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PIP Evidence Question

LackingSleep

It's taken me 4 years after my ADHD diagnosis to get the time and cognitive resources (and courage) to apply for PIP. In that time, I've amassed a bunch of other debilitating physical conditions including a degenerative spine issue and neuromas in my feet (the joy), so I now don't walk without pain. Ironically I think this is actually due to my neurodiverse conditions as everything takes longer to complete, I hyperfocus at work and this hinders my organisation - so then I falter on my self care etc.

Anyway - I've been gathering all my doctors and consultant letters, and I'm a bit concerned - they were never written with PIP in mind, and some of them say things like - over exaggerating the exercising I was trying to aim for (which looks like I am able to do a load of things which I actually can't do without pain or risking aggravating the conditions, like ride a bike!) - should I be submitting these as part of my supporting evidence - or am I better off omitting them all together?

Wondering if these types of things in my clinic letters will be mischaracterised and used as evidence against my claim. Any tips would be gratefully received.

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Comments

poppy123456

I wouldn't expect any medical reports to be written with any benefits in mind. With medical evidence for PIP less is very often more. If you have multiple pieces of evidence all saying the same thing then it's not helpful to send every report to them.

Whether you send that piece of evidence is entirely up to you. I can't advise either way because i don't know anything about how your conditions affect you or what's actually written in that medical report.

I'll give an example. For my daughters PIP review in 2019 by this time she had a ASD diagnosis (though PIP isn't about a diagnosis) so i sent the assessment report to them. This report went into a huge amount of detail about her from birth right up to the age she was at the time (19). Some parts mentioned the things she could do throughout her life and the things she couldn't do or struggled with. I highlighted the parts that applied to the PIP descriptors because the report was very long and i wasn't convinced they would read the whole thing. The things she could do didn't go against her because they were related to the PIP descriptors.

LackingSleep

Coming back here to add that with hindsight I ought to have gone with this advice. I don't think they cared or bothered to read the exhaustive amount of reports that I sent through to them. There was a lot of focus in their denial letter on the things I "could do" (the fact I had a degree etc.) rather than any attention paid to the impact of the actual condition - I'm sure this is all a standard part of their playbook.

I wonder whether if I do challenge the denied application if they will comb through my reports to use as evidence against me where they can. Not really a question but I just wanted to note how much I appreciated the above advice even if I didn't follow it the first time!