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Won P.I.P. appeal then lost award again
LDW
Member Posts: 3 Listener
i changed from dla to pip 2yrs ago I had a right old time of it, they denied my claim and took my car from me, they told terrible lies about my home consultation, I appealed and was successful and was awarded higher rates on both components, so now to my surprise here we go again ivied filled in a review form to see if my circumstances have changed, and I've got to have another home consult, I just hope they're not still using Capita as they were terrible. All of this stresses me out which is no good for my health but I don't think they care. Is anyone else having this problem again ?
Replies
Been like this for years and years just because you have won does not mean [email protected] review you. What gets me is the audacity on a Friday . Usual call. We have looked at your award to decide whether you qualify. Words to that effect.
Same old record and same and goes on constantly in my mind. Now fifty plus the battle is ongoing. Been from 1995 or earlier fighting for justice and welfare.
My suggestion is to find advocate or welfare support. Look on web have some one with you. Recommend this to every body. Need to fight decisions and really hit the mark. Governments rules and regulations can be broken and change if we all stand together and fight. Struggle and strive become weak.
There are firms and companies out there will take you onboard to sort the situation out. You are like me and others want help and support but getting railroaded by the system.
Best wishes and good luck.
Take care
@thespiceman
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So you are on the roundabout as well!
It gets boring after a while going from nothing to enhanced then back to nothing and back up to enhanced I've had three rides so far in the past 5 years.
A friend of mine went to Tribunal two years ago and was awarded Enhanced rate of both (pip) for 5 years.
They’re reviewing her now and just removed her award.
Again she’s appealing.
Seems they’ll do anything to deny people their awards.
I’ve been through it myself 3 times since 2014. This last time (last month) it was finally made an ongoing award. Minimum 10 years.
I think they’ve finally accepted that brain and spinal cord damage doesn’t get much better after a certain point!
All I can say is keep fighting and if you go to Appeal provide ALL the evidence you’ve submitted over time.
The clerk of courts told me to send in EVERYTHING relevant to my disagreed descriptors. Including evidence from 4 years ago.
You can never give too much to a Tribunal!
Hope that helps a little? Good luck!
personally I got my MP involved and that made all the difference. Twice I had to do that actually when they decided to ignore the evidence I’d provided.
Its one big mess and they’re treating us really badly.
Even my own GP said he had to fight tooth and nail for his own mothers case! Appeal and all, and he’s a GP!
Despite all of the evidence sent in the DWP are of the opinion that the brain injury doesn't affect my abilities. As for the spinal injury and despite the hospital confirming the distance that can be walked (max 10 metres) by reference to their own walking machine, the DWP agree that I can actually walk up to 200 metres with no difficulty.
I gave up after the DLA/PIP transfer in 2013 of describing anything to do with mental health as it was clear that they don't believe a word of what I write.
For the 2nd & 3rd reviews (2015 & 2017) I concentrated on what they could see.
Three decisions given - no award. The first two after MR were changed to Enhanced Care & Mobility. The third was still no award after an MR.
At that point and fed up with reassessment every 24 months I closed my file and gave up the fight. There was no way at 70 was I going to put up with the 2 year reviews for the rest of my life.
The DWP tell you not to send in anything that has been sent in the past and that nothing which is older than 24 months is required.
Seems that the Tribunal have a different opinion - not too sure who to believe is right.
They’re counting on people not fighting! They hope people will give up.
I didn’t give up and it has now paid off.
I know many people who’ve also given up. Most of them with ABIs also. A lot are now housebound.
Its not right!
I hate the whole system!
68% of appeals are overturned at Appeal stage. Many MRs don’t change the award you get. You need to go further.
If you’re happy accepting that they’re saying you’re lying then that’s your choice.
Personally I wasn’t about to put up with that.
In a way I’m lucky. I’ve been fighting for my son’s DLA since he was a toddler. I’m used to it all.
It’s worse now with PIP though. They live to tell you that you can do things you can’t
DWP don’t want anything more than 2 years in terms of evidence but a Tribunal Court isn’t the DWP.
As I said, the clerk of the court asked me for everything I could give them in order to back up the descriptors I disagreed with.
It worked!
You can always call and ask them yourself if you don’t believe me.
No, I believe you, it's just contradictory to what the DWP say - it just makes me wonder if they are all singing from the same hymn sheet.
I fully accept and understand that going to appeal will more likely than not result in the re-award the Enhanced Care & Mobility.
I have had 3 face to face assessments since 2013 and now at the tender age of 70, the whole thing has got me down.
I do not accept that I am lying, but with the system as it has worked for me I cannot face having to complete these forms, have a face to face assessment and go for a MR to get what I am entitled to every other year until I die.
Now with the expectation of having to go to a Tribunal every other year on top is making me ill.
Obviously I have asked friends of my age who also for one reason or another claimed DLA and all have been moved onto PIP. None has had so many assessments, so many rejections and so many revisions - they agree with me that if it were them in my shoes, they too would call it a day.
I’d love to see it change!
I feel for you.
Is there any possibility of you getting an advocate to help you?
I was going to ask a Facebook group for help. They’re called FightBack for Justice.
they do all the work for you and even attend a Tribunal if needed with you.
they do have fees but it makes things much easier for people.
I just hate to see injustices done
Thanks for the suggestions and if I could be assured that this constant battle would end sometime soon and even if they gave me a 10 year award then I would re-consider.
Yes with that help I will probably win, but what about 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025 etc do I want to have to go through this all over again? No I don't.
As it is now I feel drained before I even start. Do the DWP want to see me in my grave 10/15 years before my time?
Such a sorry state of affairs in this country today.
I was actually very near giving up myself this last time.
I only carried on as my friends kept telling me not to give in.
I know how you feel. Most disabled people these days do too!
They treat us all badly I think. Almost every single person I’ve come across from the disabled community has had similar experiences.
It can feel so overwhelming for regular people to go through (like I did before my own illness struck).
My Neurologist and GP have both written to the DWP on my behalf to ask why they expect people with brain injuries to gather evidence themselves. They both know we’re not capable, often, to do these sorts of things!
Nothing these days surprises me
- Citizens Advice Bureau, they help with DLA and PIP problems.
- www.benefitsandwork.co.uk , this site is a huge help and explains all aspects of DLA, PIP and ESA. Right from application to Tribunal Appeals.
- FightBack for Justice (Facebook), again, this organisation are made up of previous DWP employees and lawyers. They can do most of the work for you and will even represent you at the Appeal and Tribunal stage, in person! (a charge applies as they aren’t government funded).
Just a few suggestions. Hope you can both get the help you so desperately need!
https://www.fightback4justice.co.uk/
And the fact one can lose it all on following assessments when clearly they have got no better or even worse since last time they were assessed im asking a big how and why?
However I am surprised that the DWP, who do know your PIP history, allows this to happen. Surely they would look at the recent report that says that you have some issues but none of them fit any of the descriptors and compare it with what happened last time around. Any concerns should then be put back to the assessor to comment on.
The DWP had to reassess their views of me.
At the end of the day a Tribunal is a Court of law. If you have evidence, that will hold up in court. The DWP would have to provide evidence that you can do the things you’re saying you can’t.
Thats why most appeals go in favour of the claimant.
The DWP don’t assess us correctly!
I had that too. With the re-assessment forms I enclosed the previous decision letter from the DWP. the report summary from ATOS and the revision award from the DWP (the complete history of the assessment 2 years previous).
They ignored the revision and quoted the original decision when I failed.
If it helps.. you can get an advocate to help you. There’s a group called FightBack for Justice. They have a website and are on Facebook.
They help with all aspects. They even do all the paperwork and take you, in person, to the actual tribunal hearing if needed.
They do charge for the help but altogether it’s only a months worth of PIP in value.
I know a few people who they’ve helped and speak very highly of them. They’re made up of previous DWP employees and solicitors so they know all too well what to do at every stage.
It takes some of the stress away.
Its such a sad state of affairs that disabled people today, in this ‘fair’ country, have to fight tooth and nail to prove themselves to be disabled.
I know how you feel though. If my friends hadn’t persuaded me to appeal I’d have given up myself! x
Oops!
As I have said above, my case never went as far as a Tribunal - the DWP changed it at MR. So to explain to the assessor and the decision maker what the previous history was I sent them copies of everything. They ignored the MR decision and concentrated only on the first failure decision!
You are the same as me - I gave up as it was really getting me down. Although just under £200 a week worse off but the relief is well worth it.
No, £141.10 PIP + Guaranteed Pension Credit (because of the loss of the disability premium and the Carers Allowance) - £54.00
Total per week lost £195.10
As well as the 100% Council Tax relief which was based on receiving Pension Credit.
Appealing would be OK on it's own, I have already submitted the evidence that supports enhanced for both mobility and care - in fact it is the same evidence that was sent to the DWP for the first and second MR where they accepted it and changed the award to ERC & ERM.
It's the thought backed up by what has already happened to me in the past 5 years (three PIP re-assessments - only get 3 year awards, reviewed after 2) of having to have this fight with the DWP every 24 months for the rest of my life. At 70, my health won't improve but the DWP think otherwise. I just can't face that and the stress that comes every time leading up to the face to face assessment.
It isn't good losing that money, in fact it could come in very handy but as I have said peace in my mind is just not worth it.
@jtaylor they should get back to you within about 6 weeks. They do have a backlog at the moment though so it could be a little while longer (mine was actually 4 weeks though).
They backdate the award to the day you claimed. Not sure how they deal with epilepsy.
If you don’t get the award you think you should, do ask for the report that they did at your face to face. That way you can see what they said. Often they don’t include important information and have even been found (in court) to have lied about claimants!
Good luck! x
When I advised them where I had been- half the time in HDU and what had happened they just replied saying that I should have appointed someone to deal with my affairs for me - ummm and how did they suppose I could have done that - no answer from the DWP!
Seems that being in hospital in a life and death struggle is no excuse when it comes to the DWP.
When I was first in hospital I was in a coma for 3 weeks, HDU for another 2 and with a brain injury amongst others I couldn’t think for myself. They still stopped my benefits (I was a full time carer then for my son), they also threatened us with eviction as my Housing benefit had been stopped etc etc... My family, who had to take on my children for me couldn’t talk to them as they didn’t have my permission. It was all a huge mess!
I had to get a charity in to see me and sort through it all. That was while I was still an inpatient and desperately trying to get my newly damaged brain around the fact that I’d never be the same again!
All I’ve just said is actually just glazing over the facts too. If I went into more detail I’d be typing a book!
Sickening how we can be treated!
I was lucky enough to have a friend that worked as an outreach worker for people helping them with this kind of thing so he sorted most of my problems and told me where to get specific help.
I had the help of a charity and more recently advice from the benefits and work website and also FightBack for Justice.
I also have extremely supportive professionals involved in my care. My GP, Neurologist and Social Worker have all been very keen to help as much as possible.
Great advice and thanks again x
Give the good, bad and ugly times instead
I know because I’ve been dealing with disabled assessments one way or another for the last 12 years.
When I was first applying for DLA for my son when he was 3 years old, his own social worker told me to do that, as did his outreach worker.
PIP was brought in to stop all that I think and the criteria for qualifying is now soooo much tighter. Basically PIP is a money saving exercise from the government.
Just a massive shame that because they’re assessing people wrongly it’s actually saved tax payers nothing. Or barely anything.
You have to now say how you are on most of your days. A minimum of 4 per week qualifies as most days.
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-silence-over-new-pip-backdating-call/