Started waiting on PIP in December

DaleS123

I originally called PIP in November and with help finally managed to finish and send it off early December.
On 14th I got a text saying:
'Thanks for sending us your 'How your disability affects you' form. We may need you to attend a consultation with a health professional before we make our decision. We'll contact you again if we do. Please call us if any of the details you gave us have changed.'

On 1st March I got:
'We've received the written report of your PIP assessment. We will write to you once we've made a decision on your PIP. As a guide you should hear from us within 8 weeks. You don't need to contact us unless any of the details you gave us have changed. Thank you.'
(I don't remember an assessment?)

On 15th March:
'We have not yet made a decision on your PIP claim. We will write to you when we have made a decision. You only need to contact us if your circumstances change.'

I am in Staffordshire, seeking pip for Autism and a knee issue.
I feel like I am waiting longer than average or have I started counting in the wrong place? Any advice or experience would be apreciated

calcotti

Decision is usually made within 12 weeks of DWP receiving the report. I agree therefore that you are waiting longer than one would expect. You could try ringing them to see if the caller answerer can see any information about your claim on the system.

DaleS123

calcotti said:

Decision is usually made within 12 weeks of DWP receiving the report. I agree therefore that you are waiting longer than one would expect. You could try ringing them to see if the caller answerer can see any information about your claim on the system.

Looks like that's a Monday morning job to call them then.
Bit sad I am having to call, I hate using the phone

Adrian_Scope

Hello @DaleS123 and a warm welcome to the community. 
Just to add to what calcotti has said, if you don't recall having an assessment then it sounds as though they have done a paper-based assessment for you. 
When you call on Monday, you could ask for them to send you a copy of the assessment report as it may give you an idea of what has been recommended. The down side to this is that some people find it can increase their anxiety waiting as the report may not seem like a true reflection of their conditions or what they've said or written on their form. 

I hope you are not kept waiting too much longer and that it's a positive outcome for you. 

DaleS123

45minute wait on phone this morning to be told they wrote to me in march???? (Not that I can find)
Need more evidence for my knee, so need to send a nother letter from the consultant.

Lady on phone was lovely and put notes on everything to say I will be sending evidence ASAP

Just more stress

poppy123456

Have you been refused? 

DaleS123

poppy123456 said:

Have you been refused? 

@poppy123456
 They want another letter from my knee consultant, lady on phone made it sound like they had been waiting on me sending this letter, before making a decision.

StillIRise

DaleS123 said:

poppy123456 said:

Have you been refused? 

@poppy123456
 They want another letter from my knee consultant, lady on phone made it sound like they had been waiting on me sending this letter, before making a decision.

Did they specify what info they need in the letter?

DaleS123

StillIRise said:

DaleS123 said:

poppy123456 said:

Have you been refused? 

@poppy123456
 They want another letter from my knee consultant, lady on phone made it sound like they had been waiting on me sending this letter, before making a decision.

Did they specify what info they need in the letter?

No they didn't, so I just sent my most recent as I haven't been given a date for any operation. I hope that if anything else is wrong they could give a little more info. 

Although the lady was lovely she did seem to be having computer issues

DaleS123

Update for those interested, 
After calling on the 12th and being asked to send further evidence for my knee. I sent more evidence through tracked service, this still hasn't arrived?!

I have received a letter dated 14th saying I have been refused as there is no evidence of me being Autistic!?
I am still waiting for my ASD assessments etc, but if you spend some time with me it's obvious it's just a formality.

Just confused now

poppy123456

Sending anything to DWP for next day delivery is a waste of time. It will be signed for in bulk by someone from Royal Mail sorting office and doesn't mean it's arrived with DWP. It will be somewhere in the building of the sorting office. It's not classed as arriving with DWP until it's been added to the computer which can often take a few weeks.

You don't need a diagnosis for PIP because it's not about that. That will be just another of their silly reasons for refusal.

You can now request the MR which you should put in writing stating where and why you think you should have scored those points.

StillIRise

DaleS123 said:

Update for those interested, 
After calling on the 12th and being asked to send further evidence for my knee. I sent more evidence through tracked service, this still hasn't arrived?!

I have received a letter dated 14th saying I have been refused as there is no evidence of me being Autistic!?
I am still waiting for my ASD assessments etc, but if you spend some time with me it's obvious it's just a formality.

Just confused now

This is really confusing! With PIP there is usually a decision letter clearly showing where you scored points and where you didn’t score points. Did you actually receive that?

DaleS123

StillIRise said:

DaleS123 said:

Update for those interested, 
After calling on the 12th and being asked to send further evidence for my knee. I sent more evidence through tracked service, this still hasn't arrived?!

I have received a letter dated 14th saying I have been refused as there is no evidence of me being Autistic!?
I am still waiting for my ASD assessments etc, but if you spend some time with me it's obvious it's just a formality.

Just confused now

This is really confusing! With PIP there is usually a decision letter clearly showing where you scored points and where you didn’t score points. Did you actually receive that?

I have received this, it states I score nothing for Autism because I am not diagnosed.

He does say he was nice enough to add some points, because I would clearly need help to get on and off the toilet with my knee issue (I did forget to add that)

My phone is smart enough to extract the text from my letter, here is a direct quote:
"My decision

I have made my decision using information about your health

condition or disability including details of any treatment,

medication, test results and symptoms. This information is the

best available and enough to decide how much help you need

without a consultation. You said you have difficulties taking

nutrition, managing therapy or monitoring a health condition

dressing and undressing, communicating verbally, reading.

engaging with other people face to face and making budgeting

decisions. There is no evidence of any diagnosed cognitive or

sensory impairment or learning disability preventing you from

communicating verbally, reading and managing your finances

There is no evidence of any upper limb, hip or spinal restriction

preventing you from dressing and undressing. There is no

evidence of a confirmed diagnosis of autism only a referral. There

is no evidence to show your anxiety causes symptoms of

overwhelming psychological distress preventing you from

engaging. There is also no evidence of any current risk or safety

plans in place. Although you report you have memory issues

managing your medication there is no evidence of any diagnosed

memory condition, no medication prescribed and no specialist

input. There is no evidence of any physical restriction preventing

you from taking nutrition, no specialist input and no dietician

input. I have decided you can manage these activities unaided."

DaleS123

StillIRise said:

DaleS123 said:

Update for those interested, 
After calling on the 12th and being asked to send further evidence for my knee. I sent more evidence through tracked service, this still hasn't arrived?!

I have received a letter dated 14th saying I have been refused as there is no evidence of me being Autistic!?
I am still waiting for my ASD assessments etc, but if you spend some time with me it's obvious it's just a formality.

Just confused now

This is really confusing! With PIP there is usually a decision letter clearly showing where you scored points and where you didn’t score points. Did you actually receive that?

I have received this, it states I score nothing for Autism because I am not diagnosed.

He does say he was nice enough to add some points, because I would clearly need help to get on and off the toilet with my knee issue (I did forget to add that)

My phone is smart enough to extract the text from my letter, here is a direct quote:
"My decision

I have made my decision using information about your health

condition or disability including details of any treatment,

medication, test results and symptoms. This information is the

best available and enough to decide how much help you need

without a consultation. You said you have difficulties taking

nutrition, managing therapy or monitoring a health condition

dressing and undressing, communicating verbally, reading.

engaging with other people face to face and making budgeting

decisions. There is no evidence of any diagnosed cognitive or

sensory impairment or learning disability preventing you from

communicating verbally, reading and managing your finances

There is no evidence of any upper limb, hip or spinal restriction

preventing you from dressing and undressing. There is no

evidence of a confirmed diagnosis of autism only a referral. There

is no evidence to show your anxiety causes symptoms of

overwhelming psychological distress preventing you from

engaging. There is also no evidence of any current risk or safety

plans in place. Although you report you have memory issues

managing your medication there is no evidence of any diagnosed

memory condition, no medication prescribed and no specialist

input. There is no evidence of any physical restriction preventing

you from taking nutrition, no specialist input and no dietician

input. I have decided you can manage these activities unaided."

DaleS123

Sent off my MR letter, received a text yesterday saying
 "You've asked us to look at our recent PIP decision again. We will write to you once we've done this. As a guide you should hear from us within 8 weeks. You don't need to contact us unless any of the details you gave have changed. Thank you."

Upside is they have it, down side... More waiting

Hannah_Alumni

@DaleS123 Hopefully isn't too long a wait!! 

DaleS123

Received the response, 
MR notice says nothing about me being Autistic, ignores that I was appealing that part of my pip and just says their upholding the previous decition.

Have to say feel pretty crappy about them just ignoring all the Autism stuff. Even sent them a legal case about how they should interpret the law relating specifically for pip and autism

Time to get my appeal ready

Hannah_Alumni

@DaleS123 I'm sorry it wasn't the outcome you hoped for. I hope the appeal process goes in your favour! 

poppy123456

It's not unusal for the MR decision not to change because only about 23% of them do. However, concentrating on case law isn't going to help you.

You need to concentrate on where and why you think you should have scored those points.If you haven't already then you should give a couple of real world incidents of exactly what happened the last time you attempted each descriptor that applies to you. Adding detailed information such as where you were, what exactly happened, did anyone see it and what the consequences were.

Do be aware that the Tribunal will not be able to take into consideration any worsening of condition. For the best chance of a decision in your favour i'd advise you to either request a telephone/video hearing or appear in person. There's about 70% chance of success for either of those. Paper based hearings have a much less success rate of around 5-8%.

The only downside is the wait could be 7+ months.

nasturtium

Hello DaleS123

DaleS123 said:

I have received this, it states I score nothing for Autism because I am not diagnosed.

He does say he was nice enough to add some points, because I would clearly need help to get on and off the toilet with my knee issue (I did forget to add that)

You said you got points for getting off and onto an unadapted toilet because of your knee problem. Instead of focusing mainly on your possible Autism diagnosis and problems assosiated with your possible autism it would be a good idea to try to also focus on your physical problem that you do have medical evidence for.

Think about the daily living activities and the problems you would have completing the activities safely, repeatedly, in a timely manor and to an acceptable standard because of the problems with your knee.

Let's look at a few examples to show you how the point scoring system works. You could score points for the use of aids for daiy living activities. For example:-

Preparing a meal:- Would you need to use an aid of a perching stool to help you to prepare a meal to an aceptable standard because of your knee problems? This could score you 2 points for needing to use an aid.

Washing and Bathing:- Would you need to use the aid of the sink for support or would the aid of a grab rail help you to get into and out of an unadapted bath because of your knee problems (you do not have to have grab rails installed but if you think they would help then mention them and the problems you have now getting into and out of an unadapted bath because you do not have them installed) Again you could score 2 points for needing to use an aid.

Dressing and undressing:- Do you have problems putting on your socks in the morning because of your knee? If you cannot bend your leg then you would need help with putting on your socks. You could us a sock aid to help you to put on your socks and to help prevent you bending your knee. Again you do not have to have this aid but if the aid would help then explain how it would help and the problems you have now dressing without the aid. Again this could score you 2 points.

Using the Toilet:- You said that you have been scored points for needing help getting on and off an unadapted toilet because of the diagnosis of your knee problems. Again 2 points.

So if you add up all of those points then you could score 8 points for daily living to help you because of your knee problems entitling you to the standard rate of daily living allowance..

Personally I think them giving you 2 points for needing help getting on and off the toilet was a subtle point in the direction of thinking about your physical problems because of your knee as well as your possible autism problems because you have more medical backup to help with your knee problems.

The above is just something for you to think about and to show how the point scoring system works and not to just focus on your autism problems. The above is to point out and give examples on how you could score points because of your knee problems if for the majority of days you need help or use aids to help you complete the daily living activities safely, repeatedly, in a timely manor and to an acceptable standard.

Hope that helps

Nasturtium

Ema_Scope

@DaleS123
sorry that the decision was not what you wanted. Members have already given some really good advice on appealing the decision. Scope also have some information about appealing a benefits decision that might be useful.