ESA Assessors qualifications and legal questions

Ngup

I'll try and answer

Assessors are trained in mental health issues as part of their qualifying to be an assessor, this is to a standard set by the DWP. They are not required to have previous experience in mental health treatment.

I'm not sure of you next question, I think you have put a extra "not" that you did not intend.

Mental health is difficult, claimants may be stable because they are receiving treatment, they may also be unstable and require treatment. IN either case, the treatment may only address some of the issues that the claimant suffers from, an analogy might be someone with severe pain; they will have pain killers, but I would not expect these to make them pain free.

Both the assessors and DM are naïve about mental health issues, claimants need to document in detail how their conditions affect their ability to complete the PIP activities as those assessing them may not understand the depth of their problems.

I'm afraid there is nothing in law preventing them from asking why a claimant has not tried to kill themselves. Your GP might well ask this and we would not find it strange.

A companion can contribute to the assessment, but unless they are appointee for the claimant, it is at the discretion of the assessor whether they allow this or not, a good assessor will encourage the input, a bad one probably won't.

Gordon