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pip assessor coming to house, son has variable condition

hypermobilecat

basically my son age 25, has same condition as me, it is genectic. He gets a lot of pain, exhaustion and has to pace himself, he does not go out socially as he uses what energy he has to work 3 sometimes 4 days a week.He has worked same place over two years now, sometimes been unwell, but always gets round it, he is like old man at home and rests up . he does not like taking pain meds at work and sometimes is so stiff with pain. He has trouble eating, gastric problems, dizziness, unsteady on his feet, joint pain. he is 25 going on 60. He is good at his job, his boss does not understand when he is unwell. he tried working more hours and collapsed with pain and exhaustion. he did get very depressed about things, have applied for pip, assessor coming to house. how to explain ,just be totally honest, he conserves his energy for work then rests all the time at home,would that be ok to say ? He has to have plenty of time to get dressed,toilet,etc

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Yiman60

Has your son been assessed for ME , sounds very much like the issues. I would certainly be asking for a second opinion to properly diagnose his issues.

Has he ever been diagnosed with Dyspraxia, that can cause dizziness .

Make sure you have your evidence at hand . Have you kept a diary to show how it effects him on a daily basis? The evidence taken by PIP assessor s is basically how he is on the day on their visit.

Explain truthfully he is exhausted before during and especially after work. That it seriously limits your social life to no existent.

Debbie_Alumni

Hello @hypermobilecat,

The Health professional will carry out the assessment to establish how your son's condition affects him over a 12 month period. If his condition means he is unable to undertake a certain activity for the majority of days in the year, he will be considered unable to undertake the activity. Someone who is unable to perform an activity four days a week will be considered as effectively unable to complete the activity. If he is unable to perform an activity only two days a week he would be seen as able to perform the activity for the majority of days.

Where an activity cannot be performed for part of a day it is deemed that it cannot be done at all on that day.

In addition to the health professional establishing how your son's condition affects him over a period of time, he or she will also consider reliability – i.e. whether an activity can be completed safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time period. The reliability criteria is very important so do bear that in mind.

If you've kept a diary and if you have any medical evidence you want the assessor to see that you haven't already provided, you can show them this at the assessment.

I hope the assessment goes well and if you need any further information please do let me know.

Best wishes
Debbie

hypermobilecat

thankyou very much

hypermobilecat

hello everyone, bad news he was given 0 points for everything. the explanation given was a joke, you would have thought it was about another person. I dont know if i mentioned but the appointment was when he had hospital appointment, but they said he had to keep appointment , he would not be given another one, even though it said on letter you can cancel once. I am sure he has good grounds for reconsideration, then appeal. the letter just said you say you cant do this,this and this and I say you can basically calling him a liar. when assessor asked what sort of day he was having he said ok day,on the letter it said he said bad day.he was examined, he has very lax joints and very wide range of movement, which causes all the trouble,on the letter it says for muskuskeletal exam range of movement was fine. even though he was in pain. point is here having home assessment is not neccessarily good ,should have said no hopsital appointment is more important,he did manage to go at 8 oclock in the morning.If it was my son on his own he would take this to mean no way to try for this, I know this is all wrong and this letter is weak in its reasoning. will get professional help though with it.Also as said before the lady who came to house asked how many really bad days he had, as i mentioned before,son said 2, in the form he said he is affected all the time,condition is variable. think the how many good days/bad days is a loaded question

Matilda

He got 0 points because he said that he only had two bad days a week Assessors and DWP will seize on any excuse not to award benefit even though it was apparent from his description of his difficulties that most days are bad. In the mandatory reconsideration letter explain that saying only two bad days was misleading and that he meant that all or most days are bad but two are exceptionally bad. To be awarded PIP more than 50% of days have to be bad, i.e at least four days a week, whether just bad or exceptionally bad. Scope has an online guide to writing mandatory reconsideration request letters.

You have to make sure that the info you provide meets the DWP measurement criteria. Much of the criteria is numerical, so you have to give a numerical measure of bad days (more than 50%). Number of metres you can walk on bad days before you have to stop and rest - under 20 for enhanced rate, 20-50 for 10 points, 50-100 for 8 points. The two latter will qualify for standard rate mobility. Number of hours and minutes it takes to complete each task; Number of minutes he has to stop and rest after completion of each activity.

Have a look at CAB and Disability Rights online guides to PIP and the DWP's own online PIP Handbook. Disability Rights lists all the descriptor with the corresponding points next to them.

hypermobilecat

@Matilda thank you for your reply, yes i was worried about the two day thing even though he made it clear he was affected all the time and struggled. will get it done properly, thank you ,might be an idea as well to see about getting authority for another person as well to talk to them.