× Members

Question 1 - cooking and preparing a meal.

More
4 days 2 hours ago #309487 by Sarcoid_Roscoe
Question 1 - cooking and preparing a meal. was created by Sarcoid_Roscoe
Dear Forum,

I have a tribunal hearing on Monday and trying to look at different aspects of my claim as requested to be on the higher rate for both daily living and mobility.

I have scored 2 points for question 1, where it says I need an aid to help cook a simple meal, but I have explained that I no longer cook or prepare food due to so many past accidents, such as burning myself / food, dizzy spells, fatigue / brain fog causing me to leave hob / oven on and constantly unable to complete the task.

My son / mother instead have over the past few years either cooked for me or provided meals that I can microwave and just trying to look for any PIP rulings that stipulate that using a microwave is not cooking and preparing, its simply re-heating a meal.

I suffer with multiple health problems, the main one being chronic sarcoidosis which leaves me fatigued, often at very short notice, so whilst I may start to cook in the past, I would have to stop. I also have an acoustic neuroma, which makes hearing difficult and have often not heard the smoke alarm go off.

Sciatica and lumber disc bulges make sitting or standing for more than 15 minutes very painful, as does having chilblains in my feet and Raynaud's in my hands and I have just this week learnt that I shouldn't been within 2 feet of my induction hob as also have a defibrillator, which may or not be why I get dizzy cooking.

Just this 1 question going from 2 points will straight away take me into the higher bracket, but have family searching online and even using an AI to try and word this correctly as I believe if I can't prepare and cook from fresh, then I should be 8 points, rather than just re-heating a fresh meal that has been prepared for me.

Any help / advice most welcome

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

More
2 days 21 hours ago #309535 by latetrain
Replied by latetrain on topic Question 1 - cooking and preparing a meal.
Hi Sarcoid_Roscoe

All of the PIP descriptor activities require 4 criteria to be met - the so-called reliability criteria.

All 4 must be met.

~. Safety
~. Repetition throughout the whole day as often as reasonably required
~. Acceptable standard
~. Reasonable time - no more than twice that of non-disabled person

If you haven't done so already, have a look at the members guides which give information about all the descriptors, and what to consider. Here's a link;
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip-2

Go through all the descriptor activities, have a think what difficulties you have. So for example, descriptor 1.- can you cook a simple meal for one, using fresh ingredients? If not why?

Can you peel and chop veg? Maybe you have painful hands and can't grip a knife?

Maybe you are hopeless with timings don't understand if food is cooked?

You might get distracted and leave food on the hob burning it to a crisp? Perhaps you can't read packets, perhaps you have poor eyesight? Maybe there are other problems such as you can't stand up in the kitchen, or can't even get out of bed to get to the kitchen? Do you need prompting? Perhaps some other problem causes cooking difficulties?

Get a blank piece if paper and write down all the problems you have with cooking. It is likely that you will be able to quantify mental or physical health problems or some combination of the two.

So maybe you have problems but not everyday. Have a think why you are ok some days and not others. Fatigue? Medication? Something else?

Hope this helps.

Gary

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
22 hours 4 minutes ago #309585 by David123
Replied by David123 on topic Question 1 - cooking and preparing a meal.
Hi Sarcoid Roscoe. I have stage 4 Sarcoid, and claim NS-ESA. Id like to correspond with you via email but am unsure how we can exchange email addresses..

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

Moderators: GordonlatetrainBISCatherineChrisDavidKeely
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.