PIP help?

DE3

Hello everyone I was wondering if I could get some advice for my friend he is  dyslexic and suffers with severe  epilepsy since the age of 5 he is now 33years old, He recently got a home visit from  capita for his move over to pip, I will add this was his second interveiw within 6weeks both conducted at home they said they had to reinterveiw him, he was in receipt of  disability living allowance care component middle £57.30 plus mobility component component lower  £22.65 a week .He received notification which is now removed all of the above and is now in receipt of enhanced  mobility  only.  But refused standard living or enhanced living component, by two points reason given was he did not look anxious and know one was there with him at his home at time of interview. And has now lost   His daily care component  with the esa, we will ask for a  mandatory Reconsideration, when we receive the point sheet from pip, any advice please he would be grateful for. Thank you 

JennysDad

Hello @DE3 and a warm welcome to you - and to your friend - to the community. 
I'm not myself a benefits advisor so can't directly help you, but we have some excellent people here who will and who will be in touch with you just as soon as possible. Please bear with us and keep in touch.
Very warmest best wishes to you,
Richard

Roma_Fletcher

Bless you, sometimes I wonder what on earth is wrong with DWP. Good luck with everything. Welcome to the group

mikehughescq

1) Now you have a decision you can ask for a copy of the HCPs report.

2) Do not over focus on the stupidity of the report for your MR. Only 16% of MRs succeed so really you’re prepping for an appeal which will be some way down the line.

3) PIP approach to safety is now the same as a DLA - balancing risk against frequency of incidents - so the key issue is going to be around whether he gets sufficient warning of episodes to put himself in a place of safety and how frequent the fits are. Middle rate DLA care suggests no real issue overnight which equally suggests fairly infrequent. 

4) Dyslexia is an often over-used word so you need to be very clear in providing written evidence of a diagnosis and tests done to establish that as well as the severity. It doesn’t automatically follow that points will be scored for reading, meds and so on. The case has to be clearly made in every respect.

lillybelle

Your friend has gone from DLA award exactly the same as me to a pip award exactly the same as me and it sounds like exactly the same reason.
i have uncontrolled epilepsy, daily with no warning.
have just put a MR in stating that my safety after having a seizure was not taken into consideration.
whilst having a seizure and for a period after I cannot hear, see, speak and am not aware of anybody or my surroundings.
i also said that I was not mentally ill or uneducated and would be very insulted if anybody beleave otherwise
so how can a decision be made on a 60min assessment when I hadn’t had a seizure for 2hours beforehand, 
you have got to discredit the decision without making out that the assessor was lying.
   Go for an MR
people with epilepsy need our condition to be taken seriously as it is life threatening and is not seen unless witnessed
good luck and keep me updated
remember safety is the key issue here

justg72

Hi I have just been treat the same I have temporal lobe epilepsy and this is not controlled.  I have lost all my pip. They said I wasfine which when I haven't had a seizure yes I can comunicate a walk and understand people who are talking to me. She went on how I did on that half an hour she saw me but when I have had a seizure I go from unconcious then I don't know where I am then I talk don't make sense and I don't understand others talking to me I can't stand at first let alone walk I passed all this with I have no problems I fact I scored nothing half the questions she didn't ask but has put not my words her own.  Some weeks I can have 20 seizures . Can't be exact every week is different sometimes more.EEpilepsy is really misunderstood I am now appealing with a MR letter this really is not right something really needs to be done about this. 

sleepy1

Tell them your experience.

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmworpen/829/829.pdf 

All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Work and Pensions Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 8976; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]

Read more at https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/41936/capita-complaint#eobwJUVvWRSMD6xf.99

lillybelle

I think I’m going to do just that  sleepy1

mikehughescq

You do know that the committee are no longer taking reports now they’ve reported!

sleepy1

Hi @mikehughescq yes I do know that but we are still awaiting a response from the government so any extra information/evidence could be of value and should be passed on.

mikehughescq

To whom though and with what expectation? The consultation is closed. With all due respect they’re not going to pass on any further individual responses. They’d cease to function if they took that approach. Better approach would be to forward stuff to DNS. They will at least look at it.

sleepy1

Hi @mikehughescq, the fact that they have included contact details in the report suggests to me that they are still open to hearing further evidence, it would be up to them to decide what they actually do with it!

Who are DNS? 

mikehughescq

You will struggle to find a report from any government committee which doesn’t contain contact details. It’s a courtesy and professional etiquette. It’s not an invitation. Anything sent in will be acknowledged, and then... there is literally nowhere for it to go bar... back to DWP and/or an assessment provider for comment. If you’re lucky you’ll get a leaflet about how to complain or contact your MP.

sleepy1

Mike I get your point the door may be closed now but IF as you say anything sent in will be acknowledged, surely anything sent to the DWP or assessment providers would also be sent to other parties and all comments would need to be considered.  Late or not.

After reading the debate what are your thoughts about the recommendations that have been proposed?

mikehughescq

Nope. Anything sent in will just be redirected through the normal process.

FWIW I was profoundly disappointed by the committees recommendations. The evidence base was huge and some of the conclusions fell woefully short of what the evidence actually said. 

sleepy1

The evidence does appear to be enormous coming from everyone involved with disability so one would think the government would take notice.
As a WRA what do you feel they fell short on?

debbiedo49

What’s a WRA please ?

sleepy1

Welfare rights adviser 

mikehughescq

sleepy1 said:

The evidence does appear to be enormous coming from everyone involved with disability so one would think the government would take notice.
As a WRA what do you feel they fell short on?

Just the whole response really. The evidence showed systematic, clear and consistent failings. The committee suggested that the process works fine for the silent majority. That sounds credible but there’s literally nothing to back it up in my view. Even when awards are made on first claim or DLA conversion people have clear complaints which reinforce the idea that this is a systems failure thing.

sleepy1

Who are the silent majority?  If they are so silent how do the committee know it is working for them?
 
More incredible how they have come up with statistics that are shown on the charts (page 43) that the amount of unacceptable reports has dropped from more than 50% to less than 10%.  There is a clear break in the chart which is explained in the small print below.that basically says (the way I read it) we have manipulated the statistics by altering how we decide to display them to make it look like there is nothing wrong with the system and we are doing a really good job