Hi everyone. Long post incoming, sorry in advance. Should I appeal PIP MR?

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anxietygal

I am new to this platform despite having read all of the posts related to PIP and MRs over the past year. I am usually too nervous to engage even in this way but I am desperate for some more detailed guidance and I’m hoping some of you can help me. 

Just for some back story: at the start of the year I was officially diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression after suffering for 10+ years. I was put on Sertraline to help manage my depression and referred to therapy services (which I’m struggling to attend currently due to my anxiety). Unfortunately despite medication reviews the sertraline does very little for me and my anxiety has worsened to the point that I have severe agoraphobia and suffer panic attacks frequently. I do not leave the house very often, and when I absolutely have to, I always have someone with me and I will suffer from extreme distress during these outings. I cannot take public transport at all, I cannot interact with people and I have been signed off from all work related activity due to the severity of my condition.

I am also awaiting my ASD assessment as a lot of my symptoms point to this as a diagnosis, but the waiting list is years long and it’s only been just under a year since my referral. 

I have other things I would like to get looked at (some issues with memory, vertigo, migraines, bowel issues etc) but my anxiety makes this hard. It was really difficult to make the step to getting my depression/anxiety diagnosed and getting my ASD referral so I am fearful of having to go through that again. 

I applied for PIP after I received my diagnosis and informed them of my pending ASD assessment within my application. My family helped but I haven’t informed them of my referral to ASD assessment just due to my own personal preference so they could only be so involved. I did not use them as references on my forms but mentioned the help I received. I was awarded 8 points for daily living so was awarded standard for this. 

I decided to do a mandatory reconsideration because I felt that the things I struggle with the most were overlooked (mainly mixing with others where I was awarded 2 points, and planning and following a journey, where I received 0 points). Given my doctor’s notes and what I said in my application, I expected to score much higher in these areas. I did understand that with lack of evidence through doctors visits that things like bowel issues would be ignored but I made it very clear that it is a struggle for me to leave the house at all and I cannot do so without another person present etc. 

I did ask for the decision makers notes and they mainly mentioned my ability to drive as a reason to give me low/no scores on a lot of the sections, even though I did mention that though I can drive, I rarely do because of how overwhelmed I get. And that I only drive local if necessary because I can’t do journeys unfamiliar to me at all. They also decided that I could do things I said I couldn’t that are also evidenced by my doctor’s notes (like mix with others, manage my therapy/meds without assistance etc). 

My MR notice has arrived and nothing has changed. I am still being awarded standard daily living and their reasoning was not much other than to explain to me what things like “needing assistance” and “needing prompting” mean by their definitions. Of course I knew this already and I stand firm that by their definitions, I should have scored high particularly in the sections mentioned above. 

I feel completely defeated now. I feel that I’m in a position where I cannot bring myself to gather more evidence through my GP or any charities that will help because I’m too afraid to leave the house/speak to people, but this may be the reason my needs are being overlooked. 

I was determined to go to tribunal if my MR came back unsuccessful based on the stats I’ve seen people post…but now I’m wondering if it’s actually worth it. 

I just want to see if anyone else has been in my position with the same/similar conditions as I know that mental health often gets overlooked and I’m just not sure what to do from here. 

Do you think I need more evidence? Should I be trying to force myself to attend more GP appointments and therapy? Or would an appeal be advisable even without doing this? 

Any help is appreciated and I just want to thank everyone on here for their posts that really helped me get through this process.

poppy123456

Based on what you've said here I will say that you should have scored at least 10 points for following and planning a journey 1E "can not undertake any journey due to overwhelming psychological distress." If you're unable to go out on the majority of days, so at least 50% of the days in a 12 month period. If this applies then you won't score 12 points even if you can "sometimes" go out with another person.

The daily living part, if social support is needed then potentially another 2 points here (4 in total) then 1 point for needing supervision, prompting or assistance with medication. This would take you to a total of 11 points. Whether it's possible to score that extra point, I can't advise about that one. You can take a look at this, it may help going forward.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria#daily-living-activities

For the Tribunal, if you either appear in person or have a telephone/video hearing then either of those will give you the best chance of a decision in your favour, at about 70%. Paper based hearings have a much less success rate so I'd advise you to avoid that.

More evidence? Ask yourself what you think more evidence will achieve. Less is very often more. Sending in multiple pieces of evidence all saying the same thing isn't helpful. I'd advise you have a look through everything you've sent to support your claim before answering this.

You said you've been reading the forum for about a year so you must have seen some members (myself included) mentioning real world examples. This is examples of things that have happened to you when you attempt each descriptor that applies. Did you give any of those at all when filling out the form or writing the MR letter? If you didn't then you should do that for the Tribunal.

You should include information such as where you were, what exactly happened, did anyone see it and what the consequences were.

Comparing yourself to someone else is very difficult because no 2 people will be affected the same way. Even if you all have the same diagnosis. For this reason I'd advise you to move away from that idea and concentrate on where any why you think you should have scored those points.

Last but not least, at Tribunal stage, if they plan on removing points you already have they will warn you before doing so. They will either do this on the day of the hearing and then adjourn it for you to go away and consider your options or they will write to you with the warning. If you then decide to cancel, you can do that and keep your existing award.

I hope this helps a little.