Did I Mistake

Hi Anees

To make an appeal you must do this within one month of the Decision, to the HMCTS, have a look at our Appeal guide for details of the process, use form SSCS1 to make your appeal. Click on the link below, half way down the page you will find PIP Appeals click on the link.

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

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.

Gary

Hi Anees

Have you contact DWP and ask for a copy of the assessment report (PA4)? If you're going to do so - you should do so now. Don't waste time criticising the assessor - but refute, inaccuracies in the report and concentrate on the areas where you think you should have scored differently.

Understand that the assessor is offering an opinion when they say that he can do the PIP activities, tackling these head-on is unlikely to be successful, you need to show that the basis of that opinion is founded on incorrect information, so try and refer to your evidence to undermine what they have said.

Also, try and stick to issues that lead to his scoring points, I often hear members referring to the assessors spelling, as an example, whilst it may show a lack of professionalism, raising it as an issue isn't going to help him get an award.

Lastly, make sure that you understand the criteria that he is being assessed against you can put the best case forward that is possible but you won't score points if you do not meet the PIP Descriptors.

You are not required to walk pain free but any pain that restricts the distance that you can walk should be taken into account.

Specifically for the Moving Around activity, if you are able to walk but you are in severe pain when doing so, then you can argue that your walking is not to a necessary standard and should be disregarded.

The legal test requires you to stand and then move (walk), so if you have problems getting up then you should document these as well.

If you walk slowly then it must take you at least twice the time to cover the distance as a healthy person would, this could be down to the speed of your walking but could also be the result of having to stop.

You must be able to repeat the distance, so if you could walk it once but not then be able to walk it again within a reasonable timescale then you should be classed as unable to repeat the activity.

I'm afraid I can't tell you how to show your walking is more restricted but things you need to think about is what you can't do, for example where can you walk in your house, how far is the toilet from where you normally sit, things that will count against you are any trips that you make outside, so for example, how do you do your shopping?

You must be able to walk the distance you can, reliably and on the majority of days, both these terms are defined in the PIP Claim guide

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

Gary

Anees

I would simply say that you did not say that you can walk for two minutes but you will only win your case with the Tribunal panel by showing that your walking is limited to less than 20m, remember that this must be done reliably and you must be limited on the majority of days.

20m is actually a very short distance and there will be an expectation that you would have problems moving around your house, are there any activities that you do, for example; shopping, that argue against you being this limited?

Gordon