Pip Telephone Assessment

Hello Daisydream,
I have not been involved with making a complaint since the start of covid. Prior to that my impression is that it generally took a few weeks to hear back from them. However since other parts of the organisation are suffering from backlogs of work, it is reasonable to expect that the complaints one is too.

There are no rules about how to do a MR, but when I do one, I do list all the activities and say what I agree with, as well as the ones I am challenging. E.g.
1 Preparing Food. You awarded me 4 points because I need assistance to prepare and cook a meal. I agree with this because my mobility is too unreliable to let me safely move around the kitchen with hot food.
2 2. Taking Nutrition. You awarded me 0 points because you believed that I can take nutrition unaided. I believe I should have been awarded 2 points because ………..

On the matter of following and planning journeys if all your problems with this are due to physical limitations then you should not score points. If however you have mental health issues, a learning or developmental disability, or sensory or cognitive impairments then you can potentially score points.

There have been a number of Upper Tribunal Decisions which have made it clear that the ability to drive a car does not mean that you automatically score 0 for this activity.

You talk about lacking the confidence to go out. Does this mean that you need prompting (reminding or encouraging). If so, give examples. Do you need someone actually with you to encourage you or motivate you on the majority of journeys? Again, if so, give examples. Remember that if you can only rarely go out on your own, because of lack of confidence or anxiety then you need to make this clear. Under the reliability criteria you should be able to undertake journeys as often as is reasonably required.

When I am helping people with this question I sometimes ask ‘How would you feel if I told you that you had to go to XXX on your own. What would be the effect on you of knowing that you had to do this.’ Initially XXX is a place reasonably close to where the person lives, and then I follow it up with somewhere which about 5 or 10 miles away. Thinking about how you feel in these scenarios might help you to answer this question.

You mentioned that your husband was helping you with this process that is good. As someone who observes you he may well be able to better distinguish between the difficulties you have going out because of your physical condition and the difficulties you have going out because your lack of confidence and anxiety. In the activity ‘Going Out’ you need to focus on the latter, since the former is covered in the next activity, ‘Moving Around’.

I hope this helps
Catherine

Hi Daisydream,

Frustrating as it may seem that is often what you do have to do – repeat what you have already said in the assessment.

(A quick technical point – I assume this was a mistype – but to be awarded 0 points you need to be able to prepare AND cook…, not do one or the other.)

Personally I would dispute each Activity I think they have scored me wrongly for. If nothing else, saying nothing implies that you agree.

On the matter of Planning a Journey, as I said before, if you are going to be awarded points for this you need to show that the help which you receive from your husband or family are due to you needing help which is not directly linked to the physical side of your condition. You need to detail the help you receive from them – encouraging you etc.

To qualify for 12s you need to show that you cannot reliably walk up to If you can walk / move (more than1metre and) up to20 metres either with: no help; or with an aid or appliance; or with supervision, prompting or assistance from another person.

To do something reliably you need to be able to do it
• Safely – in a fashion that is unlikely to cause harm to themselves or to another person.
• To a necessary and appropriate standard – given the nature of the activity.
• Repeatedly – as often as is reasonably required.
• In a timely manner – in a reasonable time period.

If the assessor’s report says that you said something which you did not, or that you did not say something which you did, then yes, tell them have you a recording of the assessment. If there is a particularly pertinent bit, and you / your husband have the time and energy to do it then you can include a transcript of what was said.

But the recording needs to used to evidence as to what was said, not just wielded as a weapon.

I hope that helps,
Catherine

Hi again,

Planning a Journey (Activity 11) is about psychological issues such as lack of confidence or anxiety, difficulties due to a learning or developmental problem or a sensory problem, such as sight or hearing. So 11d and 11f do not define what the need is which means the other person has to be there. But it will not be a purely physical problem. For example I know someone who was recently awarded 1f because he was severely autistic and could not safely cope with people whom he found outside of his house.

Do read though our PIP Guide again – first link on this page . Activity 11 is from page 58.

The DWP did try to argue that because the descriptor did not include psychological distress it was not included, but they have definitively lost that case.

Wishing you success with your paperwork,
Catherine