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PIP claim failed
- Jason
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5 years 10 months ago #213958 by Jason
PIP claim failed was created by Jason
Hi,
I have just received my decision for my DLA to PIP claim. Even though I followed all your guides and advice, I have still received scores of zero for both parts. Under DLA I had been awarded the lower rate mobility due to being partially sighted as a result of a stroke, and have difficulty getting around places I am unfamiliar with. Reading through the decision letter, it looks like the assessor may have made a couple of errors?
In the F2F, the assessor tried to check my visual field by moving her hand in from each side, and from top and bottom, and asked me to say when I could see her hand appear. Now, my visual field is quite badly damaged from the stroke. I am missing the entire right hand side and a large proportion across the middle. I do still have a small part in the very centre of my vision (the doctors say this is controlled by a slightly different part of the brain), and edge peripheral vision on my left and top/bottom left. So, when she moved her hand in from my left, the bottom, and the top, of course I could see it quite quickly as she never moved her hand out of my peripheral (which I can see) and into the centre where I can't see. When she moved her hand in from my right, she reached the middle before I could see it and even remarked at how far across she needed to go.
However, on my decision letter, they have noted "You had slightly reduced right side peripheral vision". This is clearly not the case and they seem to have ignored the certificate evidence I included that states I am partially sighted. Their report makes it seem like I am only missing a fraction on my right hand side, rather than the whole right side and large portion across the middle, which I did fully explain to her.
Also, while they noted that "You said you have difficulty planning and following journeys", they also said I had no problem walking in a dimly lit corridor, negotiating obstacles. This is also not entirely true. The corridor was maybe about 5 metres long, with no obstacle other than a 'bump' in the middle of the corridor floor, and was well illuminated by daylight. I attended the F2F with my father and he was leading me down the corridor and told me to mind the 'bump', and made sure I didn't trip over it, both going into and out of the assessment. So I'm not sure how they managed to come to the conclusion that they did.
The reason I have 'difficulty planning and following a journey' is due to my lack of useable visual field. I get very anxious if I'm in places I don't know, and always have to have someone with me if I need to go anywhere I've not been before. I really worry about running into people or objects that I miss because I can't see them. I even noted on the form that a couple of years ago I walked into a bollard, severely damaging my knee, because I simply hadn't seen it.
All of this was on my forms and explained in the assessment.
I fully intend to have the mandatory reconsideration and even go to tribunal if necessary. I'm going to read through all your information regarding these, and hopefully I can get a positive result.
Could I possibly ask your opinion of the above? Do you think I have reason to request the reconsideration? If so, what else could I do to help my case?
I have a doctors appointment next Wednesday for my annual stroke checkup. Is it worth me requesting my medical records regarding my sight? Do you think my doctor will have the chart results of the 'flashing dot' tests I had after my stroke (the ones that determine visual field)? I had already included reports from the hospital that said I was partially sighted, but these were just the ones the hospital had sent me when my care was moved over from them to my GP.
My apologies for this being as long as it is. Needless to say, I am quite a bit upset right now, so I'm praying you do have something positive to say.
Jason.
I have just received my decision for my DLA to PIP claim. Even though I followed all your guides and advice, I have still received scores of zero for both parts. Under DLA I had been awarded the lower rate mobility due to being partially sighted as a result of a stroke, and have difficulty getting around places I am unfamiliar with. Reading through the decision letter, it looks like the assessor may have made a couple of errors?
In the F2F, the assessor tried to check my visual field by moving her hand in from each side, and from top and bottom, and asked me to say when I could see her hand appear. Now, my visual field is quite badly damaged from the stroke. I am missing the entire right hand side and a large proportion across the middle. I do still have a small part in the very centre of my vision (the doctors say this is controlled by a slightly different part of the brain), and edge peripheral vision on my left and top/bottom left. So, when she moved her hand in from my left, the bottom, and the top, of course I could see it quite quickly as she never moved her hand out of my peripheral (which I can see) and into the centre where I can't see. When she moved her hand in from my right, she reached the middle before I could see it and even remarked at how far across she needed to go.
However, on my decision letter, they have noted "You had slightly reduced right side peripheral vision". This is clearly not the case and they seem to have ignored the certificate evidence I included that states I am partially sighted. Their report makes it seem like I am only missing a fraction on my right hand side, rather than the whole right side and large portion across the middle, which I did fully explain to her.
Also, while they noted that "You said you have difficulty planning and following journeys", they also said I had no problem walking in a dimly lit corridor, negotiating obstacles. This is also not entirely true. The corridor was maybe about 5 metres long, with no obstacle other than a 'bump' in the middle of the corridor floor, and was well illuminated by daylight. I attended the F2F with my father and he was leading me down the corridor and told me to mind the 'bump', and made sure I didn't trip over it, both going into and out of the assessment. So I'm not sure how they managed to come to the conclusion that they did.
The reason I have 'difficulty planning and following a journey' is due to my lack of useable visual field. I get very anxious if I'm in places I don't know, and always have to have someone with me if I need to go anywhere I've not been before. I really worry about running into people or objects that I miss because I can't see them. I even noted on the form that a couple of years ago I walked into a bollard, severely damaging my knee, because I simply hadn't seen it.
All of this was on my forms and explained in the assessment.
I fully intend to have the mandatory reconsideration and even go to tribunal if necessary. I'm going to read through all your information regarding these, and hopefully I can get a positive result.
Could I possibly ask your opinion of the above? Do you think I have reason to request the reconsideration? If so, what else could I do to help my case?
I have a doctors appointment next Wednesday for my annual stroke checkup. Is it worth me requesting my medical records regarding my sight? Do you think my doctor will have the chart results of the 'flashing dot' tests I had after my stroke (the ones that determine visual field)? I had already included reports from the hospital that said I was partially sighted, but these were just the ones the hospital had sent me when my care was moved over from them to my GP.
My apologies for this being as long as it is. Needless to say, I am quite a bit upset right now, so I'm praying you do have something positive to say.
Jason.
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- Gordon
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5 years 10 months ago #213964 by Gordon
Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
Replied by Gordon on topic PIP claim failed
Jason
I think you need to look at two areas;
- Explaining your limited vision, it's more than likely that the assessor will not have understood your certificate of vision impairment and the Decision Maker certainly won't they will have relied on the assessor.
- Secondly I think you need to look at how you have explained your problems with following a route. Sensory problems will typically cause two issues; an inability to actually follow a route, basically you cannot see where you are going and secondly that you cannot follow a route safely, for example; can you cross a road safely.
The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the PIP area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.
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.
Gordon
I think you need to look at two areas;
- Explaining your limited vision, it's more than likely that the assessor will not have understood your certificate of vision impairment and the Decision Maker certainly won't they will have relied on the assessor.
- Secondly I think you need to look at how you have explained your problems with following a route. Sensory problems will typically cause two issues; an inability to actually follow a route, basically you cannot see where you are going and secondly that you cannot follow a route safely, for example; can you cross a road safely.
The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the PIP area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.
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.
Gordon
Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
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