DLA to PIP when the time comes

Ck2016 wrote: Ok thankyou for this. Unfortunately if the assessor is a male then I know my partner will lash out as she is afraid of males. So I do not know how this will go down at all.

Send in as much detailed information and evidence as you can in the hope that a decision can be made without a face2face assessment.

If an appointment is received, you could try phoning the assessment provider, explaining the problem and asking for a female assessor.

Ck2016 wrote: In relation to your answer Gordon about all qualified assessor are classed as being able to do assessments. Yes you are correct, however a physiotherapist is not trained in Mental Health, and only specialise in how a person is able to move with injuries or back conditions.
Surely ATOS or Maximus would see on the form that due to her mental health an assessor who specialises in this criteria is better for her.
I think the whole system is bizzare.
You wouldn't expect a patient with say unfortunately cancer to be dealt by a assessor who is a chiropractor,
DWP, ATOS and Maximus really needs to get a grip

The argument is that, whatever their professional background (I think they are currently using Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, midwives and possibly paramedics), the assessors are trained to carry out that function and do not need in-depth understanding of the diagnosis

Ok thankyou for this. I am very good at writing these sort of forms, as I remember doing the DLA form back in 2012 with a Welfare rights advisor and the ESA forms. They are rather lengthy forms to be fair.
I will be polite and politely ask for a female and if they are specialised in Mental Health. I do know that at this current time, my partner is not doing very good with her medication and now needed to go onto a anti-psychotic.
As her full time carer I am worried about her and with the pip form looming upon us this will cause myself to get stressed which will impact onto my partner.

Hi CK2016,

I feel your pain as me and my partner went through the process recently. I don't know if I am doing right posting into this thread but here goes....

The advice I would give to anyone is download the PDF on this website and go through it blow by blow put as much detail in as possible. Make the assumption that you are speaking to a young person who has no knowledge of the condition you are writing about and make sure you don't over look details. I found we I completed my partners there were a number of things he did to compensate for his limited health that we would have missed out the form but were actually quite pivotal to his assessment.

If you complete the form then make sure you put that in the additional information; grab as much medical evidence as possible. Any regular consultants or holistic therapies they receive. I also put in the form that due to his limited lung function we needed somewhere with parking on site without any stairs. Our original assessment centre was 500 yards from the nearest car park and was at the top of a multi storey office block. Needless to say I rung and complained and quoted my additional information and they to be fair changed the assessment centre to a more suitable location.

If you have the means to record it then I would recommend you do so and feel free to take notes I did for my own piece of mind. I just used a simple voice recorder; purchased two of them and some cassette tapes

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It was a hard and stressful slog and there were many times my partner told me not to bother he was going to lose it but keep calm and patient and read read read and then when you're bored read some more. I think I must have clocked nearly 30 hours on his assessment form including phone calls to consultants and GP's for supporting information. I also wrote a letter from myself to explain how I support him and the adjustments I have made to accommodate supporting and caring for him.

It was worth it because when the award envelope came through he has been awarded high for care and mobility and has been awarded that until 2026 (so a 10 year award) which I wasn't expecting.

And of course if you need the ear of a fellow carer or someone just to have a quick scan then I would be more then happy to help.

Good luck x