Won PIP on paper appeal!

Miss Haversham wrote: I have been turned down for mandatory reconsideration and have to appeal. BecauseI have been aagoraphobic for the last 22 years I can not attend appeal and have no one to represent me I read that there's a lower success rate on paper based appeals. Is this true and what can I do to make my case stronger?
Thank you for any advice

I'm afraid that this is the case, the last time I saw statistics on this the success rate for a Paper hearing was about 1/4 that for an Oral one.

The primary difference between the two is that the panel can explore the claimants problems through there questioning so you need to try and replicate this by explaining your issues in detail, try and follow the approach used in the PIP Claim guide;

1. What is the health condition and what are the symptoms that cause you problems with the activity

2. Describe the problems you have, giving details and examples if you can.

3. If you use any aids or appliances, list them and explain why you use them.

4. If you need physical help, supervision or prompting, whether you actually get it or not, explain what you need and why you need it, including if you need help when using aids or appliances. If you can’t manage even with help from another person and have to have everything done for you, say so.

5. Say when during the day or night you have problems. For example, is it all the time, mostly in the morning or just in the evening?

6. If your condition varies, from day to day or week to week, try to explain how much it varies
and what problems you have when you are at your best, worst and average.

There may be multiple reasons why you cannot perform an activity, for example; for preparing food you may not be able to hold knives dues to dexterity problems and you may also not be able to stand for long periods of times, so you would go through the above twice, once for the dexterity and once for the standing.

Remember you need to explain whether aids and appliances would help or make no difference, so using the above example; would using knives with large handles make a difference, could you use a perching stool?.

Make sure you read and understand the criteria against which you are being assessed, you'll only score points if you show that you meet that criteria.

Gordon