Can someone who has recently lost their hearing apply for PIP?

deelee

Hello everyone 😃

I am asking on behalf of someone who lives in my building who has fairly recently lost their hearing after falling over and banging the back of their head.

They found out that they always had an inherited ear bone that was fused so their hearing was never that good to begin with and with this fall, the nerve in the same ear died. So they have no hearing in the left ear and the other ear can hear, although it doesnt really help when it comes down to it.

The sound has to travel around to the other ear so the sound sounds like it comes from another direction and this caused them to jump out of the way into the car coming from behind as they react incorrectly.

They cannot understand what people say or if someone shouts to them and cannot hear correctly when spoken to and it is as bad as being fully deaf. Cannot hear fire alarms and the list goes on. This is with the hearing aid on on and working.

They went to UC and tried to get help when they lost their job due to not being able to hear and was sent to have the medical check and they did some test that lasted all of 1 minute by making a noise behind them and said " did you hear that?" they said yes so it was decided that they can hear.

This was before tests showed that the ear physically doesnt work and that the impact on the overall of hearing is as if they cannot hear direction of sound and it is always garbled and often cannot distinguish sounds from one another or even at all if are a certain sound. Now they have tinnitus.

They do not want to go back to UC and I was wondering if PIP is possible to apply for and then perhaps go back to UC when they get PIP. I think they get some money from UC but UC are not recognising their disability which is causing problems basically.

If anyone has any advice or experience with deafness or what to do about this it would be really great and I can pass it along 🙂

Rosie_Scope

Hi @deelee, Sorry to hear your friend had that experience with UC, that doesn't sound like a very comprehensive assessment of their condition!

Generally with PIP there is a qualifying period of about 3 months. That means that the claimant should have had needs for at least 3 months before applying, and should expect their needs to continue for at least 9 months. PIP focuses on how your condition affects you day to day, so it's not a diagnosis-based thing.

If your friend hasn't already seen them, it's a good idea to have a look through the PIP descriptors to see if they may qualify for some points:

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) points system

It can be a bit of a long process, but there's help available and many of our members have been through it.

DeafPlus have an advice line if you'd like to chat to someone with specific experience around applying for benefits after hearing loss:

Information & Advice from deafPLUS

But I hope some of our members might have some advice too. Hopefully they'll be along soon ☺️

deelee

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1032582#Comment_1032582

Hi Rosie, bless you and thank you so much for the links and advice, I will be sure to pass all that along. It was not a very comprehensive assessment at all.