PIP telephone assessment

Hi Lorraine

You can request for the assessment services to record it - and they may well tell you they don't have the services to do so. This comes down to the availability of recording facilities and available assessors. Not all assessor agree to be recording and they are not legally obliged to agree.

If you insist on a recording then they will probably tell you that you will have to wait until a face to face assessment can take place and no one knows when that will be. If they think they have sufficient evidence they might look into doing a paper-based assessment - but this is not given and it is unlikely to be done except on rare occasions as they won't want to open the floodgates of lots of claimants saying they want paper-based if they can't have a recording.

If you say that you are going to record the assessment yourself - the assessment won't take place because it would be too easy for claimants to tamper with the recordings. You will find if you try that this is something that is not open to discussion.

So there is guidance on recordings in our guides when face to face assessments were carried out - but not now. We suggest that people make covert recordings for their own record and that can be done in any method available to you.

You can legally record a telephone call without informing the other party providing the recording is being made for your personal use. In fact, do not tell the assessor that they are being recorded as they will likely terminate the assessment.

If you are using a smartphone then there are apps that will do this for you.

If you are using a landline and can put the call on speakerphone then you can record it using either a smartphone or some other recording device,

If it's a landline but you cannot put it on speakerphone then you will need a special microphone that attaches to the earpiece.

If you have a look at our PIP guide at the link below you will see that there are 9 pages which include advice on telephone assessments. Yes, a lot of the questions are those that would have been asked if you had a face to face assessment.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants

- Write yourself a bullet point list of any particular points you want to get over, so you have it by you during the assessment, tick them as you cover them during the assessment.
- have paper and pens to hand to make any notes such as the assessors name, date, time
- make sure you are seated in a comfortable chair, you are going to be there a while and at table to make notes
- if you can't hear or understand what is being asked then ask them to repeat the question
- don't forget to have a glass of water if needed so you don't get a dry throat and lose your voice!

Don't forget to contact DWP 48 hours after the assessment and ask for a copy of the assessors report called PA4.

Gary

Hi Lorraine

Use the telephone number on the last letter you received from the DWP

BIS