PIP appeal

Richieinglis

Hi all thanks for letting me join 
I had an assessment last Monday 27th if January, I suffer from depression and anxiety which I’ve had for 3 years now since my divorce started and is still no where near being over I used to be a qualified site manager and time served carpenter I’ve worked in 13 different countries and all over the Uk on projects I had lost my home my brand new van and my job in a matter of months of each other because my wife had an affair while I was away from home on a project, 
anyway I felt my assessment went quite well but when I got a copy of the report I requested there are some abnormalities in it as she has changed what I and my mother had said and also not added things that were said to her about my condition but I did take the test online with putting her answers in and according to the result I qualify for the enhanced rate of the daily living side of it with 13 points , but still waiting for a decision to be made by dwp , any ideas on what I should ? Do I contact them or wait and see what the outcome is with the decision ? 

Kind regards Richard 

poppy123456

HI and welcome,

I'm one of the community champions here on scope and i'm here to help and advise others.

I'm sorry to hear all of that. Are you receiving any support with your mental health?

Regarding the assessment report. They mostly go with the recommendations in the report, it's rare to go against it. As the recommendation is 13 points for the daily living then this will suggest Enhanced for this part. Regardless of what you score, this is the highest award you can have so scoring more points in this part isn't going to help, even though some parts of the report weren't accurate.  Did you score any points in the mobility part?

You will now need to wait for the decision to be made but there's no timescales for this. As you've only recently had the assessment it could be some weeks yet, depending on backlog.

If you haven't scored any points for the mobility part and you think you should have, once the decision is made you'll have 1 month from that date to request the mandatory reconsideration (MR) but do be aware, you do risk losing what you already have. Whether or not you're entitled to any mobility will totally depend on how your conditions affect you.

Richieinglis

Hi sorry I’m new here and didn’t think it had posted 
I didn’t receive any points for the mobility side and I’m on 
trazadone 300mg at night 
sertraline 100mg daily 
which the doc has just changed me from citalopram to sertraline 
but the trazadone is not good for me as it knocks me out straight away but I’m lucky if I get 3 hrs a night but it has me all over the place and wobbly for a long time in morning 

poppy123456

No problem, sometimes the site gives a not responding error, even though the question has been posted.

PIP isn't about the amount of medication you take or about a diagnosis. It's how those conditions affect your ability to carry out daily activity based on the PIP descriptors.

As you're claiming for mental health the the following and planning a journey activity would be the one to look at and not the moving around part. Whether you would score points here will depend how your conditions affect you. Are you able to go out alone or does someone need to go with you? If you can't go out alone then why are you unable to do this? what would happen if you did go out alone? Do you suffer with overwhelming psychological distress (OPD) when you go out?

The moving around part is about your ability to walk and how far you are able to do this. It maybe possible to score points in the moving around part for being unsteady on your feet but walking inside isn't considered as part of the criteria. If you have accidents from falls outside then you maybe able to argue about your safety but it would need to apply to you at least 50% of the time over a 12 month period.

Richieinglis

yes this is  the part that she had not put down correctly when having to go out which I can’t do alone and I always have to have someone with not only for my distress but I go in a daze and forget where I’m going and need direction off people just to keep me right but yet I can manage to drive ok which seems to have me confused how this started happing over a yr ago now I said the only place I go by my self is across our back street to my garage as up the back I have a gate into the field where I let my dog out and my friend comes and walks her for me as I couldn’t do it without being a total mess ,and when I take my mum shopping she said she leaves me in the car and I’m ok and I I said no I’m not mum I’m a mess until you get back from shop and I just have to get home as soon as possible ,  like you say I’m not sure weather it’s even worth contesting it as it won’t give me any more help really 

kind regards Richard 

poppy123456

This would come under the following and planning a journey activity for mobility and not the daily living part.

Even though there's no points recommended in that part, if you do request the MR then they will look at the whole award again, so there's a risk you could lose everything you may already have. However, most MR decisions do remain the same and only a small percentage of them change at this stage, there's still a risk and no one on an internet forum can tell you if there would be any risks to an award you may already have.

Before requesting the MR i'd advise you to get some face to face advice from an agency near you.

You would need to wait for the decision to be made before requesting the MR. Once it has, you'll have 1 month from that date to request it.

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @Richieinglis and a very warm welcome to the community! I'm sorry to hear this, please do let us know how you get on with face to face advice and if there is anything else we can do to help.