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Refused PIP 0 Points

benji1666

Hello,

Im new here and have just been declined PIP with 0 points, I have just sent a MR to the DWP and i was wondering what you think my chances of winning this are,

I am writing to ask you to reconsider your decision dated 31-12-2018 about my Personal Independence Payment claim.

I have Pain in left testicle and Problem with walking and excruciating pain.

The Medication I am currently on is as follows,

Co-codamol 50/300 for the severe discomfort I am constantly in.

Amitriptyline 25mg is an Anti-Depressant treatment.

All of the medications are now a repeat prescription.

I have a diagnosis of neuropathy for the pain in my left testicle this has been ongoing since February 2018, I have attended 3 hospital appointments with consultants since then, I have also attended hospital for an MRI Scan and an Ultrasound scan, so far all have come back with no results. With the pain in my testicle being so severe, I have not been able to work doing any of my normal duties, I have also not been able to spend quality time with my 7 year old daughter due to me being in agony sat on the sofa, I have undergone nearly 3 months in total of anti-biotics and, I am still currently on the strongest form of co-codamol that can be proscribed by my GP. Since I have had this pain, we have had to adapt our storage cupboard into a down stairs toilet as I cannot get to the upstairs of our house in time to use the toilet, I have since started feeling depressed due to not being able to work and find support I need to help with my condition, My Consultant has since put me on Anti-Depressant’s.

My Peripheral Neuropathy symptoms are as follows

1. feeling pain from something that should not be painful at all, such as a very light touch.

2. prickling and tingling sensation in my testicle.

I believe the decision did not properly take into account how my disability affects me.

I need assistance to be able to get in or out of a bath or shower. This is because I cannot bend down without being in severe discomfort due to the movement of my testicle, My Partner has to come and wash the Lower half of my body and to help me get in and out of the shower as it had a step to get in it as I cannot lift my left leg I need assistance, If I did not have this assistance I would not be able to shower at all. .

I need assistance to be able to manage toilet needs. This is because 60% of the time I struggle to get off the toilet due to the pain in my testicle, it also means I struggle to "wipe", We have currently changed a storage cupboard into a down stairs toilet as I cannot make it to the upstairs toilet and needed to make adaptions to my home so I could have a chance of making it to the toilet.

I need assistance to be able to dress or undress my lower body. This is because I cannot bend down to put my legs into my underwear, socks, trousers or shoes. Currently I am unable to do this simple everyday task due to not being able to bend down or lift my legs high enough due to the severe discomfort I am constantly in. When my partner has to go to work early, I have to stay in my pyjamas all day as I do not have any way of getting dressed on my own due to the severe discomfort it would cause me to get dressed.

I can stand and then move more than 1 metre but no more than 20 metres, either aided or unaided. This is because, Sometimes I can walk as far as 20 metres but it causes me severe discomfort, extreme fatigue, and I am very, very slow. This is all down to the pain in my testicle. I have a Chair in the kitchen that I have to sit on if I walk from the living room. It takes around 5 minutes on bad days to get to the kitchen and as it stands the bad days are currently increasing.

My Consultant and my GP currently support my application for PIP and have agreed to be contacted if needed.

Thank you for reconsidering the decision.

now im no Shakespeare as you can tell but its all 100% correct whats my chances?

Thanks

Ben

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Comments

poppy123456

Hi,

I'm afraid no one can tell you what your chances of an award are. Most MR decisions remain the same and only 18% change, so you'll most likely have to take it to Tribunal. If this happens then appearing in person will give you the best chance of a decision in your favour. Good luck.

benji1666

poppy123456 said:

Hi,

I'm afraid no one can tell you what your chances of an award are. Most MR decisions remain the same and only 18% change, so you'll most likely have to take it to Tribunal. If this happens then appearing in person will give you the best chance of a decision in your favour. Good luck.

Thank you for your advise

wilko

As you well know PIP,is about your abilities and not your illness, medication or disability. To be able to get awarded the benefit PIP, you the claimant have to prove that you meet the PIP descriptors in your abilities, this is clearly asked when you fill in your application form the questions that are asked and you filled in stating your abilities to do or not do the descriptors as exsplained in the application form. At your acessment the acessor asked you questions about the descriptors and the answers you gave on your application form to confirm that you where able or not able to meet the descriptors, on completion a report was written and sent to the DWP where a decision maker made your award. Have you requested a copy of your acessment report.

cristobal

@benji1666It reads well to me.

Putting myself in the place of the assessor I wonder if you might consider clarifying a couple of points, if you haven’t sent your response yet….

In relation to managing toilet needs (and without going into too much detail!):-

You say that 60% of the time you struggle to get off the toilet - what happens for the other 40% - can you manage OK? Why does it vary? [I’m assuming that the pain that you suffer is variable, in which case does this variation might apply to mobility and getting dressed as well?]

‘Struggle’, to me this tends to suggest that you can complete the task but you find it difficult. Is this the case? If not I wonder if you could be clearer that you cannot do it without help.

What happens when your wife isn’t there?

Good luck, I hope things turn out well...

benji1666

wilko said:

As you well know PIP,is about your abilities and not your illness, medication or disability. To be able to get awarded the benefit PIP, you the claimant have to prove that you meet the PIP descriptors in your abilities, this is clearly asked when you fill in your application form the questions that are asked and you filled in stating your abilities to do or not do the descriptors as exsplained in the application form. At your acessment the acessor asked you questions about the descriptors and the answers you gave on your application form to confirm that you where able or not able to meet the descriptors, on completion a report was written and sent to the DWP where a decision maker made your award. Have you requested a copy of your acessment report.

I have the report and they are stating i can walk 200m no problem but when they come to do the assessment it took me 5 minutes to open the door and i had to stop on the way back due to the pain, They state i walked with a limp at a slow speed.

The more i read it the more i can pick out that isnt true. i done one of the exercises they asked me to do then declined the others as it was too painful.

benji1666

cristobal said:

@benji1666It reads well to me.

Putting myself in the place of the assessor I wonder if you might consider clarifying a couple of points, if you haven’t sent your response yet….

In relation to managing toilet needs (and without going into too much detail!):-

You say that 60% of the time you struggle to get off the toilet - what happens for the other 40% - can you manage OK? Why does it vary? [I’m assuming that the pain that you suffer is variable, in which case does this variation might apply to mobility and getting dressed as well?]

‘Struggle’, to me this tends to suggest that you can complete the task but you find it difficult. Is this the case? If not I wonder if you could be clearer that you cannot do it without help.

What happens when your wife isn’t there?
Good luck, I hope things turn out well...

When she isn't here i tend not to go. We are in the process of adding 2 hand rails in the adapted toilet downstairs but as im currently not working we just cant afford it. It stands a high chance that im going to lose my job due to not being able to complete my full duties.

poppy123456

Not being able to work won't help you with a PIP award because it's not about not being able to work.

cristobal

As @poppy123456 says PIP isn't about whether you can work or not. I'm sorry to hear about your job situation but, if the worst comes to the worst, maybe you could think about what work tasks you aren't able to do and whether you could relate these to the PIP descriptors?

If I might add one final thing - be very clear, both in your own mind and in your submission, what your capabilities are. Using adaptations -hand rails in this case- is a lot different from needing assistance from someone else and you get less points.

poppy123456

If they think you can reasonably use an aid rather than require assistance then you'll score the points for using an aid. If assistance is required then you need to prove why you can't use the aid for that activity. You need to give 2-3 examples of what happened the last time you used an aid for the descriptors that apply.

You mentioned 3 descriptors here which would score you 9 points if you scored them for needing assistance. If you scored them for using an aid you won't be awarded enough for an award with daily living.

You haven't mentioned preparing food? are you able to cook? Do you drive a car, as you say you work?

benji1666

poppy123456 said:

If they think you can reasonably use an aid rather than require assistance then you'll score the points for using an aid. If assistance is required then you need to prove why you can't use the aid for that activity. You need to give 2-3 examples of what happened the last time you used an aid for the descriptors that apply.

You mentioned 3 descriptors here which would score you 9 points if you scored them for needing assistance. If you scored them for using an aid you won't be awarded enough for an award with daily living.

You haven't mentioned preparing food? are you able to cook? Do you drive a car, as you say you work?

I can cook food but it hurts to stand for more than 10 minutes, i have to sit in the kitchen in case it burns or i need to do somthing with it as if i was sat down i could not get to it in time,

as for driving i can drive but as i said in the meeting i have decided not to drive when im having a bad day and at times im having a good day i can drive but only short distances, My Job is currently all driving as im a HGV driver.

poppy123456

I think you should have a read of this https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria