Pip review

tru88le

One thing that messed us up was this: we let them turn 'can't do it' into 'can do it with prompting'.
That fact alone caused us two and a half years of hell for one poinr.
If yr unsure they understood ask to see what they wrote.

sarah50

@tru88le I totally agree I was struggling at f2f and now months on reading the report HCP wrote she has done exactly that, I remember her repeatedly asking certain questions in different ways to try to get at a particular answer, in most of the descriptors she has written that I reported no particular problems doing this activity. . . . Well I did or I wouldn't have been there renewing my pip, I would have said when I got the form that things were better. Everything I said has been twisted. Now I feel I need to be a benefits expert and a legal expert and find a load of strength that I just don't have. Never been very forceful at getting my needs across, I feel people either try to understand or they don't and I just don't push things. You almost have to aggressively persue your claim with a tenacity I'm just not used to. X

Yadnad

sarah50 said:

. Now I feel I need to be a benefits expert and a legal expert and find a load of strength that I just don't have. Never been very forceful at getting my needs across, I feel people either try to understand or they don't and I just don't push things. You almost have to aggressively persue your claim with a tenacity I'm just not used to. X

More and more people are just giving up with the whole thing. If it was just an assessment and then a Tribunal to get to the right answer, but the process is never ending. You probably have less than 2 years in between these assessments etc. The sheer scale of what is expected of the individual is beyond a joke. Who really should be expected to prove and re-prove their entitlement every couple of years?

tru88le

sarah50 said:

@tru88le I totally agree I was struggling at f2f and now months on reading the report HCP wrote she has done exactly that, I remember her repeatedly asking certain questions in different ways to try to get at a particular answer, in most of the descriptors she has written that I reported no particular problems doing this activity. . . . Well I did or I wouldn't have been there renewing my pip, I would have said when I got the form that things were better. Everything I said has been twisted. Now I feel I need to be a benefits expert and a legal expert and find a load of strength that I just don't have. Never been very forceful at getting my needs across, I feel people either try to understand or they don't and I just don't push things. You almost have to aggressively persue your claim with a tenacity I'm just not used to. X

At least you know your enemy now.
I think it's part of the process now tbh, you have to navigate the manipulation and untruths of the assessors to reach the tribunal where you will finally be heard by humans with no vested interest beyond being fair.
Use the time to fine tune your reasons and resist the urge to waste time on the unfairness of the early process. :-)

sarah50

Thankyou @Yanad Thankyou @tru88le head going into tailspin, I need to forget about it for a bit and just wait for MR decision, regain some strength and plan the next battle ?

susankay

Text message today saying they had received my review form. 10 weeks after getting it!!! My oh my. Waiting now for f2f appointment. They surely make us work for this small but essential benefit. 

susankay

Text message today saying they had received my review form. 10 weeks after getting it!!! My oh my. Waiting now for f2f appointment. They surely make us work for this small but essential benefit. 

Heidi415

Hi everyone. @susankay my PIP review was done at a similar time to yours. DWP recieved my AR1 form on the 7th August and yesterday I recieved my award without a face to face assessment. I hope you receive yours soon if you haven't already. I am in the Midlands

sarah50

@Heidi415 oh well done I bet you are very relieved. My MR decision arrived on Saturday and they have turned me down again, but have used even less of the evidence in the reconsideration. Completely cherry picked from an already inaccurate and heavily biased report, they have completely ignored evidence supplied by my GP. Which I have had to get from my GP because despite asking DWP to send me all the evidence they used to make the decision they still haven't. GRRR!

poppy123456

It's rare for the decision to change at MR stage as only 17% of them do. Most have to take it to Tribunal. Very often it's just copy and paste from the original decision.

Evidence from a GP isn't the greatest evidence unless it's specifically states exactly how your conditions affect you and most GPs won't know this, unless you tell them how you're affected.

Once the Tribunal accept your appeal you'll receive the bundle, inside this there will be everything that you sent DWP.

sarah50

The form was sent to the GP by Atos and he clearly states I have difficulty with most daily tasks but if GP evidence isn't good evidence and I'm not on meds and I don't have a specialist and I've told them everything I can about how my condition affects me and so has my husband who cares for me. I don't know what other evidence there is. I rarely go out, I don't have an employer. I have a couple of close friends but nobody apart from my husband see's me unless I'm feeling up to going out. Whether anyone believes this or not the decision is based purely on a report which contains complete lies. The exact opposite of the answers I gave, my husband was there witness to it.

poppy123456

Did it state what difficulties you have and why? Just stating you have difficulties with most daily tasks isn't specific enough for evidence. As you're now at Tribunal stage a detailed letter from your husband stating exactly how your conditions affect you against those descriptors will carry more weight than a letter as vague as that from a GP. Good luck.

sarah50

Thankyou

Yadnad

poppy123456 said:

a detailed letter from your husband stating exactly how your conditions affect you against those descriptors will carry more weight than a letter as vague as that from a GP.

As you know I am on a shed load of medication and lodged my GP's evidence (summarizing the reports he holds from tests carried out to a full Social Services OT assessment) which clearly indicates the descriptors I meet. Unfortunately the DWP gave little or no weight to it as it was between 5 & 6 years old.

With you saying the above to Sarah, maybe I missed out on the crux of the matter - have my wife write a comprehensive statement (well she would sign it) on how my life is and the impact it has both on me and her?

poppy123456

@Yadnad you know it would have carried more weight as a certain person with a lot of knowledge on these forums keeps pointing it out.

Heidi415

@sarah50 Thank you. Yes it is such a relief and I was actually surprised by the outcome. I have had experience with an assessor who lied and completely ignored what was said so you have my sympathy. I have been to a tribunal before and I found it less intimidating than the assessment. I suppose because there are three people judging it, it felt fairer and also I had a better opportunity to say what I disagreed with. Good luck 

Yadnad

poppy123456 said:

@Yadnad you know it would have carried more weight as a certain person with a lot of knowledge on these forums keeps pointing it out. 

No matter what anybody says, the evidence that I sent in would/should have out weighed any letter drafted by me and signed by my wife.

To even think that it would is like suggesting that the claimant is better off getting a letter of that nature (whether it is true or not). It's an open invitation to fraud.

debbiedo49

poppy123456 said:

sarah50 said:

@JO2097 Fibromyalgia is classed as a chronic pain condition for pip,

PIP isn't awarded based on a diagnosis, it totally depends how those conditions affect you daily. Everyone is different and you can't compare 2 people.

I think what they mean is fibromyalgia comes under the umbrella of chronic pain for th purposes of pip. Some health professionals say chronic pain rather than fibromyalgia as there is lack of knowledge for fibromyalgia or they see it as a symptom not a condition. It's six of one and half a dozen of the other. There are specific symptoms of fibromyalgia that can be common in some sufferers, that's why it's called fibromyalgia and I think that's where you can compare two people. Where it may be different is how it affects one person to another most of the time. 

debbiedo49

Yadnad said:

poppy123456 said:

@Yadnad you know it would have carried more weight as a certain person with a lot of knowledge on these forums keeps pointing it out. 

No matter what anybody says, the evidence that I sent in would/should have out weighed any letter drafted by me and signed by my wife.

To even think that it would is like suggesting that the claimant is better off getting a letter of that nature (whether it is true or not). It's an open invitation to fraud.

@Yadnad I hope you know it's unhelpful of you to suggest you or anyone else should be or is committing fraud and I think you are being extremely unhelpful on a forum that's trying to help people. What help do you require? 

Yadnad

Absolutely Poppy. Some of my medical issues would probably see the majority of other sufferers climbing the wall with pain and getting deeply depressed with it. In fact those are the two most common symptoms. For me, I work through it and take plenty of pain relief. 
We have the same disease yet it depends on the individual how they deal with it. Nothing in my mind compares with the pain and shock of getting two 9mm bullets in my body - now that is bloody painful!