× Members

Hi all - need advice following failed MR for PIP

More
4 years 10 months ago #230900 by Brian1966
New to the site and forum so firstly - Hi !!

My wife suffers from a number of physical and mental health issues arising from her underlying main condition of ME. Currently she is receiving lower rate of both Daily Living (8 points) and Mobility (10 points) Components of PIP having migrated from DLA at the same component levels.

Following the court rulings last year we were informed her claim was to be reviewed, and she was finally notified in March that her current assessment was to stand. She was not happy with the decision as she (and I) felt that the issues raised in the court cases were relevant to her as she suffers from mental health problems arising from depression, anxiety, agoraphobia and stress all related to her long term ME. She has suicidal tboughts in her darkest times and as a result I have been her primary carer for many years, to the extent of having to work from home as she cannot cope with me being out of the house all day.

We placed a request for a Mandatory Reconsideration based on the two main areas concerned in the rulings, namely her inability to plan a journey (the overwhwelming distress at the thought of actually leaving home prevents her having the mental capacity to even think about the task), and that her inability to leave home has severely impacted her ability to engage with other people outside of the family, ie she has lost all self confidence and meeting new people causes severe anxiety. Both of these activities also manifest physical symptoms of sweating, shaking uncontrollably and on occasions even fainting. These facts were presented at her face to face assessment but we are convinced that the health professional we saw had no knowledge of ME, and as English was not their first language that their written interpretation of our verbal evidence may not have been as clear as we had conveyed. There were several times in the assessment where both we and they failed to understand the question and/or response.

The MR decision was received this morning upholding the original decision based on the evidence gathered at the face to face assessment while acknowledging the Agoraphobia and anxiety etc were declared on the original claim form. It was stated that there was no evidence that my wife had demonstrated any danger to herself or others if on a journey (despite the fact that we clearly stated she couldn't go out alone for the reasons given) or in a social situation. We simply fail to understand how that can be used against her when her mental health prevents the journey being undertaken in the first place and consequently there are NO social situations she can participate in !!

We are going to appeal and if required I fully intend to attend the hearing as my Wife's representative (if that's advisable) as I dont think she could handle going herself, even with me by her side.

I need some help with the appeal and the process if anyone can offer any advice.....any and all will be gratefully received and much appreciated. If any further details or sight of documents would help please let me know.

Thanks for reading - I know it's maybe a bit manic but my head is spinning trying to reconcile all this as well as managing my Wife's upset at the decision.....

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
4 years 10 months ago #230907 by BIS
Hi Brian,

Welcome to the Forum.

There are a number of really useful guides to help you with an appeal and they can be found here. www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

The Going Out activity looks at three things.

Planning a route - this is primarily a cognitive or sensory (e.g. blindness) activity. You are being asked about the problems you would have with working out how to get from one place to another, you do not need to be able to follow the route that you are planning.

Undertaking a Journey - this is to do with mental health issues such as agoraphobia and social anxiety and is concerned with you leaving the house to go somewhere, they will be interested in the things that stop you doing this. You need to show that you would suffer "overwhelming psychological distress" to meet the criteria.

Following a route - This activity about the problems you would have navigating a route. So are there problems; cognitive, sensory or mental health issues that would prevent you from doing this? This is different from undertaking a journey, in fact, if you cannot undertake a journey then you will not score points for following one and vice versa.

If you believe your wife should have scored more highly, go back and look at what you said, or ensure that you make it clearer how her issues impact on her ability to follow the criteria.

In terms of the Tribunal Hearing, your wife will be expected to attend unless you receive permission from the judge for her not to attend and you would have to get approval for this beforehand. This applies even if you are her appointee.

BIS

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
4 years 10 months ago #230913 by Brian1966
Replied by Brian1966 on topic Hi all - need advice following failed MR for PIP
Thanks BIS - had some thoughts after posting last night. If we appeal the decision in hand (the application of the Court Ruling), is that all we are appealing ? ie their interpretation of how the ruling has been applied to my wifes situation ? Or are we effectively leaving ourselves open to the (unlikely) outcome of the Tribunal making some other decision. As far as I am aware this court ruling business was ring fenced to apply to just specific areas and would involve no other change to existing awards....

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
4 years 10 months ago #230931 by Gordon
Brian

Whilst the review only looked at the Mobility component there is nothing in law that restricts a Tribunal panel from looking at the Daily Living component, that said I would not expect them to do so and if they were considering a reduction in the current award then the Judge is obliged to warn you of this so can you withdraw the appeal.

You don't say what she scored the 10 points for but be aware if it was for (e) of the Going Out activity, as is suggested by your statement that she cannot go out alone then she cannot score higher for this activity as her ability to follow a route cannot be considered if she does not leave the house.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
4 years 10 months ago #230949 by Brian1966
Replied by Brian1966 on topic Hi all - need advice following failed MR for PIP
Sorry - my bad on the scores side. She has 10 points for the ability to walk 20m but no more than 50. No points were awarded for planning/following a route as the assessor deemed that as she has no obvious cognitive, learning or memory impairment. The fact that going out itself scares the bejesus out of her and she needs to steel herself for days beforehand seems to have passed them by....this is why we feel they have made no allowance for the Agoraphobia and resultant panic attacks in the MR.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
4 years 10 months ago #230963 by Gordon
Brian

A couple of things for you to consider.

An appeal will be about how your wife was at the time of the Decision that gave her the ten points, any changes that have occurred since then cannot be considered by the panel.

The changes that were made to the Going Out activity and then reversed did not affect Descriptors (b) and (e) this may help or hinder you in your appeal. The DWP will have been reviewing claims to see if the other Going Out Descriptors could be applied and may not have looked at whether (b) and (e) could apply, conversely, there may be questions about why you are appealing now and not when the actual Decision was made.

Gordon
Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Moderators: GordonGaryBISCatherineWendyKellygreekqueenpeterKatherineSuper UserjimmckChris
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.