Can you add more disabilities, for more descriptors & points? — Scope | Disability forum
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Can you add more disabilities, for more descriptors & points?

Yadnad
Yadnad Posts: 2,856 Disability Gamechanger
In all of my PIP claims I didn't mention one thing only because it is very embarrassing. Due to medical problems regarding (a) a body that is racked with thrombosis and (b) type 1 diabetes, err my personal life with my wife has been a disaster for the past 5 years. Not only do I have erectile dysfunction, but also numbing (loss of feeling).
Obviously this drives me round the bend as I have not been able to be intimate with my wife for the past 5 years. I am already stressed and anxious due to medical issues and this is not helping.
My wife is very understanding but unfortunately I am not as understanding of myself. 

I have never disclosed this to the DWP and wonder if I can add it to the claim as additional evidence of depression and anxiety? Unfortunately I have no evidence of any of this as I have not discussed the issue with my GP. 

Comments

  • CockneyRebel
    CockneyRebel Community member Posts: 5,209 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi Yadnad

    I don't think this is one of the daily living activities that are covered by PIP

    CR
    Be all you can be, make  every day count. Namaste
  • Yadnad
    Yadnad Posts: 2,856 Disability Gamechanger
    Thanks CR I have not made myself clear. I didn't put that issue down as a condition and didn't explain that that was one of the many reasons why my anxiety & depression is so bad. It would add more weight to the explanation as to why I am extremely anxious & depressed. 
    The descriptors I am relying on is because of this heightened level of anxiety & depression. 
    It's  that I didn't explain the whole reason, only a small part of the reason on the review form and past claim forms.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,357 Disability Gamechanger
    If it's a review yes you can add it but if you're appeal a decision then no you can't add a condition that wasn't already mentioned in the forms or at the assessment.

    If it's a review and you add it then evidence will be needed.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • Yadnad
    Yadnad Posts: 2,856 Disability Gamechanger
    edited April 2018
    Thank you. Could I ask one more question about this and it's to do with evidence. Obviously I have difficulties caused by a number of issues. Some of these issues go back 20yrs+
    The DWP have told me when I queried their conditions that you can only submit evidence that is no more than 24 months old.For many of my problems I no longer see anybody for them I just get the medication such as PTSD, Chronic Pancreatitis, back injury, PAD to both legs, acquired frontal lobe brain injury, pulmonary fibrosis etc etc.
    Based on their answer I have never sent any evidence older than 2 years. 

    Why do the DWP insist that older evidence will in the main be disregarded and should we all be seeing consultants on a regular basis only for the reason of constantly getting an up to date report?
  • CockneyRebel
    CockneyRebel Community member Posts: 5,209 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi Yadnad

    What level of PIP award do you currently receive ?

    Many people with long term conditions have no current medical evidence.
    PIP is about HOW your condition affects you, medical evidence can only provide the WHY.

    Recently posted by a learned WRO

    Good quality evidence” not “good quality medical evidence”. If your diagnosis is not in doubt then nor will the symptoms be. However, two people with the same medical conditions and same symptoms will both be affected in different ways for many reasons. PIP want to know whether you can perform specific activities reliably, safely, repeatedly and to a reasonable standard. If you can’t then do you need aids/appliances, prompting or assistance? PIP, like DLA, doesn’t require a diagnosis. It just requires real symptoms. if that’s not in doubt then what they need, and what claimants consistently fail to focus on, is the precise impact of those symptoms. Please don’t come back and say that should be obvious. It really isn’t. Everyone is different. You can have people who push through pain and people who psychologically would never be capable of that. You can have people who rate their pain as a 5 but can’t lift a pan and people who rate their pain an 8 who can. Good luck finding a consultant or GP with first hand knowledge of your ability to lift pans! If you don’t tell them then they don’t know.

    Does your GP have meals with you? Does your GP bathe you? Does your GP go to the toilet with you? Does your GP sleep over and know what you’re like overnight? If they don’t, and I’m guessing they don’t, then they have no useful evidence to offer on the very things PIP wants to know. 

    The best evidence on the things PIP need to know is your own anecdotal evidence. Why specifically can’t you prepare food? What happened the last time you tried? When was that? Who witnessed it? Where did you have to go when you burnt yourself? Why isn’t it in your medical records? Those boxes for any “extra information”! That’s where the anecdotal stuff goes and if you don’t fill then with up to date anecdotal information then you’re instantly operating with one arm behind your back. Norton2018 said:

    Symptoms vary, like all conditions, from person to person so it always comes back to the anecdotal stuff.

    People complain repeatedly on here that HCPs and tribunals ask irrelevant questions. They absolutely don’t. They are wholly focused on the functional consequences of your symptoms and pulling anecdotal evidence out of people who think some letters from people with letters after their name should always be enough. 

    52% of DLA/PIP claims succeed without any medical evidence whatsoever. There’s no evidence, literally none, that the other 48% of successful claims succeed because of any medical evidence submitted. 

    i would say there’s lots of merit in focused medical evidence for mental ill health but otherwise you need to ask yourself specifically what gap will be filled by GP or other medical evidence. If you can’t identify a specific gap...

    Incidentally, whether we like it or not, the onus is on the claimant to evidence their entitlement at the claim stage. There’s no onus on DWP to gain evidebvr in your behalf in most circumstances.

    We all know the HCP process is flawed. The mistake people make repeatedly is to think that they individually can fix that. “Maybe if I take my consultants letters on the day?” “Maybe if I take someone who knows me?” “Maybe if I record the assessment?” Any or all of those things may assist in giving less weight to the outcome of a HCP assessment but they almost never change the outcome of the assessment itself at the assessment stage.

     Similarly, only 16% of decisions are being changed at the MR stage so again the problem is not necessarily your evidence but the poor process for assessing it. Once a claim fails people blame themselves and think “More evidence. That’ll change their mind.” Of course there are some circumstances where that is true but just as often the process is the issue and most people say in one breath that they understand anecdotal evidence is important but continue to mentally think that everything will change if their GP or consultant or whoever just says x. So, if you’re correct and you already have a load of anecdotal evidence then stick with that at the appeal stage. The CA stuff you’re quoting is generic information. It’s a vague general principle type of thing. Not universally applicable.

    I’ve already explained why GP evidence is largely irrelevant unless diagnosis or symptoms are in dispute so I won’t repeat that but it’s also worth knowing that most claimants have no means of assessing the worth of such evidence and often submit evidence from a GP which actually harms their case. WROs used to request such evidence; assess it if it ever came and not submit it if it was detrimental. Nowadays you can’t do that. Tribunals want everything on record.

    So if I wrote to a GP then my letter and the response have to go into the appeal papers whether or not the response is helpful. If you get GP or other medical evidence and you get advice that it’s not helpful you actually have a big big problem if you then withhold that and the tribunal request your medical records and then come across that letter. Your evidence will be instantly less credible.

    So, to take your specific point, an approach that something is better than nothing and must be “surely helpful” is dangerous. Focus in on the gaps in your anecdotal evidence. What specifically can a GP add re: specific activities? If they can’t then leave well alone and trust your evidence and the tribunal. If you’re not sure then you need face to face advice and in any event you’d be well advised to get representation.

    CR


    Be all you can be, make  every day count. Namaste
  • Yadnad
    Yadnad Posts: 2,856 Disability Gamechanger
    Thank you so much for that lengthy post. There is so much good advice in it. I never realised half of what you have said and above all it makes absolute sense.

    I have always relied on ticking the boxes - yes, no, sometimes for the past three assessment/re-assessments in the past 5 years. I have always relied on medical evidence to support that disability. Never did it cross my mind that I should have explained how my life has been impacted.

    This just goes to show that those lucky enough to get good advice and help at the start of the claim/reassessment would stand a much greater chance of getting the right award first time around. For those like me that have struggled through it all knowing very little about what the DWP really want to see will always have difficulties. That's not right or fair.
    But I suppose if you consider that if you had the money to pay for first class legal advice or medical treatment you would get a better outcome generally. That is totally at odds to what I believe in. 
    I have always thought that any appointment made with CAB or the like would be like taking that appointment away from somebody else whose need is greater than mine. I also look at a GP appointment in the same way, which isn't right but there are many in a worse state than I am in.
    It seems that I now have to join the rest of them and not feel guilty about putting myself first. Being that selfish goes against the grain but I will have to do what I have to do in the future.

    Your advice is unfortunately a bit too late now as I am waiting for the result of my MR. But should it go to appeal I will work with what you have suggested.

    Many thanks once again and so pleased I joined this website.

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