PIP Appeal

My daughter, who suffers mental health problems and is diagnosed as borderline personality disorder has recently been called to a face to face assessment regarding her PIP. Following that her PIP was stopped and I am currently drafting a letter seeking a mandatory reconsideration. From the letter sent by the DWP it appears that they have not considered the impact mental health has on ability and have only scored her 3 points in total even though she has been suicidai, she self harms when stressed. She requires support in shopping as she doesn't go out alone very much and never after dark. She is very isolated and doesn't interact easily with people. She can't manage her medication without support. But the assessment found her capable of doing all these things and more that she cannot do at all. It seems that the assessment is really restricted to whether a claimant can physically do a task. My daughter is now so upset that | am worried she will sink into further depession and may harm or attempt to kill herself. She believes she has failed to communicate her situation properly and that the DWP see her as worthless and undeserving. Because she is so distressed I have drafted a letter for her and I am asking her to simply read it and sign her agreement to what I have written. Can I ask if that sounds reasonable and whether people with serious mental health problems can expect to receive PIP when they clearly need support from family and carers?

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I'm sorry that this process has affected your daughter so badly

Unlike DLA, which looked at the amount of time during the day and/or night that someone needed help, PIP will only be awarded if the claimant scores enough points against very specific descriptors.

We have members with mental ill-health who have been awarded PIP, so all is not lost.

It is perfectly acceptable for you to draft the MR request and get your daughter to sign it. You should also explain that you have done this and why.

One of the thing that often trips up people with mental health problems is that they will talk about 'anxiety' etc when the DWP are looking for specific wording. This is explained in the PIP guide.

PIP help for claimants

I have to warn you that the MR usually simply 'rubber stamps' the original decision - although we do have members who have been successful at this stage.

You have a choice to make - do you spend a lot of time on the MR in hope of success? Or do you get the MR over as quickly as possible so that you can move on to the appeal (where the panel will pay more attention to your daughter's replies to their questions than the assessor's report)?

Your first step might be to sit down with the PIP guide and a copy of your daughter's PIP2 form and see whether she explained her problems in a way that fits in with the wording in the descriptors. You should also make full use of the 'reliability' criteria

• Safely – in a fashion that is unlikely to cause harm to themselves or to another person.
• To a necessary and appropriate standard – given the nature of the activity.
• Repeatedly – as often as is reasonably required.
• In a timely manner – in a reasonable time period.

Then come back with further questions and we will do our best to help.

May I also suggest that you bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future? This will allow you to return with further questions or comments about your daughters's PIP without having to start a new topic each time. We ask members to keep everything relating to the same claim in one topic as it helps us enormously - and I hope you will find it useful too

Also

if you think that the HCP failed in their etical duty of care complain to therir Professional body.

General Medical Coundil(GMC) if a Doctor

Nirsing & Midwife Council (NMC) if a Nurse
or
The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) if any other type of HCP (physio. or paramedic)

a complaint will have more weight if made after a sucssessful MR/Appeal

but Evidence of a competency heariing by the HCP's professional body mayl also probably carry some weight with a Tribinal

We are still waiting for the Mandatory Reconsideration Notice so we don't know yet whether we will need to appeal. But thanks for the advice so far and if the response is negative we will certainly be using tha advice given here.

hi dave knight ,
please tell your daughter to try not to take everything they have said in the report ,,as upsetting as it can be reading there report dont take things to heart , i myself suffer from MH problems and am also agrophobic ,,i like your daughter was turned down for pip and was only awarded 3 point for daily and 4 for mobility ,, i asked for MR but came back with same decision so try and prepare your daughter this might possibly happen , then it will be down the appeal route , this is what i did ,,and it turned out to be succesfull for me ,i was awarded standard for both daily and mobility , so yes ime more than sure your daughte would get awarded pip but unfortunately they are making it as difficult as possible ,and suffering ill health i believe they think that the majority will just take there word for it and give up as it so degrading and mentaly draining to keep on fighting for what you should be entitled to,, i realy feel for your daughter as i know how shes probably feeling ,if the MR comes back unchanged ,, see if you can get hold of someone from C,A,B or a benefit rights adviser ,look up online for your nearest and give them a ring ,they will help and give advice and also here of course ,,i didnt have any help as there wasnt help in my area and i managed to go through appeals process on my own and the fab help from gordon and mrs h and other people going through the same ,couldnt of done it if i hadnt of joined this site , do hope the MR is succsesfull ,
best wishes ,
alison ,

Hi All, Just to let you know that the Mandatory Reconsideration was a success. My daughter's P.I.P has been reinstated. I think that sending a very detailed letter arguing each of the criteria that we disputed and backing it up with letters from a social worker and psychaitrist swung it for us. Thanks for the support and advice from this forum. The whole scenario has resulted in me getting involved with a local unemployed workers support group and I hope to be active in campaigning for a fairer and less punitive welfare benefits system.