PIP Tribunal Statement of Reasons

Trixter_82_

Hi, so I am my partner's appointee for PIP. He is claiming under mental health difficulties and has a diagnosis of Autism and undergoing therapy for ptsd. 

He recently had his appeal and was only awarded low rate mobility based on him having difficulties and needing assistance when travelling. He was awarded 6 points personal care based on him not being able to cook for himself but not sufficient enough points to be awarded standard care. 

Their reasonings for not awarding were that he was contradictory in his answers, which I can under stand but there were very valid reasons for this, him being extremely nervous and giving false answers as he was scared he would be seen as an unfit parent to social services if they were to report him. 

They also stated I was an unreliable witness, but no reasons for them suggesting this. I did have to speak on his behalf at points as he was really struggling. 

They also stated that he doesn't need prompting to do daily tasks. I'd like to understand their reasonings for their findings as they cannot say if he needs prompting or not to do daily tasks as they do not see him in his home. He does need prompting and lots of it to do daily tasks. He is on a social care plan for starters, under going intensive psychological therapy, needs support from the mental health team, been to the mental health crisis centre several times in the last year. 

They also tried using the fact he has some caring duties towards one of our disabled children not to award him, ignoring the fact he needs intensive amounts of support, prompting and reassurance to carry out these tasks. 

We have applied for a social care needs assessment for the children to support us with caring for our children as it is extremely difficult. 

I was wondering if we can go down the error of law route in their findings? Or if its best to do a fresh claim on change of circumstances? 

Thanks. 

poppy123456

You say appeal, was this the Tribunal decision or MR? If it was a Tribunal decision then you can't just appeal it because you think the decision is wrong. You can only appeal it on error of law.

To find that error you must first request the Statement of Reasons and Record of Proceedings from HMCTS within 1 month of the date of the decision. Once you receive those you need to find someone to take a look to see if they can find an error in law. If they can't then you can't take this any further.

It's not a simple process to go down this route and can potential take at least another year.

If you do decide to report changes then i'd advise you to get some expert advice before doing so. Using the same evidence you previously used could see another refusal and the whole process starts all over again. https://advicelocal.uk/welfare-benefits