I have a family member who has a very poorly knee which badly affects their mobility. The doctor won’t let them have a “new knee” because they are too young.
We are just wondering whether it would be worth them applying for PIP, with the hope of qualifying for the mobility component - even the lower rate, or would they be considered too mobile to be eligible?
They can walk longer distances with a stick. They can occasionally walk up to around 1/3 mile, but with great difficulty, and have to spend several days recovering afterwards. The stairs causes great pain. Any amount of walking causes pain - in fact the knee hurts even when sitting still and sometimes they have trouble standing. It affects their ability to do things around the house. The pain cannot be understated - sometimes they are in tears with the pain. However at the end of the day they still battle on and are able to function, albeit at a slower pace than most people.
To put it simply, due to their pride and tenacity they can indeed walk more than the specified 200 metres, but, they cannot walk even 1 metre without huge amounts of pain.
Is this pain at all relevant, or, is the decision simply based on whether or not you can walk, regardless of how difficult this is?
Many thanks.
