PIP letter arrived.

[Danslatete]

My face to face is 16 th July.

Anyone got any tips?

[halinbath]

Make sure you get help from a benefits adviser, CAB are good ,and ALWAYS have the assessment recorded, otherwise Atos and Maximus will just make it all up as they go along. Also my advice is target the points you need, don't try and tick too many boxes, focus on your condition and where it is likely to gain you the points.

[davee]

I noticed that most of the answers that I gave at the face to face meeting were nowhere to be seen on the refusal letters and so if possible record your meeting. Good luck. Dave

[cej77]

Hi,

When answering their questions tell them how it is on the worst days not the best. If you're like me that's hard because you want to think you're doing well and think about the positives but they need to know about the struggles and difficulties. If you go to a headway see if there's someone who would go with you. I did and she was fantastic when I struggled to answer a question she would step in or add more to what I said and that really helped. I'm sure having her there really made a difference.

Hope it goes well for you,

Clare

[sealiphone]

The guidance says they should get an insight to your functioning by asking questions about what you do. They can then use this to make all sorts of ill-founded presumptions. So beware of what appear to be innocuous questions at the start, you got there, by car, so you can obviously plan and follow a journey safely(?). So point out thing like another person drove and then had to guide you to the venue, if that's the reality.

You cook so that's fine, no probing to see if there are safety issue involved and it goes on.

Just make sure you give a full insight to your difficulties even when the question is ill thought out.

Another good one I heard about, severely impaired concentration but they visited the health center using the running machine = good concentration???, as they reported they hadn't fallen off it!!

Others have made good points, so I'll leave that as said

[Danslatete]

So I went for my face to face. Appointment was 1:30 I got seen at 3:20, so I was already in a state!

I found the open ended questions impossible and had to keep asking what they meant.

I did answer that I'd been cleaning my kitchen in the morning, which my mum explained that I wiped down the surfaces. This shows how differently we can interpret what is said and what is meant.

I got a letter from them yesterday saying that they have all the information and will make a decision in the next 6-8 weeks and that there is no need to contact them.

I hate all this waiting. I find it all very stressful and stress tires me out.

I wish they'd just get on with it so that I can take the next steps to getting sorted out.