I have had two terrible and one great experiences with PIP assessments.
Two of my (adult) children are autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic and ADHD and one of them has PTSD after having been raped in school at age 14. Neither can manage their own affairs, or get around without assistance in terms of guidance (both are physically mobile, so that was never going to be an issue). In both cases, the assessments found them totally normal and both had their DLA stopped with no PIP. In both cases, the clear evidence of physical issues and mental issues was observed and commented on by the assessor at the time but in the reports, both assessors said nothing was observed at all.
In one case, my daughter was observed attempting to drink a cup of tea. The cup was half full and she still spilled most of it lifting it to her mouth. She also ended up in floods of tears as the assessor gave her the third degree about the rape, but the report said that she was completely calm and composed throughout the assessment.
I am challenging the report, needless to say.
Neither of these two would have been eligible (I assume) for mobility, but both need full time care and are unable to live independently, so I had assumed that the care element would have continued.
On the other hand, my own assessment was a totally different story. The assessor was brilliant, kind, observant (pointing out things I hadn’t thought to mention) and I was awarded enhanced for both elements. It possibly helped that I physically fell while she was in the house…
My own observations suggest that an obvious ‘visible’ disability is treated fairly but any form of invisible disability or mental incapacity is not delat with as fairly.
This is in Northern Ireland, by the way. In theory it’s the same system (Capita run the assessments and make the judgements), but in practice there may be differences from the mainland UK.