title: “Assessment or Ordeal? Inside PIP and the Work Capability Machine”
date: 2025-10-22
author: Forgotten Rights
slug: assessment-or-ordeal
featured_image: /images/assessment-waiting-room.jpg
featured_image_caption: “A stark assessment centre waiting room: plastic chairs, fluorescent lights, a clock that never moves.”
meta_description: “PIP and Work Capability Assessments claim to measure disability. In reality, they reward performance over pain and bureaucracy over truth.”
tags: [pip, wca, disability assessments, dwp, healthcare]
Assessment or Ordeal? Inside PIP and the Work Capability Machine
By Forgotten Rights
Disabled people are told to “tell your truth.” Then the assessment process punishes them for it. Points systems slice complex conditions into tick-boxes that miss the messy, human reality of illness and pain.
🧪 The Performance of Suffering
Assessments reward what can be demonstrated in a 45-minute slot, not what disables you across a week. Fluctuating conditions are flattened. Invisible ones are doubted. If you wash on good days and collapse on bad ones, the form has no box for that.
🗂️ Paper Over People
Evidence gets lost, letters arrive late, and clinicians who’ve never met you make judgments based on scripted questions. Reports misquote. Descriptors misfit. It’s not an assessment — it’s a scavenger hunt for points under fluorescent lights.
🔁 Mandatory Reconsideration: The Wall You’re Meant to Hit
First decisions are often wrong. Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) is designed to make you give up. Don’t. Tribunals overturn a huge chunk of decisions — precisely because the original process is flawed.
🧭 How to Survive the Process
- Describe your worst days, not your best. Frequency and functional impact matter.
- Link symptoms to descriptors. Spell it out: “Because of X, I cannot do Y safely/reliably/repeatedly.”
- Collect evidence from anyone who knows your day-to-day: GP, consultant, carer, support worker, family.
- Request reasonable adjustments (home/phone, extra time, breaks). Put it in writing.
- After the report, request it. If it’s wrong, say so — clearly and specifically — in your MR.
🧑⚖️ If You Go to Tribunal
Panels are independent. Many claimants win there because panels actually listen. Take someone with you if you can. Prepare examples. Speak plainly. You don’t need to be perfect. You need to be truthful.
Resources
- Advicenow – PIP & WCA guides
- Citizens Advice – Disability benefits
- Benefits and Work – Descriptor breakdowns
- Inclusion London – Rights & campaigns
The test is not about you. It’s about the system. Don’t let it define your worth.
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