DWP offer advice...

Melsy

Hello everyone! I've been reading all the great advice on here for a while now as I started a PIP claim for the first time back in October 2025. I've gone through the usual hoops and got to the stage of appealing to tribunal. Yesterday I had a phonecall from DWP and surprise surprise they have realised that they can actually award me 15 more points than the original 8 awarded across daily living and mobility (obviously giving me nothing)! So they can now offer me standard rate for daily living and enhanced for mobility! And this is a 4 year award. So I'm very happy with this and have accepted on the understanding that there is still the option to start a new appeal if I need to.

The only thing I am concerned about is what they have awarded the points for and what they still haven't given me points for where I feel I should have scored. My original calculation was 23 points for daily living rather than the 9 they have now given me. I'm concerned they've set it up in such a way as to make it easier for them to take points away when it comes to review. Still ignoring a lot of the evidence on certain activities. If I appealed and got closer to the 23 points I should score would it make it harder for them to take away in future? Giving me more of a buffer, if that makes sense. The points awarded and not awarded seem strange to me. I cant understand why they accept some needs I have and not others based on the same evidence.

Its hard to get all the details into this post without making it too long and complicated. So please ask questions if you need to. Basically is it worth me appealing to tribunal still or not bother with the stress, accept the offer I'm happy with and try to claim those extra points at review in a few years time? If this is possible. Who knows what the PIP rules will then be!

Thank you all for your advice :)

SheffieldMan1976

It does appear that in most cases the DWP don't know their own rules IMO.

luvpink

@Melsy

Hi welcome to the community.

My own personal experience over the years is that I have either scored 0 points or less points than I thought I should have been awarded for some descriptors.

Twice I was down graded from high rate mobility to standard, and I got it overturned on mandatory reconsideration.

It was a huge gamble because they can look at your whole claim again, and not just the points you are disputing.

This can lead to either an increase in your award, a decrease and even your claim being denied altogether.

Its a risk that only you can decide on.

I would take the award offered rather than risk ending up with nothing.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

Mary_Scope

Hi @Melsy and a warm welcome to the community from me!

Unfortunately, appealing is always a big risk so only you can decide on what would be best for you to do and your circumstances.

I can see luvpink has shared her experience and offered some great advice and hopefully more members will too😊

It's lovely to have you here and I look forward to seeing you around the community!

Melsy

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone! 😊

And thank you for the advice. I'm not a gambling woman so want to reduce any possible risk as much as possible lol. My instinct was just to take what I have been awarded rather than dispute further but was worried I may be setting myself up for problems in the future if I didn't establish the full points score now. But it does seem it will always be likely DWP will try to take points away if they can, so not much point trying to argue in tribunal now. Just wait and see what comes in a few years time. At least next time I will have a better idea of the process having been through the agony of it all and got the first application over and done with 😮‍💨 The outcome has been far more successful than I had expected and much sooner than expected too so I'm very grateful for that.

Couldn't have done it without spaces like this one to help 😊

float

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1139328#Comment_1139328

I'm not sure if my story might help you, but it might, so here goes.

When I was first awarded PIP I got Enhanced Daily Living and Standard Mobility (lower than I expected, but I chose not to do anything about it because I was so overwhelmed at the time). When I was reassessed (whilst hospitalised…) in 2021 (no F2F, obviously), I lost the mobility component, but was too unwell to challenge it. They actually had to do a Paper-based assessment during the 2021 thing, because I was unable to string a sentence together due to being so breathless. Anyway, last year I was reassessed AGAIN, and I was awarded Enhanced Daily Living and Enhanced Mobility.

The thing is, I was always at this level of need. The answers on my forms never changed. The evidence in my most recent assessment was more robust (had proof of needing assistance to leave the house to go to familiar places, included letters from my orthotist, included my letters from the falls clinic specialists, etc.), but generally speaking, my needs were the same.

My point is, nothing changed even though my award did and in terms of my forms they were also basically the same too (aside from more evidence of my difficulties). Hopefully, this helps if you choose to just let it go for now?

Melsy

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1139331#Comment_1139331

That's very helpful to know and kinda confirms what I had thought. Thank you! It's sad to hear that you've been through such a lot of hassle by the sounds of it but glad you're getting the PIP you are supposed to get at the moment. Thank you for sharing, it's very reassuring. 😊