Autism Refused PIP & Appeal

I'm in the same boat. Also 28, diagnosed Asperger's, use to have higher daily living and standard mobility. Awaiting my date for appeal but received notification from the Tribunal that they've received it. I've been to a tribunal (by myself) and won before. Just be prepared and take notes with you. Have at least 2 real life examples for each descriptor you're claiming for. When I went to appeal and won, getting the enhanced daily living back should be easy with Asperger's. However, I needed to battle to get my standard mobility back.

In my situation for standard mobility. They gave me 10 points because I can't go to unfamiliar places without another person taking me there. I'm able to drive a car but I only use it to drive to the local supermarket twice a week, and only at 6am (roads are less busy) when the store opens. My HP used the fact that I could drive to take my standard mobility away from me. At the Tribunal, I said I can't use public transport, because it causes me too much stress and anxiety, to sit next to someone I don't know. Furthermore, that I can't go to places I don't know without someone else taking me there, due to fear of getting lost. That's all I said, and I got 10 points and my standard mobility back.

I'm going to use the same reasons whenever I get my tribunal date. As nothing has changed in my circumstances since last time. Sadly, under the practices of the DWP under this current govt. I've accepted that I will probably have to go to perpetual tribunals every 2-3yrs. As it's become blatantly clear that they're going to do everything they can, to discriminate against claimants, whose claim, is based entirely on mental health problems.

@ohdanx

I would ignore the sat nav part because it's irrelevant. If you need a passenger with you when driving to an unfamiliar place, that gets you the 10 points, you don't need to mention the sat nav, if anything that could work against you, as it could lead to follow-up questions such as "why can't you use a sat nav to go to unfamiliar places". Therefore I wouldn't offer that information. However, if they ask you if you can use one, you should say yes, but have a good reason for why you can't use that sat nav to go to unfamiliar places, without needing someone else with you in the car. I wasn't asked that question at my tribunal, even though I am capable of operating a sat nav to get to familiar places. If I was asked that question, I'd probably go with "I can only use a sat nav as extra to help to go to places I know, I can't use it to go to places I don't know, out of fear the sat nav could malfunction". I just came up with that off the top of my head. I would probably spend time to think of something better. I think that should be enough though, as that for me, would be the reason why I wouldn't feel comfortable using a sat nav to go to an unfamiliar place.

My general reason for not being able to drive to unfamiliar places is the "fear of getting lost", I'd use that for the reason, if it also applies to you. Also, one of the tribunal panellists might follow-up with some formulation of the following question - "what would you do if your usual route to work is closed" e.g. road works. My response has always been "If I didn't already know an alternative route, I'd pull over at the next available safe spot, and attempt to drive back home". If they follow-up by saying something like "what would you do if you couldn't find your way back". I've replied with "I would then pull over at the next available safe spot and call my parents for help on my phone". I've not had any problems with these replies thus far.

I'm not sure if it matters if you're at your worse during the Tribunal. The key is to have real life examples for each descriptor you're claiming for.

Also, yes I would send your diagnosis to the Tribunal. The DWP forgot to send mine to my Reassessment back in Feb, because of that botch up, the HP professional was able to say stuff like "he has no diagnosed mental health impairment", throughout their reason for giving me 0 points for certain descriptors. When I rang up to complain, the DWP said that they didn't send it to the HP because it was 6yrs old. Obviously, that doesn't matter, because autism is a lifelong condition. I think even though the HP didn't take my diagnosis into account, because they weren't sent it. The DWP Decision Maker did take it account after putting pressure on them, via my MP writing to them, and I was given standard daily living instead of nothing, but nothing for mobility. So overall my enhanced daily living was reduced to standard, and mobility to nothing. Which is actually an improvement on the last time I had to go through the appeal process. As last time, they removed daily living completely, but let me keep standard mobility. So as standard daily living is > standard mobility, I'm at least better off this time, whilst waiting for my tribunal date.