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My PIP decision maker said he had changed the descriptors. Does anyone know what this means?

tracymel41

Hi just wondering if someone could advise me, my son has ADHD and was on high care and low mobility DLA when he was 16 he migrated to PIP after the face to face ( which was all lies) he came out with 0 points . It went to mandatory reconsideration but wasn’t changed. It went to tribunal and we were awarded 27 points ( the judge couldn’t believe it had got this far) we got it for 3 years back dated. The three years was up so we were told we had to make a new claim, this time I had new evidence, things were worse, my son was diagnosed with ASD, in face to face I took a witness to take notes, but she assured me she was there to tell the facts. I received my decision we have gone from 27 points to 6 ????? She has told lies again. And to add insult the decision maker has stated that he would not of expected me to know from the information provided that my pip would change. Yes it has changed but for the worse not better. He also sad he had changed the discriptors ? Does anyone know what this means .
Thanks ?

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thespiceman

Hello @tracymel41 Pleased to meet you welcome.

Thank you for sharing your story. Understand the situation. Many of our community have been through this. Some will be touch . Also a member of our team may also advise.

Descriptors are the words to describe a task or a duty your son can do. Such changing the way he may do daily tasks. As example dressing, eating, washing.

Each descriptors carry points to be qualified for the benefit.

Please can I suggest I would advise. Speaking to CAB or welfare rights for benefit advice.

Also have a look at may be of interest. Specific condition our posts for information and support. Also Talk about pip for further advice and information on benefits. May be useful.

Sorry what has happened all I can add is you have my support. As I know the community. Understand how difficult this is.

Please take care

@thespiceman

tracymel41

Hi @thespiceman
thank you for your kind words

Liam_Alumni

Hi @tracymel41,

Welcome to Scope's online community! It's great to have you here.

I'm sorry to hear about the problems that you've been having with PIP. Have you considered appealing this new decision? We have lots of information about appealing a DWP benefits decision on our website which you may find useful.

I've also moved this post over to our dedicated PIP category, where other members of our community can offer further advice and support.

@BenefitsTrainingCo, would you happen to know what the assessor meant when they said they changed the descriptors?

tracymel41

Liam
I have no idea what they ment by that, I have been on to the phone to my sons doctor, she is going to phone the decision maker direct don’t know if that will have an impact or make a difference, thank you for your response and help ?

Liam_Alumni

Hi @tracymel41,

You're very welcome! I hope you get the answers you're looking for soon!

debbiedo49

Good luck

poppy123456

tracymel41 said:

Hi just wondering if someone could advise me, my son has ADHD and was on high care and low mobility DLA when he was 16 he migrated to PIP after the face to face ( which was all lies) he came out with 0 points . It went to mandatory reconsideration but wasn’t changed. It went to tribunal and we were awarded 27 points ( the judge couldn’t believe it had got this far) we got it for 3 years back dated. The three years was up so we were told we had to make a new claim, this time I had new evidence, things were worse, my son was diagnosed with ASD, in face to face I took a witness to take notes, but she assured me she was there to tell the facts. I received my decision we have gone from 27 points to 6 ????? She has told lies again. And to add insult the decision maker has stated that he would not of expected me to know from the information provided that my pip would change. Yes it has changed but for the worse not better. He also sad he had changed the discriptors ? Does anyone know what this means .
Thanks ?

Hi,

I'm not sure what you mean by "he changed the descriptors" Have you got a copy of the assessment report? It's more detailed than the decision letter and you can also see where the assessor gave the points. It's rare for the decision maker to go against the report but it can happen.

Either way, you now have 28 days to request the MR. As you previously been through this before you'll most likely remember the process.

Good luck.

BenefitsTrainingCo

tracymel41,

I'm really sorry to hear about what has happened with your son's PIP. What we can say for certain is that the assessor has awarded different points, and much lower ones, than your son got at the tribunal. So for example, it may be your son has got points in different activities, or that the decision maker has selected lower points than the tribunal did, but in some of the same activities. It may also mean that in this case, the decision maker has NOT followed the assessor's recommendations entirely, and has decided to go for different descriptors, not the ones she recommended. That is possible and it sounds like the best guess at an explanation as to why the decision maker mentions changing the descriptors.

The descriptors is the name given for each statement under the different PIP activities. For example there's always one descriptor in each activity which attracts zero points; the others attract higher points.

The main thing to concentrate on now is the need to challenge the decision. The first step is mandatory reconsideration as I'm sure you know. Explain what points your son should have got and why. Don't spend lots of time saying where the report is wrong (it is very unlikely to help at MR stage), but do point to your own evidence if you have it. You might also want to complain about the assessment company (but you don't have to).

If you haven't already used it, the PIP self test is a good way of checking how many points your son should now get.

If the mandatory reconsideration request doesn't result in a change then do appeal. I'm really sorry you have to go through all of this again. I also strongly recommend that you contact your MP about this - MPs need to know how terrible the assessment process is and how many people are losing out on benefit they're entitled to, then having to spend months fighting to get it back. As you say, you son has got worse and so it doesn't make any sense.

Will

tracymel41

Thank you will for this information, it is very helpful

Yadnad

I wonder if this has anything to do with the planning descriptors which were changed?

thara

Hugs.

I’ve been working on a complaint letter about my son’s assessment. The assessment report we received contained mistakes and inaccurate information regarding his diagnosis amongst other things. His date of birth was inaccurate. The assessment report also said that Noah can walk independently which plainly contradicted what I told the person who did the assessment. She also decided apparently based on no evidence that his bladder function was typical for a child of his age. I’m trying to figure out how to complain about this report. According to the report he is not eligible for middle rate care and high rate mobility either.

Unfortunately inaccurate reports are common in special needs world. I was shocked when I read the report that came in the mail.

Yadnad

Inaccurate reports are common through out all assessments, ESA (self), DLA (self), PIP (self), AA (wife) and IIDB (self). I've had them all for all of the above benefit claims in the past.

What you have to remember is that the report is not a factual statement, it is an opinion of one person who may or may not believe anything that you say.

poppy123456

thara said:

Hugs.

I’ve been working on a complaint letter about my son’s assessment. The assessment report we received contained mistakes and inaccurate information regarding his diagnosis amongst other things. His date of birth was inaccurate. The assessment report also said that Noah can walk independently which plainly contradicted what I told the person who did the assessment. She also decided apparently based on no evidence that his bladder function was typical for a child of his age. I’m trying to figure out how to complain about this report. According to the report he is not eligible for middle rate care and high rate mobility either.

Unfortunately inaccurate reports are common in special needs world. I was shocked when I read the report that came in the mail.

Hi,

I'm a little confused by your comment, as this is a thread about PIP are you talking about a PIP claim for your son or a DLA claim? I ask this because you mention middle rate care and there's no such award for PIP it's standard or enhanced.

For any MR process you're much better off ignoring the lies in the report and concentrating on the MR letter itself and what you think he should have been awarded and why. If it's for PIP then you'll need to look at the PIP descriptors to see where you think he should have scored those points and why. For DLA it depends on how much care he needs in relation to another child of the same age.

Once that MR request letter is sent then do the complaint, not that it will get you very far because they never do.

Did you send evidence to support his claim? Just telling the assessor is totally different to having evidence on paper to back up what you say.

You have 28 days to request the MR. Good luck.

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