Pip

Arnold

Would it be better to go in my wheelchair for my assessment or walking in showing how bad I walk and how it makes my cold worse ???

regent

I can't advise you on that, but i would suggest, if you go via wheelchair, make sure irs Looking well used dirty tyres etc and not Rolls Royce clean..

Best of luck...

poppy123456

Arnold said:

Would it be better to go in my wheelchair for my assessment or walking in showing how bad I walk and how it makes my cold worse ???

If you use your wheelchair mostly when you go out then use it on the day of the assessment. If not then don't use it. Be yourself, is all the advice i can give. Why try to be something or use something if you don't normally do that. PIP isn't about your worst day, it's how yo are 50% of the time.

feir

DLA used to be about your worst days though. i hate how they've changed the criteria now as they don't make as much sense as DLA did.
don't think it matters how you go coz basically you need people to back up your claim that you're disabled, like GP, SS, official people.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Arnold,

Good advice above. I agree with Poppy - use your wheelchair if you would normally use it for that sort of journey, feeling as you do on the day of the assessment. If you'd normally try to make that sort of journey without a wheelchair, feeling as you do on that day, then go without.

PIP is supposed to be about your 'most days', if that makes sense. If you need to use the wheelchair, for more than a fleeting amount of time, at any point in a day, that would count towards the 50% of days and that level of functionality is what we would need to look at.

If you don't need to use the wheelchair that often, then looking at your walking alone might be more accurate, and that should take into account slowness, how well or badly you walk, any pain, breathlessness and other effects on your health such as cold.  Even if you go to the assessment in your wheelchair, you should still talk about other days when you don't use it, and explain what happens, as you can still get points for what you are unable to do 'unaided'.

You shouldn't be treated as able to do something if you are very slow (more than twice as long as someone without your condition), can't do it repeatedly (as often as you need to), can't do it to an acceptable standard or can't do it safely. Assessors will often miss these points but you should try to make sure that your evidence covers them, if they are relevant.

If you haven't done so yet, then keeping a diary is really useful to see how often you need to use the wheelchair, how long it takes you to move certain distances etc.

You could also look at the PIP self-test to see which descriptor in mobility activity 2 you think applies to you most of the time.

Will