Scored 0 on PIP, assessor contradicts self. Please help.

OP, the exact same thing has just happened to me, you're certainly not alone, as depressing as that is.

In the same boat. In the process of writing an MR myself. Best of luck! 

@anxious and @Razdva I'm in the process sending my MR on monday  there is hope good luck guys 

Wouldn't worry too much about such an assessment. Your conditions sounds different to mine, but there's a lot of similarities to mine which was for OCD and anxiety. To give you an idea the DWP assessors scored me 0 points for both, yet on appeal I was awarded 32 points for daily living and 10 points for mobility.

Your assessment actually sounds very similar to mine too. I was given the reasons about not sounding anxious on the phone, and talking well about my condition, but as I argued at tribunal this was complete nonsense for assessing how I am when all assessments took place as a phone call from my bedroom. The concept of anxiety isn't a reason to not leave the house is not true either. The DWP have made this argument many times over the years in tribunal and lost, where they try to argue issues like this are a personal choice, but lose on the basis they aren't a personal choice and are down to a health condition.

In fact what you say the DWP said is sort of eerily similar to what they said to me, as they tried to use my ability that I can drive against me too, saying if I was as bad as I was saying I should have handed back my license and there was no evidence I had. This was just a bizarre argument as they were using to argue I had the cognitive ability undertake tasks, yet I was claiming on the mental ability to undertake the tasks, so it was completely ignoring the point. The reality is I have the ability to drive but only drive a couple of times a year due to the general anxiety around leaving the house, rather than anything to do with my ability to drive.

As for whether you are eligible to claim, it will come down to a few things. Firstly, do you have medical records/opinion backing you up. I would make sure you do in your evidence. It doesn't need to be pages, I simply used 1 letter and a letter of medications. I would also have a letter from someone you says supports you in your life, to give an idea to the assessors/tribunal what you are like in your every day life and the needs you have. Secondly you then need to relay exactly why your health condition stops you being able to undertake the tasks in the descriptors. So for me, this related to the time it would take me to do the activities primarily. The DWP scored me 0 points saying I could complete the tasks unaided, however the regulations are quite clear you need to be able to undertake the tasks "within a reasonable time period" and "repeatedly" to qualify as being able to undertake the tasks. For me this quite clearly wasn't true when depending on the task it would take me 5-10x longer to complete the task than someone without a medical condition, which for some of the tasks also makes it impossible to carry them out repeatedly as it becomes impractical.

It will help if you can point to something in the regulations like that supporting your claim. I would start with regulation 4 2 (A) as it also has areas to do with completing tasks safely and to an acceptable standard that may apply to you, but I would also research your condition online with regards to PIP, and often you will find there is already case law or others pointing towards the exact regulations that would make you eligible for PIP.

On the point about DWP lies. People are right to say btw that you don't want to turn it into a slanging match, just saying the DWP are lying will not help your case. You need to be tactful than that. From my experience I imagine the DWP make a lot of own goals in cases, and you want to calmly point them out and address them rather than just turning it into a slanging match which will not help you, and will detract from your case.

The DWP had the cheek in my case to claim the work capability assessment I had taken a year prior broadly agreed with their assessment and came to the same conclusion that I did not meet the threshold. The problem with this was it was a work capability assessment that had also been overturned by tribunal, and the person who wrote my report did not seem aware of this fact. I also thought it a bizarre thing to use to begin with when the DWP constantly tell you that LCWRA does not automatically entitle you to PIP and vice-versa. It actually really demonstrated how my condition hadn't really changed at all (given the DWP in my PIP report were claiming I was exaggerating my condition), but the DWP had made the same mistakes around hypotheticals of me being able to undertake tasks rather than the practical reality of undertaking those tasks as a result of my condition.

OK thankyou .. if I don't get it I havnt gained anything and I havnt lost anything I don't think I've got the energy to deal with a appeal .. thanks anyway guys for all your help 🙂

charliebear10 said:

OK thankyou .. if I don't get it I havnt gained anything and I havnt lost anything I don't think I've got the energy to deal with a appeal .. thanks anyway guys for all your help 🙂