My PIP assessment

I had my PIP assessment a few weeks ago now. I requested the report of the assessment as soon as I could, and it is only now I feel able to share what it says, as it has taken me this time to process, "accept" and understand what it says.

Firstly, as far as these reports go, this one was pretty accurate. It recorded with about 90% accuracy what I said at the interview. The problems start with how those things were interpreted in context to the evidence I provided and the evidence the assessor had to hand.

My PIP claim was a renewal claim, previously won at appeal. The questionnaire was filled in, as one would expect, based on my current award of PIP, which I received at appeal. Simple, right? Well no, it seems not. The assessor doesn't seem to have access to this information, and somehow (which is very odd when you think about it) thought that I was renewing a zero claim for PIP after 2 years. Thats right, when the renewal form asks if there has been any change in my condition, and the response was no, the assessor has referenced this to my last PIP report (a zero score one) and not my appeal result (a 13 point one). So therefore, according to the assessment report, I have no functional difficulties, because I reported no changes to my no functional difficulties last time. Completely missing out the 6 months of anguish and pain I suffered to take it to appeal, gather additional evidence and win my appeal.

Not only that, a piece of medical evidence that I provided, both for this claim and my appeal, states clearly that psychotherapy is the treatment of choice for my condition. Now, cleverly, the assessor has managed to turn this evidence against me stating that although I am receiving psychotherapy it is not medically indicated as per my medical evidence. Huh, you may say, huh indeed. This is where it may get complicated for those who may not have a grasp of basic English language (no offence intended). What my medical evidence states, which is a letter written by an NHS consultant is that as I am already in receipt of privately funded psychotherapy, this is more suitable for my needs, as it is long term and any NHS psychotherapy they can offer is relatively short term in comparison, therefore it is a discharge from NHS provision back to my private psychotherapy, WITH THE NHS CONSULTANTS full support.

It really feels like they are scraping around trying to find any reason at all to deny people PIP, and those reasons above are really shockingly bad. I have written to the DWP, as thankfully there is at least a 6 week delay in them processing assessments. I hope that the DWP consider very carefully my letter. Because it truely is ridiculous.