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Hi, my name is GabrielDobrican!

GabrielDobrican

Hello!
just joined in, I need some help,tips about this "life"...ain't so easy, I am a little bit shy but can't do anything else, just need to accept it

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Alex_Alumni

Hello @GabrielDobrican and welcome

Thanks for joining, and well done for putting up your first post today!

What can we help you with?

GabrielDobrican

thank you for accepting me

i'm just trying to see how other people with the same problem have their daily life,how it affects them with their job etc...i got this for like +20 years and i'm trying to apply for PIP because i can't do more overtime...
everything is accepted

Alex_Alumni

I'm so glad to hear that, it's certainly a nice feeling to know that you won't be judged for your conditions or disabilities, that's what's so good about a community like this.

How are you finding applying for PIP? Is there anything in particular you'd like a hand with?

Can I also ask if you've spoken to your work about how you're feeling, or about reasonable adjustments?

GabrielDobrican

To be honest,at work I didn't mentioned anything...for the beginning I was afraid they wouldn't accept me and second , we have only 28h per week and I was thinking they will cut more of them if I would say this ( I know , I'm stupid...)now it's getting harder and harder and doing overtime affected my health and I can't do it anymore so I said I'll try to apply for PIP.

Looking through the questions from the form doesn't look so hard but it doesn't mention anything about epilepsy. so I can really answer everywhere ,example "preparing food" yes ,I can do it but maybe I will have a seizure in that moment and I don't know what's going to happen ( sometimes i get a fast warning feeling for like 2 seconds, but sometimes it just starts without warning and I'll have a knife in my hand.

another question is eating and drinking...same explication, I will never know what it's going to happen.

another question managing your treatments,i'm fine ,i set a alarm for them it's no problem...in one evening when i had to go to work i had the pills in my hand going to take them.turned on the water and i had a seizure...when it passed my pills were on the floor and i was trying to drink water with a coffee spoon from a cup...

So as I can see it affects me on everything if I will have a seizure ( i even felled down from the chair doing nothing)

I need some help cause I don't really know how to explain all of this for each question

GabrielDobrican

yes, read a lot...found good examples of how to explain my issue on citizen advisor. I'm trying to make the form now

Grace_Scope

Thanks @Biblioklept. We are writing some information which we'd like to test about talking to your employer about your condition. @GabrielDobrican if you wanted to provide your feedback on this, feel free to email me at grace.brown@scope.org.uk. Your feedback will be anonymous and we would send you a £35 voucher as a thank you for your time. Entirely voluntary and no pressure if this isn't of interest!

[Deleted User]

chiarieds

Hi @GabrielDobrican - & welcome to the community. As far as PIP goes with regard to epilepsy, then I hope you find the following quoted from the Benefits & Work Guide June 2018 useful:

''Safety and supervision
Until now, the DWP have argued that a claimant can only score points for being unsafe if harm is likely to occur on more than 50% of the occasions on which they attempt an activity.
So a claimant with epilepsy who has seizures twice a week would not get points for needing supervision when cooking. This is because they could not show that it is ‘more likely than not’ that they will have a seizure on any given occasion when they prepare food.
However, on 9th March 2017, in CPIP/1599/2016 a panel of Upper Tribunal judges held that the DWP were wrong.
Instead, they said, the decision maker should look at whether there is a real possibility that harm might occur and also at how great the harm might be. The greater the potential harm, the less likely it needs to be that it would happen on any specific occasion.
So, if there is a real possibility that a claimant with epilepsy might have a seizure whilst cooking then then they reasonably require supervision for this activity, even though the chances of a seizure happening on any specific occasion may be quite small.
They should score points for needing supervision even if they don’t actually have anyone to provide it.
But the Upper Tribunal went even further than this.
They ruled that where a claimant is at risk all the time, then they may also be at risk when carrying out PIP activities that do not carry any additional likelihood of harm.
So, a claimant may not be at any additional risk of harm if they have a seizure when using the toilet or taking medication, for example. But, because they are at risk whatever they are doing, then we would argue that they still reasonably require supervision during these activities, because they cannot do them safely without supervision.''

Have a look at the activities/descriptors that are looked at with PIP:

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/asset-library/Personal-Independence-Payment-Descriptors-and-Scores-April-2021.pdf

Try & give a couple of recent, detailed examples as to the difficulty you face for each applicable descriptor, i.e. when did it happen, where, what happened, did anyone see this, & were there any consequences to attempting/doing an activity?

Say if you can't do an activity 'reliably,' i.e. safely, to an acceptable standard, repeat as often as one would reasonably expect, or if it takes you much longer than someone without a disability. See this mentioned at the end of the link above.

Try keeping a diary for a week or so. Just complete a few questions at a time, & you can always add extra pages at the end. Just ensure you put your name & National Insurance number on each page. You can also ring the PIP enquiry line on 0800 121 4433 to ask for extra time to complete the form, & you will be given another 2 weeks without question.

Keep a copy of everything 'just in case,' & get a free Certificate of Posting from your Post Office when sending the form off.