PIP travel question

KindaSurviving

I recently had my PIP decision back and scored 2points in total, not a total surprise based on what i had read about the process and its been pretty terrible from the start with so many delays. I’m trying to put together the MR form and I’m confused about their decision in relation to travel and interacting with people. I have sever anxiety issues and mange this with Valium (on prescription) the agreement i have with my doctor is 28 pills every 5-6months for emergence use only. This means i can travel in an emergency without having a meltdown (my underlying issue is Autism Spectrum Disorder). The assessor has said i don't have an issue with travel as i can use trains in combination with the Valium, I can’t use buses, I walk or cycle everywhere that i can, i don’t get into cars with people apart from one person i trust with my life. How is not being able to travel without a drug you can only use sparingly - lets say it gives 14 days travel every 6months, classed as not having an issue with overwhelming distress? I also have significant issues with unknown places - outside much better than inside.

Any help or thoughts much appreciated, i am very new to all this.   

woodbine

If you are doing an MR the best approach is to say where you didn't score points but think you should have and explain why, good luck

chiarieds

Hi @KindaSurviving - & welcome to the community. Sorry you only got 2 points with your decision letter. Please with your MR, do put this in writing, which it sounds like you're doing, & follow woodbine's advice above rather than just disagreeing with what your assessor said.

With these 2 activities you should also write about how you are the majority of days, which is what PIP is about (& which doesn't seem to have been taken into account). Try & give a couple of detailed examples (thinking about the time of your assessment) as to the difficulty you face for each of these applicable descriptors, i.e. when did it happen, where, what happened, did anyone see this, & were there any consequences to attempting/doing an activity?
Also say if you can't do an activity 'reliably,' i.e. safely, to an acceptable standard, repeat as often as one would reasonably expect, or if it takes you much longer than someone without a disability.

You may find this website helpful too: https://www.mentalhealthandmoneyadvice.org/en/welfare-benefits/pip-mental-health-guide/help-with-your-pip-claim/how-to-fill-in-the-pip-form/    altho it's about claiming PIP, it may still have some relevance in helping you complete your MR form. You can also just simply write a letter, putting your name & National Insurance number on each page.

Please come back with any questions.

woollywonder

As I've read your post, and as I understand the PIP rules/guidelines, the first thing that strikes me is 1) You say you can only travel (on public transport/cars??) with the help of valium, on limited supply, so 28 days max every 5-6 months? or lets say maximum 60 days a year? 2) PIP rules state that in order to be able to complete an activity, you must be able to do it more than 50% of the time.

So in your MR, you can explain your limited prescription, and that this allows you to travel this way less than 20% of days over a year. Also explain how you feel afterwards...how long is it before you could do it again? Does it affect you doing other activities on the PIP descriptors afterwards?

With all activities, you need to think about what help you need to do something. Can you do it safely? Can you do it every time you need to? Can you do it to a reasonable standard? Cn you do it but it takes you more than twice as long as someone without the difficulty?

Please note - I'm no expert but I did this years ago for my son who is autistic and a big thing for him with many of the descriptors was whether he could do things consistently. He was very sensitive to sensory issues in the environment and these affected his outcomes greatly. For example he could physically wash, but he needed prompting because he couldn't see WHY he needed to wash every day if he wasn't going anywhere. He couldn't use certain textures of towels and therefore he would 'air dry' - meaning it took ages.  He couldn't wash if he was away from home because things were different and because he had high anxiety around privacy issues.

I guess what I'm trying to say in my clumsy way - is really spell out your difficulties, where you have them. Give real life examples. Think about the above in bold italics for every descriptor you think you should score points on.

Don't 'blame' the assessor - maybe concerning what the decision maker wrote, you could say something like .. " you have said that I can use trains with the help of valium. What may not be clear is that I can only use valium on a maximum of 60 days per year due to my GP limiting the prescription. So I can only use trains, or public transport or ///(whatever)/// less than 20% of the time. For most of the time I cannot do this activity. "

With socialising/mixing with others - explain if you feel misunderstood, or if you misunderstand others. Can you read non verbal body language? Does it help if someone is with you? Are there times where you have been unable to stay in a situation because of distress/overload/fear/mental exhaustion? What happens afterwards ..... remember mixing with other people should be about face to face , they shouldn't really use texting/phone/online against you.

Hope this might help to some degree

KindaSurviving

Thank you so much for the advice and apologies for the late reply. I had to move away from the process for a bit as it was becoming a 24x7 worry i was spiraling and other parts of my life were starting to break down because of it. It has been such a long process, I requested part A of the PIP process by post on the 3rd of May this year, the whole process feels like one roadblock after another especially for people that dont like/can't make phone calls. Its a brutal process as many of the discussions here show. 

I have about 5 days left to put in the MR, so just trying to stay focused and not give up after all this time.   

poppy123456

KindaSurviving said:

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I have about 5 days left to put in the MR, so just trying to stay focused and not give up after all this time.   

You have 13 months to request the MR. If you're outside of the 1 month timeframe you need to tell them why you didn't request it within that time. If they refuse then you can proceed to Tribunal.

If it does get to Tribunal stage (likely) then the best option is to either appear in person or have a telephone/video hearing. Either of those will give you a 68% chance of success. Paper based hearings have a much less chance of only about 5-8%.