I've had a severe anxiety disorder since 2010 but was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia in december 2015 which hit me all of a sudden & without warning. So I applied for esa support group and pip and finally after dealing with the DWP for 9 months i have been sucsessfull in my claims. i did get esa support group and standard living & mobility for pip.
It has been a very long and stressful 9 months and although it wasn't straight forward with mandatory recons and such, getting there in the end has made it all worth while.
I just hope i get left alone now for at least a year when it will start all over again with new assessments.
If anyone else is going through the same process hang in there and keep fighting.
I don't know if they realise how distressing all this is to claimants, or maybe they do, but just couldn't care less.
Fibromyalgia is so debilitating and drains a person completely, so to add extra stress from PIP assessments, especially when it takes 9 months, is not funny. I'm glad that you had a positive outcome and like you, hope that they leave you alone for a while. x
I think it is a disgrace to everyone trying to claim, they keep you hanging on for months, it makes you ill and usually gets declined I think this is all wrong why keep people waiting for such a long time when they know what this is doing to people, I have had a text saying mine has gone to the decision makers I haven't been to an assessment do you think that means I may need to go they say they have everything they need I am worried sick and have Bi polar so I never go out, I as well suffer with anxiety
As you have received a text saying that your claim has gone to a decision maker, then hopefully that is a good sign and you can avoid the assessment altogether - Fingers crossed for you. There are a lot of experienced people on here, so maybe they can put your mind at rest.
They received my completed forms on the 20th June, I received a letter from them on 29th June with a date for my face to face. The original venue was too far away so we manged to get it changed to somewhere local and it's for the 19th July and I'm dreading it, especially after reading about the lies that the assessors tell.
To sfarrell38 if it's gone to a decision maker then unless they sent the txt in error then you won't have an assessment face to face & they will do a paper based decision..
and to sukes, you're so right about assessors lying, my pip assessor mostely made it up from scratch, fortunately for me i have a good GP who wrote a letter to the decision maker confirming that what the assessor wrote wasn't true and i won my pip at mandtory reconsideration and didn't have to appeal but i shouldn't have had to get the gp to write that letter the assessor should have told the truth. it's a disgrace.. and what's more of a disgrace is that in the 9 months it took for the DWP to sort my claim out i could have produced a human being. They should be ashamed.
Good luck with you decision sfarrell38 and with your assessment & decision sukes.
thank you for your kind comments I really hope I get this I have had it for the past 2 years and you shouldn't have to go through all this again, do you think it will take long to get the decision to be honist I only put the form in 2 weeks ago and it has gone to decision makers already, just a waiting game now
Thanks for you post Gill, comforting to know it's worth while in the end. And congrats about your award x
I reported to DWP that my condition had got worse and also applied for ESA as my SSP had ended. I went to my ESA assessment which lasted 15 mins with a physio who worked for Maximus and was knowledgdeable about my condition, got into the support group
Two weeks later was re-assessed for PIP by an ATOS nurse who knew nothing about my condition and my PIP was taken away! Waiting on MR decision but have already started preparing my appeal as not confident DWP will do the right thing
Like you say, as soon as you finally get sorted they will be requesting you go back for another assessment - If only they used competent HCPs we could all have a few stress free months
Hi erykah71, it seems that esa seem to do a more compitant job than the pip assessors do, it'sa shame it's not all done by the same people and that 1 assessment covered both esa & pip. it would save a lot of stress for us and work & money for them.. but what do we know ay..
Good luck with your pip MR.. i hope they do the right thing for you too.
I had a text from them 2 weeks ago saying that they were 'looking at it now' but have heard nothing since - Lets hope no news is good news, but yes I will stand up for myself at tribunal if it gets that far - (well stand up for myself sitting down lol)
I second that gill. I've just spent a very sleepless night thinking about my upcoming assessment and no-one really understands unless they have experienced it, which of course people on here have done.
Maybe that is because PIP assessments are carried out by ATOS in most areas - the same company that used to do the ESA assessments but got booted off. ATOS do seem to have the continued poor reputation. ESA's gain is PIP's loss!
I came to the same conclusion when thinking about whether I wanted to accept the offer to transfer to PIP from DLA.
With everything i read and my own previous experience and history with DWP and assessors I concluded that things couldn't get any sworse if I told the assessor that at 68 I still play first class rugby for my town, walk 20 miles a day with my 7 dogs and teach at a university! They seem to write what they want bar the truth in any event.