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Hi, has anyone else experienced this? I personally haven’t but two of my friends both have had appointments for assessments to be carried out in their homes despite not requesting a home visit.
One is happening this Sunday (on a bank holiday weekend)!
Is this a case of high workload and not enough assessment centre capacity or just a good excuse for a more thorough snoop?
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I had the assessment at home. When they informed me, it was just stated they were visiting with no mention of going to a centre.
As I live in Northern Ireland and the assessment centre is probably in Belfast, 75 miles away, I just assumed they took into consideration the distance and the medical details they had and decided it was better to visit me.
I found the assessor to be very friendly and open and got no impression she was assessing my apartment.
I did not request an assessment at home, but I had one. I assumed it was because the assessor only lived a few miles away.
The pip centre is less than ten mins drive from me, two years ago I went to it for my assessment now my next door neighbour is getting an unrequested home visit. Just seems odd, and on a Sunday to . Wonder what happens if you decline a home visit lol
My wife had an home assessment, we didn’t ask for one, the second one she had was at home too, the assessor said it would not affect her mobility component… 4 weeks later they took all her PIP away from her! Bare in mind she has only one leg.
My wife had an home assessment, we didn’t ask for one, the second one she had was at home too, the assessor said it would not affect her mobility component… 4 weeks later they took all her PIP away from her! Bare in mind she has only one leg.
that sucks, does she walk with a prosthetic because I think they brought in a ruling suggesting walking with a prosthetic is the same as walking with two legs, absolute nonsense , much like if u can propel yourself in a manual wheelchair is the same as walking that distance.
my personal concern for a home visit is My home is an unusual layout in that from my front room to my bedroom I have a 12 meter hallway between, the front door is about ten meters from front room, I imagine they will make an instant assumption based on my ability to answer the front door.
She does have a prosthetic, but cant walk far with it on, we appealed and won though, never had to have another assessment and got it all backdated, get the new car in 5 weeks.
She does have a prosthetic, but cant walk far with it on, we appealed and won though, never had to have another assessment and got it all backdated, get the new car in 5 weeks.
thats a result then, shame it took such an effort tho
Put a note on the door saying let yourself in. Tell them it makes you live in fear as it’s so far to the front door.
The way way I understand you can refuse twice but they can still turn up for a home visit if they want.
Remember pip pip is based on what you can and can’t do, diagnosis isn’t the only issue.
But the main thing is sticking buy what you put on your application, with medical evidence as proof. ??
good luck to you.
I had a home assessment. Everything seemed to go ok, however, on the report the assessor stated that he observed me walking to the door to answer it and then back to the living room. This was false as I didn’t even answer the door (family member let him in) and I didn’t leave the living room the whole time he was at my house. There was one or two other false facts in there but I can’t think of them off the top of my head. When I challenged it I think the dwp’s response was to take it up with atos.
my last assessment was at a centre but it was a complete shambles, she claimed I made good eye contact with her and I had full range of movement in my hands and wrists and elbows, but I had issues with walking short distances and had trouble standing up.
Her final statement was I could walk for 5 minutes and that means I score 0 lol (it took me 5 minutes to get from kerb side to assessment entrance which is about 10 meters)..
Funny thing about it is I wear permanently tinted glasses outside so she must have super x ray vision to see I can make eye contact through dark lenses, she does not know what she was writing as the summing up was different from what she stated in other parts of the report. The still gave me higher rate motability on the planning a routes section and lower care for 3 years… the dwp decision maker agreed with her. this time I thought nope I am not having that, so I contacted my local mp a conservative believe it or not and the made a mandatory appeal, I sent the same medical evidence with my request as i did with application, this time though highlighted all the sentences in the letters that contradicted what she had said and a very strong worded letter from mp stating she knows my conditions and that the report is contradicting of medical evidence.
and by some miracle the mandatory reconsideration was successful, both high rate with period ongoing with earliest time of review of 10 years. I kid you not, sometimes miracles do happen
The assessors do lie I have personal experience of this but if they are coming into your home surely you have every right to film and record them and that should be a big Plus.?
My last assessment was done at my home without requesting this. However the previous assessment was held at offices in Doncaster.
It turns out that the day who did my home assessment was a student learning the job at the office in Doncaster when i had an assessment there. She was present at that assessment. So in her own words decided a home visit was the right thing to do because of what she saw at the office assessment.
This time I was given full PIP award for 10 years.
Joss
Current car: BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport 5dr Step Auto In metallic Portimão Blue. 04:10:2025
Previous car:Peugeot 308 GT Premium 1.2 Pure tech Petrol.It’s down to what’s convenient for them, not what’s convenient for us because as we all know we are an expense they’d like to do away with.
Sorry folks but its just the way I feel about government these days. ?
It’s all a game to them about how many points they can take away.
So you have to play the game of keeping as many points as possible.
I had consultants proof, mris, cat scan results, surgeons reports, ot reports.
So they gave me full award stating the same sentence on each part.
Plus he could only walk 7m unaided with a frame.
So I never had any trouble. But it’s always stressful as is set out to be that way. A lot rides on what those assessors think.
Good luck to all I say.
I had a home assessment for pip some 18 months ago. Again un-requested. I previously had a DLA lifetime award from the age of 8. I am now 44. I have spina bifida and work full time. I am a parent etc so was very skeptical due to the horror stories i had heard. However…………… I could not fault the assessor. She was an ex nurse so had a qualified understanding of my disability and the fact i won’t miraculously become able bodied any time soon as a birth defect is a birth defect! I was myself and hid nothing. I did not over egg any aspect of my difficulties and as such I had no expectation other than i would be losing my entitlement. Upon receiving the dreaded DWP brown envelope i was flabbergasted to have been awarded higher rate in both areas. The assessor had interpreted my difficulties in the most sympathetic/realistic way possible. She genuinely highlighted to me a number of things i was doing and what the risks/detriments that was directly having on my well being.
So in summary i am probably one of the lucky ones and it clearly shows that the whole process is dependent on the assessor you are assigned. Her parting words were that she felt i was the type of person whom was NOT abusing the system and that she would be recommending that i received the award!
RichieP
You are always better with a home visit as the center is designed to catch you out, they have measured the distance from the disabled car bays to the assessment room so if you walk from one to the other point you are confirming you can walk the required distance.
I had a Home Visit last year and was really, really worried. But on the day it couldn’t have been less stressful. My chap was a paramedic. DH answered the door, ushered him into the sittingroom, offered tea/coffee and then left us to it (as I had asked). I sat in my armchair on my extra deep cushion with V-cushion behind for the whole time. I put all my pills and potions in a transparent box ant the end of the sofa (“I don’t know what you want to see”) and we just chatted.
We discussed my limited mobility issues regarding walking, standing and how I can no longer sit on firm surfaces (M.S. & Spinal Damage), and then I mentioned in passing that reconstruction surgery from when I had a mastectomy 4 years and reconstructive surgery 2 years ago has also left me with reduced mobility in my arms, which made washing myself etc. difficult. When I said “I know that cancer doesn’t count” he said “Oh yes it does if it’s affected your mobility!” and gave me 2 extra points for it!
I ended with Higher Mobility and Lower Care, when I was expecting to drop to Lower Mobility and No Care.
My older brother has psudoachondroplasia and his body’s pretty much collapsing now. He was terrified of losing his car but they gave him Higher Rate for Mobility and Higher Rate for Care, which is what he needs.
BUT (and I cannot stress this enough) we both provided tons and tons of supporting evidence when we returned the original PIP Assessment Form. I called it the ‘Information Bomb’. The DWP only know what you tell them. They are not psychic. There’s no such thing as too much information.
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