Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am new to the forum as my daughter was only diagnosed with Austistic Spectrum Disorder last summer, after a year and a half of assessments. We applied for PIP last April (I am her appointee) and have just been sent a letter saying she will not receive it, despite never going out alone and not being able to cope with communication with people other than her immediate family, and that is limited. She scored 4 points for 'engaging with other people face to face' and 4 points for 'planning and following journeys'. Zero points for everything else, despite a face to face assessment where I explained that she goes out on average once a week, sometimes less, and is always accompanied. She has lots of sensitivities, particularly with food.
Has anyone else experienced this? I am preparing an appeal. It says on the covering letter ' I realise you have a disability or health condition and receiving this decision isn't the news you were hoping for'. It's a joke.
I am 29 and was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome a couple of years ago. I applied for PIP in October 2013 and waited until July for a face-to-face appointment with a healthcare professional. The healthcare professional was a physiotherapist and was rude and dismissive from the start. He refused to take anything my mother had said into account despite the fact that we had previously been told that someone was welcome to come with me to help with the assessment.
It got to the point where the healthcare professional bullied me into giving the answers that he wanted. I was in tears through a large part of the assessment and after two hours it was over. It led to a meltdown after we had left the room.
I was turned down for PIP about six weeks later and after asking for a reconsideration, at which I supplied additional information, I was turned down again. I could not face an appeal by this point and, defeated, I gave up.
PIP is a complete joke and it's clear that they're using it to cut the welfare bill.