I had an assessment for PIP in early 2016. I felt that the assessor was not familiar with my issues, and was not comfortable with assessing pain and fatigue as barriers to doing daily activities. I told the assessor that pain and fatigue severely limited daily activities, and gave examples of this, but when I got the report back, it seemed that she had chosen not to believe me, for no stated reason. The assessor also did not seem to understand the concept of varying abilities (for example, sometimes I can cook a meal, but not often enough or reliably enough to reliably feed myself) or the concept of pain limiting the number of activities one can do in a day, and having to choose between them (for example, I can either take a shower or leave the house, but not both in one day); it felt like she assumed that, if I had done something ever, once, or if I had forced myself through it because it was absolutely necessary, then I had no difficulties with it due to pain or fatigue, despite evidence from my doctor contradicting this, and of course my own experiences and words. Additionally, I am diagnosed autistic, and the assessor did not seem qualified to vary her communication to accommodate people, nor did she seem familiar with autism at all (for example, I explained the difficulties that this brought with social communication and self-advocacy, yet she wrote down that I had no difficulties with either of those, despite that being obviously untrue.) I submitted a mandatory reconsideration form and got confirmation that it had been received, but heard nothing more.

I went for my appointment for PIP at 11.30am on the 28th December 2016 at Southwell Business Park on Portland with my two teenage children. The lady doing the assessment treated us with utter disrespect to the point where I wrote a complaint to ATOS healthcare regarding my treatment. I received a letter on the 22nd Feb 2017 from atos stating that they could not take any responsibility for the assessors behaviour as it was my word against hers. I received a letter from PIP on the 17th Jan 2017 stating that I was not awarded enough points to claim either daily living needs or mobility and therefore would not be able to receive any payments. I then applied for a mandatory reconsideration and received enough points to claim money for the daily living needs but again I was awarded nothing for mobility. I am still awaiting a tribunal date to appeal this. I suffer with chronic Fibromyalgia, a degenerative spine condition, irritable bowel, hearing loss (I wear two hearing aids) and depression, and without considerably help I am completely house bound. The assessor lied throughout the report on my ability to do simple tasks and stated that I could walk 200m even though it was clear I needed assistance just to get out of my wheelchair from my daughter. The assessor had not asked me to walk at all and could see how much pain I was in just to stand up out of my chair. I was awarded 0 points for washing and bathing, dressing and undressing, and only 2 points for eating and drinking and preparing food. I am completely unable to wash my own hair and have to rely on other people to do it for me, I also rely on them to help me get in and out of the shower and cannot use the bath at all as I haven't the strength to lift myself in and out of it. I often need help dressing especially when I am having to wear a sling on my arm due to the severe paint it causes me. With regards to preparing food, I cannot stand for long enough in the kitchen to be able to cook a meal myself and also cannot use my hands to be able to chop or simply move pans on and off the hob. I have to rely solely on my children to prepare all my meals as I cannot do it. With regards to eating, I often have to have my children cut up my food for me as my hands and arms are too weak and too painful to be able to do it for myself. I use special cutlery which means I can put the food to my own mouth however I cannot get to that point without complete aid from my children. I often have to wear a tea towel or cloth whilst I'm eating due to my clumsiness with regard to using my weak hands and arms which is distressing for me to not be able to do such a simple task as feeding myself without dribbling it down my clothes. As I said I was awarded 0 points for mobility however I cannot walk without severe pain. I can manage the few steps around the house on good days but I am never without pain in my body. To go out anywhere I heavily rely on friends to give me lifts and I cannot go out with out some sort of walking aid, be that a wheelchair or a walking frame. This means I am completely house bound without aid from others to take me out to appointments etc, I have such little energy and I am in such pain continuously that I do not go out unless I absolutely have to, even trying to just get around the house, up and down the stairs uses all of the little energy I have meaning I have to spend most days sat on the sofa unable to go out or do anything. When I'm having a bad day with my condition I cannot even get out of bed and struggle just to make it next door to the toilet. Additionally to all this I have other struggles with my memory, coordination, dexterity which causes lots of different problems for myself like memory loss, clumsiness and not being able to grip anything with my hands. My overall opinion of these assessments are they are not valid or a true representation of peoples conditions and something needs to be done as urgently as possible to rectify this. This has been extremely stressful experience for me and I'm still awaiting my tribunal date. This has been written by Chloe Meadows, my daughter as I am not capable of typing this long of a message due to my physical pain.

the DWP after mandatory review in January 17 finally sent my papers to the medical assessment board in March of this year, I have been chasing for a decision but no review of my file has been made. I have been told I am not their focus due to a new benefit that has a time frame attached to the review, this new benefit for severe cases came in in April and as such my file has had no work or chasers by the DWP. NO one has returned my calls and the hackney benefit office do not even answer their phone. I have had my benefits reduces from the work group allowance to the standard rate and nothing is being considered as a concern, the DWP say they have no rights when the file is sent over. surely 7 months is too long for a review,

Two stories from the coal face this morning: "Just had PIP decision back- 0 points despite me going into anaphylaxis in front of the assessor and her voluntarily aborting the home assessment. Absolutely disgusting and a complete fallacy. Report ordered and case worker notified. Just so much distress and my health has gone downhill since the assessment." "My official award notice for pip arrived today, standard on both from enhanced on DLA so I lose the car, 2 points shy on both of getting enhanced. Assessor states I opened the front door for her?? ( this is the assessor that did my f2f over the phone then popped in 2 days later to say hello) we haven’t used our front door for months, because there are two large sofas stacked in the hallway due to land ladies house repairs and redecorating, my partner fetched her around the back and brought her through to me in the dining room! When requesting an MR. Do I send all the reasons along with the report as to what the discrepancies are? Clearly the glaring issue being that she didn’t actually turn up for the f2f so the physical exam she’s written is a fallacy?"

Independent Assessors (atos) cancelled my appointment 1 hour before, no apology just contempt. The whole process males you feel like ending it all. Everyone tells you the medicals are a sham and of course they are. The whole approach is scrupulously designed to bring those needing the benefit to the edge of despair and keep pushing until they fall over. Please why hasn't't this cruelty been stopped?

I agree about the ESA forms. The first 5/6 pages I could not answer at all. Questions like how far can you walk - I can’t walk at all there is no box. You think given this is for all Didabilities they would acknowledge some people can’t walk. Ditto how long can you stand for. There is no I can’t stand box. Or how many steps you can climb. It’s like they are deliberately not mentioning the wise case. So you can look like I can stand less than 5minutues, I can walk less than 20 meters or two steps. When in reality you cant stand or walk so of course you can’t do steps. This result means from the very first page that you feel like it’s not fit for purpose. They also ask you on one of the first pages of your problems are areault offeig or alcohol misuse while I’m sure this applies to a very small minority it again gives impression that asking if problems are your fault.

Just returned from my assessment by Capita. I was accompanied by my Mental Health Support Worker who sees me weekly. I have a number of conditions including arthritis, an eye condition that has left me partially sighted and diabetes on top of bipolar disorder. Unlike many I did feel my assessor was aware of mental health issues and was sensitive. Overall things seemed to go fine and if she is honest and accurate in her report I Would hope to transfer from DLA to PIP at sameish rates I am on now. Of course reading of others’ experiences this is still to be seen. In terms of changes given many on DLA with indefinite awards are being put through this stressful process it seems rather wasteful in terms of admin and lack of trust in medical professionals as well as adding to their administrative burden. I hope this forum will prove useful to review the system.

My pip assessor was nice enough but uninformed and talked over me My mandatory reconsideration letter was useful in that it highlighted where some of my issues had been completely misquoted/lied about. They did give reasons for some of the decisions but ones where I presented clear evidence of needing aid, they simply ignored, saying I was fine and giving me 0s in every category. I am currently awaiting tribunal which I plan to attend if I'm well enough that day. The fact that this system is designed to make vulnerable people give up is appaling and I hope it changes soon.

My parnter had to go for ESA assessment, it was a bit of a way for somebody when theyre in pain, when we got there the lift they said they had wasn't working, this happens to a lot of people and it's unsafe to have disabled people on first floor in case of emergency like a fire. She had X rays result and her job laid her off as unfit but it was all ignored, zero points awarded, but they don't have any jobs you can do with health condirions. Atos and the other firms are getting big money for giving wrong results.

My first PIP assessment went very well and all medical evidence and assessor's report led to me being awarded Enhanced rate for Daily Living and Mobility. I had a reassessment last year in September, and the assessor lied throughout her report and I lost the award and mobility car. I put in for Mandatory Reconsideration but was refused and all my medical evedence including GP letter was ignored. I had to wait until April this year to go to Tribunal and won, but because there was so much disscrepancy between the first assessment and reassessment reports, both having been face to face, the tribunal would only award me standard on both parts of PIP, although my condition is slowly getting worse. I am dreading the reassessment that I have to have in September 2018. My health has suffered even more because of the stress caused by everything.