PIP ASSESSMENTS

I watched the programme and agree with all you say. Our daughter has a very serious heart condition which greatly limits her life and has just gone through this assessment. She was lucky in that the assessors came to see her at home,the questions,as shown on the programme, were often quite ridiculous and almost impossible to answer. Having said that she has been awarded the benefit but it was not a pleasant process so well done to the BBC for highlighting the issue.

The figures for successful appeals demonstrate clearly that this system is broken. MN often has threads on PIP - a child with Downs and a parent asked ’when he caught it’ or with CP if it ‘would get better’ . I follow Tanni GT on Twitter and the examples she receives about these assessments are terrible.

But no doubt someone will be aling soon to tell us about someone they know who is pretending to be disabled

I watched the show and was so angry becaue this is a true picture of what Is happening. Totally shocking.

took a long time for my daughter to be given PIP ..she didn't want a cash setlememnt but she needed proof of her disability to get a blue badge.Having the badge means a huge difference in her life ,on the odd "good" days she has she can take her girls out and as long as she can park close to where she's taking them she can get from car to venue with effort and pain.
The very fact that this government are paying companies MORE than they save by denying people benefits says it all.Its punishing folk who cant fight back ,not a "christian" attitude from a PM who attends church and claims to be christian.Arent christian principles caring for the sick,the old ,the vulnerable ? Seems Mrs May and her cohorts dont understand that .

Spent years in the charity sector working as an adviser helping people fight the benefit system . The amount of humiliation families have to endure to prove their child's right to benefits is horrifying.

Maybelle I completely agree with what you say- I too spent some years working for a charity involving families and supporting them whilst they were routinely humiliated - it's downright cruel imo

Slightly on a tangent. I took DS who is ASD diagnosed for a PIP assessment. It was 30 miles away, only 3 parking spaces out front none of which were designated disabled. (I parked two streets away).
The room we were sent to was upstairs although there may have been a lift. If they had downstairs rooms then access would have been restricted. We then had to go down a narrow corridor which was barely wide enough for a wheelchair and you would not have got a wheelchair through the door to the interview room which was appprox 8ft sq.
We were unsuccessful and our appeal review was booked for somewhere 30 miles in the other direction from our house. This was on a retail estate with a large car park but the building was nowhere near the car park !
How do they expect people with mobility problems and or no transport to manage.
The whole system is a joke.

DS does not need a blue badge. I was thinking of those that do.

This is truly shocking and I feel great sympathy for those caught up in this cruel system. The government needs to act fast to change it and finally to show respect and humanity.

My dear sister had a terrible experience recently with her PIPS assessment and outcome. She has had ovarian cancer diagnosed at a late stage and then developed a secondary brain tumour for which she underwent surgery and then radiotherapy. Consequently she has lost some of her mobility and cognitive function. At her PIPS assessment she was asked (by the physiotherapist conducting the examination) if she could bend. She said she could but tried to avoid doing so as it made her dizzy, but offered to do so to demonstrate that she could. She was told not to bother, but that was recorded as a 'refusal'! She lost her PIPS and Mobility Car. Ultimately a letter from her Oncologist pointing out the realities of her illness resulted in reinstatement of the payments and car for TEN years. She went through a lot of stress and hardship though.

My DH had this taken away from him. I appealed on his behalf and managed to have the ruling overturned and the payments increased. The interviewer had lied on her report and he was penalised for being “well dressed” and friendly!! Even though our GP supported what he had said at interview the mandatory reconsideration still turned it down and so we had to appeal which is very stressful. Although we won the appeal he died a month later and had spent the last 6 months of his life worrying because he thought they didn’t believe him and that he was lying.
The interviewers are not sufficiently qualified and are expected to meet targets. The whole process is a disgrace.

I didn't see that but it sounds good. When my DS was alive her had lots of health and meds issues. Very stressful. On a bad day when one Doc called, after explaining the yet again I said it was far more stressful dealing with prescriptions etc than looking after my DS

I have had DLA assessments & PIP assessment, just had my review assessment 2 years after being 1st awarded it. I have also to attend Medical assessments for ESA (Employment & Support Allowance).

The quality of staff varies from one assessment to another, I once had to go as far as Tribunal for DLA, I was awarded it following an interview with a Doctor & a Solicitor (they actually praised me as being credible & honest)

It is a nerve wracking process, I agree you're often sent miles away with little parking, luckily DD took me to my last assessment as it was in her home Town & she knew where to park. As we were just about to park my phone rang to say they were running over an hour late, that turned into nearly 3 hours late. If I had been late they would have stopped my benefit. Next review is 4 years away when I shall have passed State Retirement Age.

I would encourage any-one refused PIP to appeal as there are many who are awarded following an appeal, my DiL was refused but on appeal actually got a higher award

I didn't see it but will watch it on catch up.

Most people suffer hardship because they have no option but to claim benefits because they have no other source of income when they are ill. I'm positive the system made me more ill and that I would have recovered in half the time if I had been less stressed because of money worries through not being able to go to work anymore, and having to apply for benefits because I hadn't enough savings to live on despite having worked all my adult life. Humiliation is correct, and the forms and assessment process are designed to 'catch you out' in some way. I was suffering from severe M.E. and couldn't concentrate, yet had to fill in complicated forms, and then answer questions in person that I was so tired that I couldn't follow what was said. The panel were condemning in their attitude, and their comments showed their ignorance of my condition. When I left I collapsed, and was bed-ridden for almost a week. I was refused benefit. Thankfully, I'm now retirement age and don't have to go through this again, but I feel so terribly sorry for those who still have to. My health has improved from the decreased worry too. I thought as a vicar's daughter, Mrs May would have more insight and compassion for the sick and needy, but I'm afraid she has been as uncaring as all her predecessors.

i am so glad someone has mentioned yesterdays episode of Doctors, i totally agree at how well it showed the mortifying process some people have to go through. it causes so much stress and some people do just give up fighting the system which of course pleases the government because then they do not have to fork out so much money. well done BBC

I don't think the DWP and the government want the benefits system to work. I think they are refusing to admit that there is a 'managed decline'. By this I mean that the UK has a stupendously large debt , and part of the process for managing that is by incrementally lowering the standard of living for people at the 'bottom' whether they be unemployed, mentally ill, disabled,
elderly etc- just people less able to complain. If members of the public start to feel sorry for them, there will soon follow a TV programme 'proving' what fraudsters they are, in an attempt to turn public opinion against them.
Wicked isnt a strong enough word.

Maryeliza, as it happens, I do know of someone enjoying PIP after lying in order to get it. No, it wasn't that she was "having a good day". And no, I'm not going to report her.

The system in place is what it is, and some will find it horrendous to get what they're entitled to, and some will take advantage of it. Until there's a better way of assessing, we're stuck with this system.

And yes there will be liars in all walks of life, trying to get something for nothing. That isn't the point. The point is that in a modern supposedly wealthy democracy people who can't look after themselves should be cared for and have a reasonable standard of living. I have a close relation with autism. She gets no benefits whatsoever. I look after her and her little girl. Why should they live in misery and poverty just because someone somewhere is alleged to be a fraudster?

My friend having had one leg amputated, deaf in one ear, blind in one eye, aged 60 had her benefit stopped by a young assessor and had to go through months of stress in order to get it reinstated. An absolute disgraceful state of affairs.

I watched this too and was not shocked by what I saw but was truly saddened as I read reports of this awfulness daily. I have two questions, please. Is the supposedly 'unbiased' BBC the correct place to air this and do we think the civil servants are so devoid of compassion in reality as depicted there?

I wish the BBC had made the point that so many applicants for PIP miss.... PIP is a payment towards the HELP that is needed to be able to manage an illness/disability satisfactorily, it's not a payment for the illnesses that are suffered.
I have 4 conditions that I am thankful to be able to manage myself but, someone with just 1 of my conditions may well qualify for help via PIP.
There is confusion over the 'tests' the medical professionals carry out at an assessment - there is no reason for these tests as abilities can vary so much on a day to day basis.
Well done to the BBC but must try harder!

A friend of mine had her benefit stopped despite suffering from severe epilepsy and many other conditions, some as the result of a brain tumour some years ago. Her husband is her carer and consequently can only work part-time. As a result they lost their car which was provided by motability. For a while they were dependent on friends to transport them everywhere until they managed to replace it. Eventually the benefit was reinstated on appeal so all that stress was for nothing! As others have said, it must cost more to reject so many people then manage the appeals which are so often successful, than simply paying the benefit in the first place - especially in cases like my friend who had the benefit already and whose condition had not improved.