Hi, Could I ask please if the rules for mobility has changed and if the DWP still accept
'Cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid. 10 points', as a descriptor?

My daughter has, on mandatory reconsideration gone from 4 points to 19 points on the daily living award, but the DWP say that she does not get any points for mobility because they have used the criteria of:
'Cannot undertake any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant.'

They do not mention 'Cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid', which is what we put on the claim form.

She has learning difficulties, and other disabilities such as social communication, speech and language, ADHD, sensory processing and needs someone to go with her to all new places and gets very anxious about going to new places on her own. She can travel to places she is familiar with but if there is a problem on the journey will text me or her dad to find out what to do. She finds it hard to communicate with new people.

I am confused and wonder if anyone could help me out please so I can understand why the DWP are only referring to 'overwhelming psychological distress' or whether they really should be looking at' not being able to take new journeys without help.'

Thank you for any responses.

Edna

Hi J

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.

The scores are shown below:
a. Can plan and follow the route of a journey unaided. 0 points.
b. Needs prompting to be able to undertake any journey to avoid overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant. 4 points.
c. Cannot plan the route of a journey. 8 points.
d. Cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid. 10 points.
e. Cannot undertake any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant. 10 points.
f. Cannot follow the route of a familiar journey without another person, an assistance dog or an orientation aid. 12 points.

You say that she was not awarded any points at all for mobility? If they say she cannot undertake a journey for psychological distress she should have at least been awarded 10 points. It appears that they believe she does not actually undertake any journeys at all. If you're putting in for a mandatory reconsideration then this is one of the areas you will want to challenge.

Details can be found in our guide

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

BIS

Many thanks for this, that is very helpful in setting it out really clearly like that. I think that has clarified it for me that it is the navigation of the route, which is the issue, and which the DWP have not considered.

She has problems with:-
'd. Cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid.' because of her cognitive issues - anxieties, social communication problems, learning difficulties, which make it hard for her to cope with navigating the route to a new place without help as she is more likely to get lost, become confused and anxious and would have great difficulty in asking help from a stranger.

She does not have social anxiety or suffer from overwhelming psychological distress so she cannot meet the criteria of
'e Cannot undertake any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant.'. She travels to places she knows by herself on public transport but only after being travel trained to do so. She does not drive and uses public transport.

The DWP say she has no mobility points at all because she does not have overwhelming psychological distress under 'e' because she is able to travel and this must be correct

But they have not considered whether she meets the criteria of 'd' at all, which I think is where the problem is and if they consider the evidence on this ground then they may be able to award her the mobility points.

Many thanks for your help.