any notes on how the decision was made, but I've only heard one person being successful in that and I'm not sure the information told them very much. BIS

I'm surprised there wouldn't be a report completed by the assessor at the assessment company when performing a paper-based assessment as without this the Case Manager at the DWP wouldn't be able to make any sort of decision. The assessor would have to put something in writing, so to speak.

If the assessment was done by the Case Manager at the DWP (ie the file was never sent to the assessment company in the first place) then there's not likely to be a report compiled as the PA3 form is a form which is intended for the assessment company to complete. During my last PIP review I had a phone call from the Case Manager at the DWP. She explained that she was looking to see if she could make a decision on my review without having to send the file to the assessment provider. I was asked a few questions to clarify some things I had written on the review form. From this my review was cleared without the file needing to go to the assessment provider. In this instance there was no PA3 completed. Instead, a few weeks later I did an Subject Access Request and obtained a print out of everything the DWP held about me for my PIP claim. Included in the printouts was the telephone conversation the Case Manager had with me. Also included were 10 pages of notes where the Case Manager performed a paper based assessment and looked at every descriptor / activity, deciding what descriptor I satisfied for each activity.