PIP letter received, not got enhanced mobility .

S

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I would start by having a look at our PIP Claim guide which explains the criteria against which you have been assessed.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

PIP uses different criteria from DLA and was designed to be tougher to get an award, this is particularly the case for Mobility where the walking distance has been reduced from the DLA accepted distance of 50m to only 20m.

As to challenging the Decision, first you need to be aware that it likely that your current award will be looked at, whilst it is rare for a claimant to have this reduced or removed, it does happen and you need to be aware of this. Secondly you need consider whether you actually meet the criteria for the Enhanced award, the guide will hep you with this, you should have a look at the sections that cover the use of "reliably" and "for the majority of days".

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide for details of the process and template letters that you can use to make the request with. Same link as above.

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

Crafty cow wrote: Thanks so much for the information. It's more frustrating when you know your capabilities or lack of them.

One more question., if that's ok, should I leave explaining where I think the decision was wrong, for later letters or include it in the initial letter? I don't know what to do for the best.
Thanks again for all the information! It's much appreciated.

Sam

It's up to you, the important thing is to make the request for an MR within the one month, if you want to wait until you have the assessment report to explain your reasons then explain on your MR request than you will be sending further information, they should allow you four weeks to do this but sooner is better.

Gordon