I was awarded PIP in 2014 for the daily care only. Although I was happy with finally having some support, I felt I needed help with transport more than anything as I was very isolated being confined to the house, and I was also unable to set up a regular treatment plan of physio and pain clinic as I couldn't get there. At a tribunal, I was constantly asked how I could possibly look after my children properly if I couldn't look after myself to the point where it felt I was being threatened of neglect allegations if I carried on. Most questions were about their care and wellbeing. I am a good mother and my children are my first priority. Their needs are always met and more. It is possible to be disabled AND a good parent. The two AREN'T an oxymoron!! Anyway, such was the threat, I ended up holding back on how bad my condition is and I was taken off everything. Even the care component I was awarded in the first place. I spent the next 18 months in a state of deep depression, questioning my ability as a parent and isolated from the outside world. I was finally ordered to speak to a GP by worried family members who, over the course of several weeks, persuaded me to reapply for PIP after convincing me that I would not have my children taken from me. I am normally a very strong person. I have been through so many terrible things and come out on the other side but this completely broke me it really did. This government should be ashamed of themselves over their treatment of disabled people.

My son has epilepsy. On initial application for PIP he was awarded 2 pts by DWP. On mandatory reconsideration he was also awarded only 2 pts.On appeal to Tribunal(no new evidence provided) he was awarded 31 pts ( 19 Daily Living and 12 Mobility). There was no appeal by the DWP. Observations on process :- 1.Inadequate attempt by "health professional" to understand effects of condition of epilepsy. 2.Decision maker's "reasoning" consisted simply of a set of standard paragraphs to be applied to any case rather than a proper attempt at reasoned argument. 3."How the decision was reached" document consisted of just a list of decisions about the scores considered appropriate. 4."Mandatory re-consideration" is clearly not a reconsideration at all. Does another individual look at it again ? It seems like it is merely another unnecessary hurdle for people to jump with a view to deterring them from continuing with the process. 5. The DWP's initial decision indicates to me that the civil servants involved are clearly under political instructions to awrd points where there can be little dispute but not to award them where there are remotely grey areas ie there is a deliberate reluctance to concede points with a view to reducing the welfare bill rather than considering objectively every case on its merits based on the law as it stands. 6. The lack of attendance by the DWP at the Tribunal Hearing indicates a lack of will to defend their decision, thus exposing the patent inadequacy of their deliberations (again, no doubt, a political, not administrative decision). 7. Without assistance from me there is no way my son would have been able to articulate his problems adequately due to the complexity of the claims process for vulnerable people (arguably perhaps even with the assistance of a professional,who would not know him so well). 8. It seems to me that it should be possible to ensure the law is sufficiently clear and sure to obviate the necessity for any but a very small number of cases to go to Tribunal. This is clearly not the case at present. 9. The time limit for an appeal is one month. However, this operates from the date of the mandatory reconsideration notice, which may be received 3 days later. It also has to be posted so that it arrives before the one month is up ie say, 3 days before to allow for post. So, in reality, the appeal period is only 3 weeks or so. This is just another example of a deliberate attempt to make the process more difficult by hoping that some people will fall foul of this time limit, thus rendering their appeal invalid. 10. The private organisations carrying out the face-to-face consultations are incentivised to spend as little time on them as possible (their employees are paid according to the nos they produce). They also will be reluctant to be seen to be too lenient in that the Govt wishes to reduce the welfare bill and these organisations wish their contracts to be renewed in due course. This causes bias to be built into the system, at the expense of genuine claimants.

I am responding on behalf of my daughter who suffers severely from epilepsy and associated mental health issues. Approximately four years ago she received an adverse assessment from ATOS which was against medical advice and contested successfully by an appeal. It was clear the 'medical professional' in that case was not suitably qualified to do the job. This resulted in hurt and distress at our end and from the government's perspective expending a significant and unwarranted amount of time and effort in fighting a losing case. Any system of assessment must be undertaken by properly qualified assessors and it is unacceptable to have an outsourced system where the contractor (ATOS) in that case is incentivised to get payments based on turning claims down. They should be properly qualified, impartial and not conflicted by payment structures.

I have attended assessments for both of these benefits, and my experience of doing so has been highly stressful, and following my PIP's Assessment in July, I became ill, being confined to bed for three days, and I experienced a bout of severe depression. I suffer from Bi-polar Disorder, type 2, as well as from physical illnesses. The Assessment process itself was perfunctory, and the Assessor twice threatened to terminate my Assessment when I could not remember answers to the questions she asked me(because of side-effects of medication, fatigue, and anxiety). I was also refused permission to use the the toilet during the Assessment, and because of that, later I had an accident. My experience of Assessments is that they are intimidating, and treat the claimant without empathy. When I tried to show the Assessor a letter that I had received about attending a hospital appointment, she refused to look at it. When I tried to talk about my health problems, she wouldn't discuss them with me, saying 'just answer my questions, yes, or no' I have no initiated my third Appeal, a very stressful process in itself, and I am also now taking Diazepam along with all my other medication. I would just like to add that if the Government wants to save money on public spending, they should impose the cost of the Appeal process on these private companies as a penalty for failing to do their Assessments properly.

Assessor came twenty minutes early, in my own time I managed to get to front door and let him in, walked back to living room and sat down, told him cannot start straight away as I need my career to be here. At 9 o'clock my career arrived, we then moved into another room to start assessment, I had my mobility component knocked down as he said I had walked 21 meters in one go, when I asked for mandatory reassessment and pointed out there assumption was as a mistake as I had tested in between I was told decision was still correct.

I Believe the right decision on my PIP Assessment was not reached in it entirety. There were numerous failings on behalf of both ATOS and DWP mainly at the face to face assessment where some of the information which was crucial was omitted by the Health Care Professional with out going into my Health Issues in detail they did not take into account the serious nature of them and the fact that they are life limiting and severe.I was refused a home visit although i spend a large portion of my life house bound by my illness. my F2F assessment went on for 2 and half hours and was so intense that it brought on 2 bouts of Angina which the Health Care Professional refused to halt the assessment by saying there was not much more to do but that was not true. I ended up in Hospital that day with a serious Heart Event causing lasting damage to my Heart and further Disabling me. The report down graded my benefits and did not take into account none of the tasks were not observed with the criteria that they were done in a safe and timely manner and that they were repeated. I went to a Mandatory Reconsideration but the DWP made a instant decision and went with the report from the Health Care Professional, I also got the impression that the person carrying out the Mandatory Reconsideration was not interested in listening to my side of the story and that they were under work load pressure to make a quick decision, i also got the impression that none of my numerous medical documentation obtained from all my Health Care Team were even considered and that they solely made their decision on the Health Care Professional report. I think more time to could be taken by the DWP at mandatory reconsideration using a another Tier of involvement from Doctors who can look more into some of the complex medical conditions presented by those being assessed. I did not find my assessment Claimant-friendly at all i was not shown any compassion by any of those carrying out my assessment i was made to feel a scrounger i found it very degrading and the fact it made me very ill affecting both my Mental Health and has probably affected my long term Health too. To improve the whole process i would recommend all those concerned to listen to what is being said about PIP from all the reports that have been handed to The UK Goverment. I am a Armed Forces Veteran and i was treated badly The Armed Forces Covenant was not applied once to my case so i would like to see our Veterans treated better too.

my wife lost her mobility in March 2017 assesed by someone who knew nothing about her illness and disability, and gave back a faulse statment and medical report back to the DWP told them my wife concented to a physical when she neither concented or had a physical my wife has a mental disorder bi-pola type 2 and with all the stress and not copeing with every day life on the 7th of november my wife became very manic and has had a relaps and has been sectioned under section 2 of the mental healf act this is for the 3rd time in ten years her last phycotic relaps being in 2009 and has been stable since then but with all the stress she has had to deal with it has sent her over the edge again so as i care for my wife at home full time we have now got to start all over again getting her stable the way she has been treated and discriminated against is a disgrace and these people should be a shamed of them selves the way they treat those with mental health problems we are still waiting for tribunal date its been 27 weeks now.

I have Bertolottie syndrome which causes me pain on the lower right side of my body but the assessor did not know this at the time and I had a very pleasant meeting with the assessor asking questions and typing what I thought was my reply to these questions and it was not until I received the results and the written reports that you are given for the reason you have failed the assessment and the report is full of what can only be called lies and misinformation Cameras should be in the room so a more accurate report can be taken and checked on first appeal not having to fight months to receive an final appeal where you actually speak to another person face to face and they can see what you actually look like and if you use walking aids or in a wheelchair In my assessment the report had information in it that had not been discussed at assessment My report mentioned I like to work in my garden when I stayed in a flat and had no garden Also I was using elbow crutches and to say I can carry a carton of milk in my teeth as hands were full with crutches would love to see the assessor to try carrying milk and then then indignity for having to go though the appeal process is unreal I actually was reassessed over the phone and I was only asked 5 questions and because I was at the beach with my son's I failed that assessment and assessor had no way of knowing if I used crutches and when I pointed this point out was told it was his decision and when I asked I asked for a recall so I could deal with this The recall was disgusting as I was with an advisor from C.A.B and the assessor was rude and arguing with the advisor that the advisor has put in a complaint and this left me in tears as the assessor parting words were it was his decision and I was not getting ESA and because I had used an advisor he was putting a tag on my case to stop me from ever getting any benefits (never heard if this person was taken to task about this or received any apology for his behaviour)

These are just a few of the – I’d stick at absurd if the effects on my life had not been so catastrophic – points but I would welcome the opportunity to give more/fuller details. The “Health Professional”: • Asked what any medication I was taking re one leg being shorter than another; • Did not carry out any of the MSK examinations claimed • Told me that because I hadn’t been sectioned, my depression “couldn’t be that bad” • Couldn’t pronounce names of conditions or medications – or know what they were; • Had not read the application form – it was “not important”; • Didn’t know there was more than one sort of “fit” –attempted explanations refused; • Didn’t know what coeliac disease was and asked what medication I took to control it; • Asked whether my left side hemi-paresis affected my left side - she did not know what hemi-paresis was • Didn't know what a lift/orthosis was didn’t want it explained: her report said I wear a special shoe – I don’t and didn’t at the assessment; • Asked – re the “Cognitive test” – what is the difference between 50 and 500; • Stated (the opposite of what I had said) that my epilepsy is “controlled”; • Said we had “good rapport” when I was in tears throughout and, at the end of the test, • Asked did I speak English The first 10 of these did not, unsurprisingly make it into the report. It seemed that anything that might have assisted me – or was, perhaps on review, thought patently ridiculous - was excluded, e.g. • when she asked me to stand without support and I told her I would fall, she insisted and, when I did fall, said, grinning, it was “evidence of (,my) strength”, not gravity! • Insisted on dealing with minor conditions first so they were given more time than the more serious ones • There was a heavy door between her room and the waiting room, on the way in she’d opened it for me, on the way back she didn’t and, when I asked her to, said “Oh, it’s heavy, isn’t it?” – I’m quite sure that if I’d even tried to open it that this would have been included in her report There is so, so much more but the whole thing has been physically and emotionally exhausting. Thoughts of suicide were frequent before the “assessment”, now they’re daily. I was on Higher Rate DLA (Mobility) and Middle for Living until 2019 but have been awarded zero points for PIP – although none of my conditions have changed, - other than for the worse. I am in the ESA Support Group and wonder whether the fact that the ESA assessment was carried out by a doctor whilst the PIP one was by a nurse who has not actively practiced for many years could have been a factor. As a result of this assessment, I have also lost my Severe Disability Monies so the total amount lost is £700 per month. I don’t think there’s been any publicity re this or that someone like me could lose so much: – the callousness towards the loss of such an amount is terrifying - and I don’t think I will be able to live with it much longer.

The entire system is set up to make the Conservatives and their business associates vast amounts of money by denying basic human rights to people. I have been living on £20 a week for 7 years, I have 4 long term chronic health conditions including a severely disabled left hand, Severe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and I am a High Functioning Autistic, yet the Conservative "Government" tell me that I am not disabled and gave me zero disability points. You are all a bunch of genocidal maniacs driven by greed. You are killing off the poor and disabled and leaving the mentally ill to rot and kill themselves. How did I find the PIP process? It made me suicidal.