PIP Mobility

Floof

Hello I am new here and it is the first time I have every applied for PIP. I have been researching it through this forum and am so grateful for all the information on here. I have been writing my answers prior to ringing the DWP to ask for a claim form which I hope to do next week.

About my situation. I am in my sixties and have recently been diagnosed with scoliosis by a hospital physio. My mobility has been getting worse for the last 15 years and I blamed myself for being overweight and getting older. However it all makes sense now. I have one shoulder very much lower than the other, and have a twist to my upper body too. I also have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

I have a few questions but will only include 2 in this post for now.

1. Q14 I can only walk around 10 to 15 metres with a stick. I then have to sit down for around a minute due to pain in my hips and lower back and am breathless (from walking at an angle). I can then get up and walk another 10 to 15 metres and sit down again. I can repeat this maybe 4 times. My question is do I put on the form I can only walk 10 to 15 metres in the hope of being considered for the 'less than 20 metres' descriptor. Or do I say I can do it around 4 times and would that therefore be considered I can walk over 50 metres? After around 4 times I have to rest for about 15 mins and then do maybe 3 further walks. After that I am pretty much done.
2. Due to my chronic fatigue I pretty much crash at around 3pm so cannot go out after this.
3. Regarding Q13. I only go to familiar places within my range of walking (about 4 places in total) and my husband has to drive me and collect me. I also suffer from anxiety and OCD and cannot go to unfamiliar routes/places. Should I put this in Q13 or will it degrade my mobility problems in Q14 as I do not go out much?

Many thanks for this amazing forum

66Mustang

• Hi, this is just my opinion and I'm not a big expert but these are my thoughts

• 1) The PIP questions are asking how you can do something in a "reasonable" amount of time, if walking 50m takes more than twice the time a "normal" person would take (which it would if you have to stop for a minute several times) then you can consider yourself not able to do it. Therefore you would say 10-15 meters

2) This can be relevant so yes mention it. Some people can only go out like when it's dark and this can be taken into account if they think it makes a difference

3) I would mention it because you might get a few points for physical movement and a few for needing support which add up to giving you a higher award

I hope this helps

66Mustang

Sorry I can't get the forum to stop automatically making bullet points and they seem to have messed my comment up but it's still readable I guess 😆

Floof

Thank you so much for your advise 66Mustang - really appreciate it. It is such a minefield. I have been working on my answers for about a month now and still think it needs improving