How to get from 20 years higher mobility to zero points

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  • kandarohi
    kandarohi Online Community Member Posts: 20 Contributor
    poppy123456 said:
    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
     

    Thanks Poppy It just seems wrong that I cant just answer the questions and have to figure out what the assessor wants to hear and say that. Yes I have looked at it and I will make an answer now from the document but it feels like you have to have a degree to get a wheelchair nowadays
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    No problem. You have to keep it relevant, no one is saying that you don't qualify, what we are saying is that begging and reasoning will not get you a PIP award.

    No degree is needed, just real life examples of what happened the last time you attempted that activity for each descriptor that applies is what's needed.
  • Florine
    Florine Online Community Member Posts: 66 Contributor

    Unfortunately, Poppy, this I think is where people with ME (pwME) are struggling with the current system - and it's a subject I've been meaning to bring up separately for a while.  They have such limited energy reserves that they are pretty much unable to push outside their "energy envelope" without doing themselves very severe harm - like making themselves bedridden, if they aren't already.  It's called pacing: keeping within your limitations, and is virtually the only thing which seems to bring about an improvement in the condition.  So really no way is anyone with ME going to deliberately overdo things just so they can provide anecdotal evidence about what happened the last time they did it, any more than someone with, say, field of vision problems is going to veer off a path and fall down a steep slope just so they can tell the DWP what happened when they did :(

    Certainly, lots of people claim PIP without problems, but pwME tend not to be among them, in my experience, unless they have other limiting conditions as well which qualify them.  Hence the frustration.

    Additional couple of comments to @kandarohi: unless things have changed since the last set of guidance came out:

    - "getting around" is deemed as being outdoors only: there's nothing about whether you can move around inside your home :(

    - putting a ready meal in the microwave doesn't correspond to the DWP's definition of meal preparation, which is using fresh ingredients, chopping and cooking etc.

    Obviously someone do correct me if things have changed.

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