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7 years 5 months ago #170660 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic GP letter
R

The Going Out activity breaks down into three tests;

- The claimants ability to plan a route. This is primarily a cognitive issue but someone with sensory issues may also be able to show that they cannot do this, for example if they were blind

- The claimants ability to follow a route (my words). This is about their ability to go out and is primarily a mental health issue, conditions such as Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety would be relevant.

- Lastly the claimants ability to navigate the route, this is seen by the DWP as being a cognitive or sensory issue.

You can certainly argue that you suffer cognitive issues due to your mental health problems, but you will need to provide a detailed explanation of how you are affected and will likely have to provide examples in other areas of similar impairment, a good example might be Preparing a meal where you might be expected to follow a recipe, or Budgeting Decisions.

Unfortunately, the DWP and as a consequence the assessors, have a very naïve view of what cognitive impairment is, they primarily see this as being due to learning difficulties or brain injury. Historically arguments about the impact of mental health issues have not been very successful, they are received better at appeal but we have seen a worrying trend of the DWP challenging these Decisions to the Upper Tier Tribunal. It's still too early to get a view of how these are being received.

Gordon

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7 years 4 months ago #172511 by R_
Replied by R_ on topic GP letter
Is there any requirement for the assessment to take place within a certain amount of time? I'm in a situation now where I've worked myself up for several days before assessment appointments only to get to the assessment and find it's been cancelled. That's also with help from a friend travelling quite some distance to attend with me and I think at some point I could lose her support on this issue. I know I'm not the only one this has happened to but it's been three times now. I have started to wonder if they are double booking appointments in case some people don't turn up and I've been unlucky to attend when everyone else does. I'm worrying now that this could keep going on for months if there is no requirement to see claimants within a specific period of time. Any thoughts?

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7 years 4 months ago #172526 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic GP letter
R_

I'm afraid not, you can make a complaint to the Assessment Provider, you can also involve your MP.

Contacting your MP

Gordon

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7 years 1 month ago #181651 by R_
Replied by R_ on topic GP letter
I know the advice is not to focus on the assessor's report when going for MR. In my case I'm not sure what else I can do. I showed clearly how I am affected and provided a lot of examples on my form. I also sent a letter from my GP confirming my conditions, medication and confirming how I am affected against the PIP descriptors and various other bits of evidence. The assessor did an MSE during the assessment and decided I'm not affected by a mental illness, which is wrong. I've got zero points for a lot of descriptors with the main reason being "MSE showed ......". There were other problems with the report and the assessor misled the Case Manager by not mentioning many things that we discussed that would have supported more points.

I think whatever else I send in as evidence of mental illness and how it affects me they'll just go back to the MSE and dismiss it. They seem to assume you never suffer with anxiety if you're not sweating or trembling during the assessment. I've never had sweating or trembling, or the lack of them, even mentioned in any of the proper mental health assessments that I have had! This must be how they're trained to assess anxiety though because it is mentioned by so many people on forums.

What do you think I should do in this situation? My GP might be willing to write another letter of support with even more detail. I'm wondering if it might be worth asking my GP to comment on the MSE rather than trying to explain myself why it's wrong. Without somehow showing that the MSE is wrong I don't see how I will be able to convince a Case Manager that the first decision was wrong.

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7 years 1 month ago #181683 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic GP letter
R_

I think the GP letter is a good idea, the assessment report should indicate the qualifications of the assessor, so this might also be something that your GP might want o comment on.

We don't say to ignore the report, just that a claimants primary attention should be to show that they meet the criteria, if you are satisfied that this is the case, I would still recommend that you go through your PIP2, the assessment report and the PIP Claim guide to make sure, the feel free to tear in to the report.

I would recommend that you try and stay away from confronting the assessors opinions unless you can clearly undermine them. Initially try and stick with factual issues; they said I did this, I didn't, they said I said this, I didn't!

If you do go for opinions then this is best done with reference to your evidence, what you are trying to do is to show that the opinion has no merit based on the available evidence or even that it is simply absurd.

A reality check, very few MRs result in a revision of the Decision, so you need to consider going to appeal, the success rate is significantly higher (60%+) and a Tribunal panel will take a much more balanced approach to the evidence before them. They are used to misleading assessment reports!

Gordon

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7 years 1 month ago #181695 by jayjay1963
Replied by jayjay1963 on topic GP letter
Hi
Do you have care at gome at all? or a social worker?
If so then get them to write an in depth letter to the plp people, thats what i have just done for appeal, and a doctors letter has gone off as well.As with you my doctors very very good and she has explained about the medical side, and the moving bathing washing etc.
You may have a carer as well? they can also write in for apeal if you have one.
Hope this may help....and keep fighting!

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