Stop watch

charlene

I have bought a stop watch of Amazon today.  Hopefully next time I am asked how many minutes can you walk I might have an answer.

no good tiring to time my walking up or down the road, don' get that far. The pavement has a bad camber and jiggle me up to much, so stop walking very quickly.  If I time myself leaving the house, descend 2 flights of 6 steps and across pavement to car, will that be acceptable.  

charlene

Sorry that doesn't read quiet right. 2 flights of steps 4 steps in each one.

CockneyRebel

Hi charlene

The length of time you can walk is not relevant to any descriptor. The descriptors refer to specific distances.
The only refeence to time is within the reliability factor when you should be able to complete an activity taking no more than twice that of an able bodied person

CR

charlene

Hi CockneyRebel, I was asked how many minutes can I walk for at my assessment.  Was this to ascertain if I walked slow or very slow and if neither of these things then I had no problem walking?

CockneyRebel

This is one of the tricks the assessors are pulling at the moment
As a guide, very slow walking is upto 45 metres per minute
so even if you can only walk for 30 seconds the DWP will say that equals 20-50 metres

CR

charlene

What chance have any of us then.  I replied a number of times I didn't know until she kept saying 1 to2 minutes and rest, 1 to 2 minuets and rest 1 to 2 minutes and rest then upend it to 3 mins. I gave a definite no to 3 mins and yes maybe to the 1 to 2 mins then rest . 

Matilda

Personally, I would always insist on linking time to distance because the time it takes different people to cover 20m can vary enormously.  On bad days it might take some people one or two minutes to walk 20m.  So, don't just say one or two minutes (because some people can be over the horizon in one or two minutes!); instead say one or two minutes to cover 20m on bad days (which are the majority as otherwise they wouldn't be claiming PIP).

charlene

As I have written in my pip form and said at least on 3 occasions to the assessor, a lot of times I can only walk 3 or 4 steps, this should be taken into account. I f the assessor  put down 1 to 2 minuets and rest x 3 , if Dwp seizes on this all could be lost.  But as someone said earlier if I can only walk up to 20 metres 50 percent of the time then I should be fine, I hope!