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5 years 6 months ago #218285 by Claire
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Thanks your reply.
In terms of the walking, the pain is severe and I have to push through, to lead some form of normal life. I often get cramps in my calf after walking around, almost every night. But I don’t know if that would be enough to support my claim.
If I was to undertake unfamiliar journey’s on my own, without my eldest or mom by my side. I wouldn’t go anywhere due to my umcomfortableness in doing so. Even going to familiar places without a Satnav would cause me distress and a few times the Satnav on my phone has not worked and I’ve had to pull over on the side of the road, trying my might to fix it, because I was not comfortable enough to proceed on my journey, it’s pretty much a safety blanket.
I am have a pain specialist appointment coming up and I’m sure I will get an excercise plan.
In terms of the walking, the pain is severe and I have to push through, to lead some form of normal life. I often get cramps in my calf after walking around, almost every night. But I don’t know if that would be enough to support my claim.
If I was to undertake unfamiliar journey’s on my own, without my eldest or mom by my side. I wouldn’t go anywhere due to my umcomfortableness in doing so. Even going to familiar places without a Satnav would cause me distress and a few times the Satnav on my phone has not worked and I’ve had to pull over on the side of the road, trying my might to fix it, because I was not comfortable enough to proceed on my journey, it’s pretty much a safety blanket.
I am have a pain specialist appointment coming up and I’m sure I will get an excercise plan.
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5 years 6 months ago #218294 by Gordon
Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
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Claire
You are not required to walk pain free but any pain that restricts the distance that you can walk should be taken into account.
Specifically for the Moving Around activity, if you are able to walk but you are in severe pain when doing so, then you can argue that your walking is not to a necessary standard and should be disregarded.
The legal test requires you to stand and then move (walk), so if you have problems getting up then you should document these as well.
If you walk slowly then it must take you at least twice the time to cover the 20m as a healthy person would, this could be down to the speed of your walking but could also be the result of having to stop.
You must be able to repeat the distance, so if you could walk it once but not then be able to walk it again within a reasonable timescale then you should be classed as unable to repeat the activity.
I'm afraid I can't tell you how to show your walking is more restricted but things you need to think about is what you can't do, for example what can you walk in your house, how far is the toilet from where you normally sit, things that will count against you are any trips that you make outside, so for example, how do you do your shopping?
You must be able to walk the distance you can, reliably and on the majority of days, both these terms are defined in the PIP Claim guide
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip
So you need to explain what you can, how you are limited and why.
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 terminology you are using is confusing as you refer to being unable to undertake journey but you also talk about being unable to follow a route, you can only score for one of these so you need to decide which, again you must be limited on the majority of days to score.
Gordon
You are not required to walk pain free but any pain that restricts the distance that you can walk should be taken into account.
Specifically for the Moving Around activity, if you are able to walk but you are in severe pain when doing so, then you can argue that your walking is not to a necessary standard and should be disregarded.
The legal test requires you to stand and then move (walk), so if you have problems getting up then you should document these as well.
If you walk slowly then it must take you at least twice the time to cover the 20m as a healthy person would, this could be down to the speed of your walking but could also be the result of having to stop.
You must be able to repeat the distance, so if you could walk it once but not then be able to walk it again within a reasonable timescale then you should be classed as unable to repeat the activity.
I'm afraid I can't tell you how to show your walking is more restricted but things you need to think about is what you can't do, for example what can you walk in your house, how far is the toilet from where you normally sit, things that will count against you are any trips that you make outside, so for example, how do you do your shopping?
You must be able to walk the distance you can, reliably and on the majority of days, both these terms are defined in the PIP Claim guide
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip
So you need to explain what you can, how you are limited and why.
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 terminology you are using is confusing as you refer to being unable to undertake journey but you also talk about being unable to follow a route, you can only score for one of these so you need to decide which, again you must be limited on the majority of days to score.
Gordon
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5 years 6 months ago #218358 by Evelyn
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Claire, my assessor scored me zero for managing treatment because she concluded that as I can drive and have the mental ability do so several times weekly, I should be able to manage my own medication. Probably true enough but suffering from fibromyalgia too, fibro-fog means I often forget my insulin and depend on my husband to remind me and set alarms
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5 years 5 months ago #221095 by Claire
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I have been away trying to compile my MR, then to find out they had already done it before I sent my officially response. Anyway it actually worked in my favour, because they gave me an extention and I have been formally diagnosed with Fibro.
I have also put in an appeal to the courts, so if they don't revise this, I am in the long standing queue, trying to get the help I so desperately need.
I will say before this experience, I hated the way the government treated the vunerable in society, paticularly the disabled & to be honest I never thought I would be in this position, but this here is the worst experience of my life & to top it off caused by some idiotic fool, who doesn't know how to drive!
Sue G, thanks for your supporting words, regadring managing medication, I sometimes feel like I am going mad with this condition.
I have also put in an appeal to the courts, so if they don't revise this, I am in the long standing queue, trying to get the help I so desperately need.
I will say before this experience, I hated the way the government treated the vunerable in society, paticularly the disabled & to be honest I never thought I would be in this position, but this here is the worst experience of my life & to top it off caused by some idiotic fool, who doesn't know how to drive!
Sue G, thanks for your supporting words, regadring managing medication, I sometimes feel like I am going mad with this condition.
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5 years 3 months ago #223847 by Claire
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As you are aware I have decided to go down the appeals process for this claim.
Now I have a few questions to clarify whilst I put together my appeal. I had put in a previous claim, based on the PIP Eligibilty criteas:
You must be aged 16 or over and have not reached State Pension age to claim.
You must also have a health condition or disability where you:
have had difficulties with daily living or getting around (or both) for 3 months
expect these difficulties to continue for at least 9 months (unless you’re terminally ill with less than 6 months to live)
You must have lived in England, Scotland or Wales for at least 2 of the last 3 years, and be in one of these countries when you apply. If you’ve recently returned from living in another EEA country, you might be able to get PIP sooner.
I applied last November because of an accident in May (at that time they were also backdating claims for 3 months)...anyways to cut a long story short my original injuries did not subside and I have since found out I have Fibromyalgia. I was refused the first time & at the time, I believed the pain was due to the injuries sustained in the accident, I did not pursue it further and left it at the decision stage.
Now my pain got worse and spread all over my body certain things are triggers that make it worse, I applied for PIP again in May last year, I stuggle to function now and stated this in my new application.
I have put in the appeal, they have sent back the infomation and included my previous application as justification of their decision, when my condition has worsen and I am being affected not just by needing assistance for my everyday life, but I also noe have mobility issues. I am affected by the weather, particularly cold & I was getting pain in the cold weather last year, however I naively attributed that to the accident & never put 2 and 2 together, because I was not expecting to become disabled.
I wanted to know are they allowed to use my previous application as justification of why they decided to not award me any PIP?
I can argue against this, but isn't it unfair of them to do this, when the eligibility statement doesn't stated that you needed a life long disablity to apply & on needed to expect the difficulties to last atleast 9 month?
Now I have a few questions to clarify whilst I put together my appeal. I had put in a previous claim, based on the PIP Eligibilty criteas:
You must be aged 16 or over and have not reached State Pension age to claim.
You must also have a health condition or disability where you:
have had difficulties with daily living or getting around (or both) for 3 months
expect these difficulties to continue for at least 9 months (unless you’re terminally ill with less than 6 months to live)
You must have lived in England, Scotland or Wales for at least 2 of the last 3 years, and be in one of these countries when you apply. If you’ve recently returned from living in another EEA country, you might be able to get PIP sooner.
I applied last November because of an accident in May (at that time they were also backdating claims for 3 months)...anyways to cut a long story short my original injuries did not subside and I have since found out I have Fibromyalgia. I was refused the first time & at the time, I believed the pain was due to the injuries sustained in the accident, I did not pursue it further and left it at the decision stage.
Now my pain got worse and spread all over my body certain things are triggers that make it worse, I applied for PIP again in May last year, I stuggle to function now and stated this in my new application.
I have put in the appeal, they have sent back the infomation and included my previous application as justification of their decision, when my condition has worsen and I am being affected not just by needing assistance for my everyday life, but I also noe have mobility issues. I am affected by the weather, particularly cold & I was getting pain in the cold weather last year, however I naively attributed that to the accident & never put 2 and 2 together, because I was not expecting to become disabled.
I wanted to know are they allowed to use my previous application as justification of why they decided to not award me any PIP?
I can argue against this, but isn't it unfair of them to do this, when the eligibility statement doesn't stated that you needed a life long disablity to apply & on needed to expect the difficulties to last atleast 9 month?
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5 years 3 months ago #223866 by Gordon
Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
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Claire
Like you, the DWP can choose what evidence to present in support of their Decision, if they are using the information from a previous claim and you can show a significant deterioration since that Decision then it undermines their case but don't lose track of the fact the Tribunal panel will only make an award by your showing that you meet the criteria for one.
Gordon
Like you, the DWP can choose what evidence to present in support of their Decision, if they are using the information from a previous claim and you can show a significant deterioration since that Decision then it undermines their case but don't lose track of the fact the Tribunal panel will only make an award by your showing that you meet the criteria for one.
Gordon
Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
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