PIP Reconsideration

daisycat

I'm afraid you cannot limit an MR to just one component but it is rare for a claimant to lose points.

However, if you are only doing the MR for the four points and not the eight needed for an award then why risk the Daily Living award?

Gordon

Hi daisycat22

If you are going to put in for a mandatory reconsideration make sure that you have a copy of your assessment report and can see why they decided to score you zero points, because it is whatever is written there that you will have to counteract.

You need to put in the request for your MR within one month of the date on the decision letter. You can ring and request this - but would follow up any verbal request in writing.


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.

As you will see from the above you cannot score points for both undertaking a journey and following a route, so you need to decide which one is the one that most applies to you and when you have seen what the assessor has written see where you need to counteract this.

BIS

Hi daisycat22

I obviously don't know what you said in your original form or exactly what wording your letters used. Sometimes the medical evidence isn't strong enough in their wording to support what you said from the DWP's point of view.

In your MR you will have to show that leaving the house causes you overwhelming psychological distress and how this manifests itself. You will also need to show that this is the majority of the time. (perhaps you already have). They won't actually be that interested in whether you use public transport or not, because you travel in a car.

You have said in one of the posts below that sometimes you go out by yourself. So what happens then? If you suffer distress on these occasions you're going to have to describe it.

When you go out by yourself do you drive? Just be aware they may query this if you are suffering overwhelming psychological distress and then driving yourself. If you walk then you should describe the difficulties you have with the surroundings.

Also be aware if your anxiety is so bad that you rarely leave the house, then you are unlikely to be awarded points. We have found this happen to several members. The DWP argument is that they don't suffer from overwhelming psychological distress because they keep themselves safe by staying at home! (Not saying this is right - but we have just seen it happen).

It will obviously help if your GP is willing to use the term 'overwhelming psychological distress.' in any letter describing your difficulties in leaving the house.

BIS