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PIP Appeal, next renewal

norstar10

My wife was on DLA for many years (Middle/Lower award) previously awarded with no assessment and 2 renewals with no assessment. She was then sent forms in 2017 to move to PIP. In 2018 she was contacted to have a home visit assessment.
Long story short, the assessment seemed to go well, but the assessor was very rude and not prepared, even turning up without her laptop and hand write everything. Weeks later we received the outcome and no award.
The records from the assessor were basically completely made up lies and were nothing like the actual assessment. She basically wrote up her hand notes that I watched her write and were all over the place and filled in the gaps. Probably wrote them up days later as the assessment was on a Friday. I complained to Capita stating I think she has mixed up her notes from other assessment.

After a complete mix up by Capita the first mandatory reconsideration failed until I contacted PIP to inform them they went ahead without allowing me to submit the extra paper work I said I was sending.
The extra paperwork I submitted included exact quotes and extracts from the assessment. I had secretly recorded the whole thing. The physical assessment was even cut short as my wife couldnt complete them and was yelping in pain. The assessors notes stated she completed the physical with no issues or signs of distress.

After the proper mandatory reconsideration she was awarded 3 years for standard living only, even though her condition was far worst than her previous DLA claims. They had awarded 1 extra point in a category we werent even expecting (toilet). On the PIP forms we had ticked that this doesnt effect her and in the assessment we skipped this questioning along.
Capita's only comment was that it was against the rules to secretly record the meetings. Never commented on the lies we proved. They even had the nerve to say we lied about the assessor not having her laptop. Even though we sent a CD to them with an extract of the assessor apologizing that she will have to hand write everything as she had no laptop.

In 2019 we received the questionnaire letter about an appeal case. We returned it stating only I would be going to the appeal and representing my wife. Months later I attended the appeal to an unhappy panel asking where was my wife. They adjourn the appeal to a later date without letting me speak or present the weeks of work I had prepared.

Now comes 2020 and we send the Covid letter back asking for a face to face, not telephone etc. Even though my wife doesnt want to go to a face to face, or speak to them. After the home assessment she doesnt want to deal with this as it upset her to much.

Now comes my future thoughts and questions that I need help with.

We will probably be receiving my wifes renewal forms in 6-8 months time, before any appeal. How will an appeal in progress effect the renewal?

If in 2021 we request the appeal to be changed to a paper hearing and we loose, will this affect the renewal?

I am thinking that if we change to a paper hearing at the last minute, even if they reject and remove all points, then we have lost nothing.

I know during a face to face, they will inform you if they think your case isnt going well and its in your best interest to stop. Can you request a paper hearing and state for the panel to not proceed if your current award is at risk? Or can we write and state we only want to appeal the mobility part and use the extract from her physical assessment as the main evidence?

If we submit a renewal and that also goes badly, can you have 2 appeals going at the same time or are they merged?

Is it worth us writing again to PIP for us to try to negotiate an end to the appeal? For example we were expecting daily enhanced and mobility standard (possibly enhanced) but would settle on my wifes previous DLA award, equivalent to standard/standard.

After so many letters to PIP, Capita and the appeals, I just want this to end and so does my wife. I truly thought audio evidence would have been enough to stop this early on, but so surprised at PIP and Capita responses to it. I have actually submitted audio to them proving the assessor broke the rules by discussing point scoring and comparing my wife to other cases she deals with, and stating that she wont score many points in a certain area.

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Comments

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community, This is really a complex case and I wouldnt want to advise incorrectly so I will tag in other members who may be able to help. I hope you get some answers

@Adrian_Scope @Username_removed can either of you help here

norstar10

Username_removed said:

Unfortunately my perspective on a post like the above is unlikely to be welcome but here goes. I do recognise this is the OPs first post so this is a bit unfortunate but people either genuinely want information or they don’t. Good information is not about telling people what they want or expect to hear. Often the best thing which can happen to a case is to be told that things no-one else has the courage to say. I’ve no skin in the game here. A successful or otherwise claim has no impact on me so I hope this will be taken in the spirit intended.

Hi, thank you so much for your response and it is very welcomed and very informative. Nothing you wrote has been taken offensively but is very constructive.

I should have said in my post that I have included in the MR and in the appeals process documents from my wifes doctors records and a letter written by her and a letter written by myself on her daily living.
Maybe I have looked into the assessors report with to much weight in the argument and seen the panel as 'the enemy'.

The biggest issue we are hitting is that my wife was on strong medication for years, with massive side effects. They also caused other health complications. She decided to move off medication for the last few years and try alternatives, with consultants and doctors full support. The negatives of medication were far worst than the benefits. Even though PIP states its not about your condition but how it affects your life, almost every part of the assessors report stated she wasnt on medication.

My wife applied for ESA at the same time, for that she was called in for an assessment. We were in the office for less than a minute before the assessor said I dont know why you were called in and you can leave. I dont think we even got our coats off.

I am now worried that when renewal comes, PIP and Capita will see the previous complaints and will be negative towards the renewal.

If the case is heard before renewal and goes in her favour, will that be a benefit in the renewal? If the case goes against her and she looses then I guess the renewal will turn into a new claim.

Maybe we should have had representation, I dont know if its to late or not. I just sort of believed it would be fine, since DLA was so easy to do and we had no issues for years. Maybe when we completed the PIP application to move from DLA to PIP we just answered to vague or didnt give the correct answers.

norstar10

Username_removed said:

https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/56379/representation-and-tribunal-hearings#latest

This is a fantastic article and I only wish, like many, that I had read it a very long time ago. Great explanation of what a representative is there for.
Maybe articles like this should be sent out by the appeals team at the beginning.
I wish I had found this site sooner, great information.

katho31

Hi @norstar10, best of luck with everything

keep going and we are all here if you need a chat or more info

janer1967

Hi @norstar10 I am gld you have had some good advice from Mike and hope this makes things a bit clearer for you.

I have found the information on here valuable for my own renewal and think that by treating my claim as a new one is why I got awarded again without even a f2f assessment, and by following the great advice given by everyonee

Good luck and keep us updated