Hi all
I hope you can advise. My daughter has autism and when she turned 16 in 2018 she had to move from DLA to PIP. The PIP award was denied. She is 'high functioning'. We didn't challenge the decision at the time (28th September 2018), probably because we weren't thinking straight due to my personal physical difficulties which consequently resulted in me having to stop working (I claim UC now).
We had simply accepted that our daughter is not eligible for PIP, until reading a news article a few days ago to the effect that due to a high court ruling in December 2017 DWP may have judged incorrectly in denying PIP awards to claimants who could not undertake unfamiliar journeys unaccompanied. Autism is one of the disability categories listed. This is a portion of the article:
Claimants should have been awarded the standard
mobility rate of PIP if their psychological distress meant they were unable to
undertake any unfamiliar journey without having someone with them.
But instead the DWP had been underscoring people
for this part of the assessment, meaning some didn't qualify for the mobility
rate of PIP at all.
Some qualified only for the daily living rate - and
if they weren't eligible for that either, they received no PIP whatsoever.
The department is now reassessing claims and making
adjustments . . .
That pretty much describes my daughter's situation. In view of the above, can we still challenge their decision, or is it too late now?
Thanks for your time in reading this. I'm grateful for any advice.
