We’ve updated our Guide to PIP Claims and Reviews with a range of Upper Tribunal decisions dealing with earplugs, dentures, bath handles, bra straps, medical evidence and work.
Earplugs may count as aids if you need them because, due to your health condition, the level of noise when cooking or bathing causes you pain. (Page 20 of the PIP guide).
In some cases dentures may count as aids, for example if you lose all your teeth due to an illness. This is something we have suggested in the guide for a long time, but there is now a legal precedent. (Page 40 of the PIP guide).
Even though bath handles are fitted as standard to most baths and used by people without functional impairments, if you need to use them because of a health condition then they can count as an aid for PIP. (Page 20 and 51 of the PIP guide)
If you have problems with fastening bra straps, it may not be sufficient for a decision maker to argue that you can overcome this “by doing a bra up at the front and then swivelling it to the back and avoiding clothes with back fastenings”. This may mean you are not completing the task in an adequate or timely manner. (Page 59 of the PIP guide).
Just because medical evidence does not precisely address PIP descriptors does not make it any less persuasive than an assessor’s report. (Page 99 of the PIP guide).
We’ve also added a short section on work to the guide, with two upper tribunal decision. (Page 26 of the PIP guide).
A claimant living with autism and ADHD managed a full-time job, but because of her conditions she needed prompting from friends to manage daily living activities in the evening. She was refused PIP on the grounds that it was work that made her fatigued in the evening. The judge ruled that the claimant was entitled to be assessed as she was after a day’s work, including fatigue.
In another case, a tribunal spent 60% of its time quizzing the claimant about their work, largely ignored information about reasonable adjustments put in place by the employer and gave very little time to non-work evidence. The Upper Tribunal judge ruled that the excessive focus on work activities made the decision unfair. In the same way, if a health assessor’s report focuses largely on any work that you do, this will be grounds to challenge it.
We’ve also included a brief notice of the change to PIP award lengths for initial claims and first reviews (page 129 of the PIP guide) and of the introduction of the 30% target for face-to-face assessments (page 105 of the PIP guide), both of which start in April.
Members can download the updated Guide to PIP Claims and Reviews from this page.
