PIP medical assessment - warning

Yesterday I went for my PIP medical assessment. I eventually realised, probably too late on to correct/qualify some of my earlier answers, that it was the old story of manipulating answers by the questions you ask. One example was whether my anxiety/depression stops me from attending appointments, she then went on to say “hospital or doctor appointments”. I told her that I try to never cancel those sort of appointments as it can mean such a long wait for a new one. She was going on to the next question when I twigged and asked her to go back, then asked if she meant ‘just’ those sorts of appointments or whether she meant events in general. I was then able to give her the correct answer, which was that I find social events very difficult and will avoid them whenever possible.

Be very careful in answering their questions. With hindsight there were far too many things I wasn’t asked about in enough detail to give a true picture.

Just something else to add. The centre I was asked to attend was 26 miles away from my home, had I not had someone to take me I wouldn't have been able to get there. I was frightened of trying to re-arrange it in case they gave me a location just as far away and/or at a date/time when I had no-one available to take me. I've since discovered that there's a centre only 3 miles from my home which would have had the same level of accessibility and without the stress of a long journey. It seems the assessment starts long before you set foot through their doors!