Confused about who decides on paper based assessments

First of all my apologies as this is a longer message than I normally post.

My friend has received her PIP award; standard rate care at £57.30 week and no help for mobility. The award to March 2021. As mentioned in other posts the assessment was paper based and the condition was Bipolar.

We now turn to whether or not to look a mandatory review, she has received 11 points; that 1 extra would make a difference. I should say that while she will go for a MR but not to a Tribunal but we’ll not be saying that.

In their ‘How I made my decision’ section the DM stated that ‘they used information provided by the letter from your psychiatrist. This comment I find particularly interesting: ‘The information provided by the telephone advice from your psychiatrist . From what I’ve been reading this seems to be uncommon ie they contacting the psychiatrist. I would imagine this is something I should ask for specifically in a SAR: . What advice did he give? They didn’t mention the GP’s letter or the support letter from myself.

While I appreciate that a mandatory review may look at all descriptors in the hunt for that extra 1 point I would be homing in on the following. Preparing Food, Eating and Drinking, Reading, Communicating and Making Decisions about Money

Preparing food. 2 from 8 For this activity she was awarded 2 points for needing prompting. However, I feel that they did not take into account her assertion that: ‘ It is not safe for me to use the hob because when in bipolar depression I cannot concentrate enough to complete the task and when in a manic state working with boiling water and naked flames becomes dangerous.’ Should that pass the reliability test? Not been able to do it safely. She has actually burned herself on a few occasions. I also feel that they should have given weight to motivation, concentration, and distraction.

Eating and Drinking. 0 from 8 I feel they should have considered her lack of motivation because of deep depression and the tiredness. Again all mentioned in her application.

Reading 0 from 10 In her submission she stated that when she gets ‘a letter from say Benefits people telling me e.g. about a change in benefits I am getting I have to get help in understanding this Form and what various parts of it means or which applies to me. The main part of why I needed help here was because I just couldn’t concentrate and I became very tired and depressed and afraid I will loose my benefits.’ Could the likes of that possibly cover 8 c or d.

Communicating: 0 from 10. The DM said they decided that she can express and understand verbal information unaided While my friend is more likely to be in a depressed state she wrote that when she is manic she talks at lighting speed and constantly changes subjects. But when she is on a low she just does the bear minimum of talking. She very seldom uses the telephone. When on a high she has got violent and struck me, all this was mentioned in her form.

Making budgeting decisions. 2 from 6 For those with bipolar this, I think, is a big one. The points were for making complex budgeting decisions but in her submission she gave three examples of how she treats money, this was when she was on a high. £80 clothes form second hand shop, £500 to a nephew getting married and £40 to a beggar in the street.

While I will go through the other descriptors these, I feel, would be her strongest points, but please if you have any suggestions about PIP and Bipolar share them. 

I not including here anything to do with mobility partly because when we filled the form in the High Court hadn’t declared the effective ban mobility illegal and we didn’t put as much effort into it as we did with the care section.

I would be interested in your views and what the next step should be. That 1 extra point would make all the difference.
 
Kevin

Preparing Food. 2

Eating and Drinking. 0. Not surprised

Mananging Treatments. 1

Washing and Bathing 2

Managing Toilet Needs. 0 Didn’t claim here at all

Dressing and Undressing 2

Communicating 0. This is an issue worth pushing, I think Yes?

Reading 0 again not surprised but would like to here opinions

Mixing With Other People 2

Making Budgeting Decisions (complex) 2 No simple decisions

Zero points for mobility. Again I wasn’t surprised as we had submitted our claim days before the court case result

Initially I wasn’t surprised at the zero points for eating and drinking but then a contributor over on a bipolar Forum said he had actually got 4 points for this. I can see where encouragement can come in. I’m wondering if the descriptor also applies to over eating. When my GF is manic she will hardly eat anything but when in a depressed state she can’t seem to get enough.  I’m wondering how to approach this descriptor.  Ideas anybody ?

Communication seems a big one for me and I’m stunned that we didn’t get any points there considering we did with mixing with other people. Again I’d appreciate how best to get this across to a DM when you are dealing with a flexible condition like Bipolar

I’m also thinking of making a stronger case for mobility as we did not when filling in the initial Forum. At that stage it seemed mobility was been withheld from those with mental health so we didn’t put that much effort into it , I don’t expect to be awarded anything this time around but I’m putting the information out there for the big review when it starts

Kevin