PIP mandatory reconsideration and appeal

Hi there.
I'm a new member and have found the information here very helpful. Just wondering if anyone can give advice about whether or not to ask for a mandatory reconsideration of a PIP award. My daughter has just received an award of standard rate for daily living (she scored 9 points), nothing for mobility (she scored 4 points.) She was awarded this without having to go for an assessment, which I gather is unusual. She has a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia but, after being well and working for a number of years, had a serious relapse 7 months ago. She is currently unable to leave the house at all on her own and cannot use public transport even if accompanied- she has to be taken everywhere by car, even to the local shops. I thought as she cannot use public transport she should get 12 points for mobility as I don't know how you can argue that someone can follow a route if they are too paranoid to use a local bus even when accompanied. I know there have been three different judges' decisions on the mobility criteria - Jacobs, Agnew and Ward, with Jacobs saying the claimant can only score 12 points if the person accompanying has to actually navigate the route, Agnew saying that if someone cannot go out unless accompanied you cannot say they can follow a route and can score 12 points, and the most recent, Ward comparing the two and agreeing with Jacobs. Applying for benefits has been hugely stressful. So do we go through the added stress of an MR and appeal, with the possible risk of losing what she's got (she is very intelligent and articulate and can come across very well, so a tribunal might not realise how ill she is) or do we just accept it as the best we can hope for right now. Also, if we did go for a mandatory reconsideration and appeal, will she still be paid the current award whilst it's going through, or will that be frozen? I've seen conflicting information on this. Any advice gratefully received.

Hi and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

AS your research has shown, getting enhanced rate mobility was deliberately made very difficult to get and even Upper Tier Tribunals have differing opinions about the descriptors.

If your daughter were to request and M/R +/- appeal, the current rate would be paid until a further decision were made.

It is possible for points to be reduced at MR, although this is not common. Clearly, there is more risk of this when a scant 8 points have been scored, rather than 11 (for instance). A tribunal would have to warn the claimant if they were considering reducing the current award and give the chance to withdraw the appeal but DWP do not have to do this for MR.

Have you had a copy of the assessor's report? This can be helpful in explaining why points were not scored as expected. DWP usually send these out on request - but you should not delay in submitting the MR request (if that is what you decide) if it has not arrived. You can always tell DWP that you will send further information when you have seen the report and they should give you a little longer to get this to them.

I suggest that you have a good look at our PIP guide, if you have not already done so

PIP help for claimants


May I 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 ESA 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

Hi
Thanks for your advice. We decided to go for a Mandatory Reconsideration after finding out about the decision of three judges at the upper tribunal that claimants with a mental health condition such as anxiety had a right to claim the higher rates for mobility. We referenced this ruling in our request for MR, but the decision from the DWP has come back unchanged. And now the government is bringing in regulations to reverse the judges' decision that will come into effect on 16th March. Will these regulations apply only to claims actually made after 16th March or also to all claims currently going through? I'm just wondering if it would be possible to appeal on the basis that the claim was made before 16th March.
Many thanks for your help.

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't clear in my question. We want to appeal the original decision that our daughter didn't get anything for mobility despite the fact that she cannot go out alone because of her paranoia. But as we won't get an appeal before 16th March, when the new regulations come into effect is it worth appealing at all, either on the basis that we put in the claim before the regulations came into effect or in the hope that somehow that are blocked by Parliament? We have to get the claim form in within two weeks, but the experience of claiming has been brutally distressing and we don't want to go through additional stress if the new regulations will mean it has no hope of succeeding.