Tourettes

Hi Gordies

I'm sorry this has happened, but I'm not surprised. Tourettes is not well known and if they know it at all, they probably think the person occasionally has problems swearing. They are probably unaware of the other debilitating symptoms. Now it's hard to give you any advice without knowing a bit more of why the claimant was turned down.

Did you get hold of the assessment report? Did they have a telephone assessment and was it recorded or did they do a paper-based assessment? If they had a telephone assessment, then there will be a PA4 assessment report, which they can ask the DWP to send to them.

Did they use our Guides to fill out their original form? If you haven't had a look at the guide to PIP claims and reviews benefitsandwork.co.uk/guides-for-claimants/pip - have a look and see if there was enough information. It's not the conditions that are important per se to the DWP it's how they impact on the claimant as per the PIP criteria. You definitely need to be aware of the reliability criteria. Have a look at page 17 and see if they made enough of this - most people don't.

There is a Guide to PIP claims and Appeals which will tell you the process of putting in a Mandatory Reconsideration. This needs to be done within one month of the decision letter.

I would also look at the Guide to Challenging a Medical Report.

BIS