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Whether to take decision further or not?

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7 years 1 month ago #181016 by celiopig2002
Whether to take decision further or not? was created by celiopig2002
Hi I wonder if someone can give us some quick advice, sorry for the long post. We got the dreaded brown envelope through the door today and had the result of enhanced rate care and mobility for an 'ongoing period'. We are obviously thrilled with this as I've needed daily care and have had very reduced mobility for the past 15 years and this is unlikely to improve anytime soon. If anything my health has been on a downward trend over recent years.

The thing I'm slightly concerned about is that the break down of points in a couple of areas I don't think reflects the reality of my illness or circumstances. For example, on planning and following a journey I explained I couldn't follow a familiar route by myself both for mobility issues; which mean I need a carer to push or drive my chair for me but also because I have ME the added exertion of being out means my cognitive abilities deteriorate, which would make this hard as well. I've never been out indepdently in the entire time I've been ill, 15 years, because of this and I'm unlikely to be able to in future. But they've awarded zero points and said I don't have a problem here.

likewise wih washing myself they've accepted that I cannot get into the bath or shower myself, my mum has to wheel me in on a shower chair and wash me, I can't actually wash myself at all and need help. This is again something I made clear on my forms and in my assessment and has been the case for the majority of the time I've been ill and has been consistently the case over the past eight years or more. But they've only ackowledged I need help with getting in and out and not for anything else.

Same with complex budgeting, even though (I think quite ironically) my mum deals with the pip and big budgeting etc for me because I find it too tiring and difficult with my cognitive symptoms. They've awarded no points and said I don't have a problem in this area. I suspect this is because I told them I have done study with the open university including low level maths. Although the maths was years ago and I had to change direction because of the previously mentioned deterioration in my health even compared to what it was. I also explained that my ability to do maths depends on what my health is like at that specific moment and it's not at all infrequent that my ability to do even simple maths suffers, or vanishes completely, hence why mum deals with more complex bills on my behalf. Like everything else this side of things is changeable which I tried to explain. If I don't qualify for any points here because I have good windows where I could do simple stuff for myself, then fair enough but it seems a bit strange to me that I don't when I need help to do it consistently and long term.

Overall I got 22 points for care and 12 for mobility, because they accepted I can't walk except to transfer even in home. And as I say we are thrilled overall with the overall result. I feel really bad posting with this as a worry when other people are going through so much worse, but we feel a bit at a loss as to whether to be grateful for the overall outcome, or whether we need to challenge these areas because not doing so would have a longer or broader impact. Especially on things like my ESA.

We would like to gratefully accept it and let this go and be grateful, but could anyone advise whether us not challenging these areas be likely to have a negative consequences on things like my ESA or any future reassessments that we may need to do.

Apologies for the long post and for posting when others have it so much worse. We are just a little confused as to how, or even if, we need to proceed any further. Thank you so very much for reading and any replies.

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7 years 1 month ago #181043 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic Whether to take decision further or not?
celiopig

We often get this question, there is no mechanism available for challenging the points that have been awarded except by requesting a Mandatory Reconsideration to have the whole award looked at again, which I am sure is not what you want.

As you have an on-going award I would not expect your claim to be looked at again for at least 10 years, by this time any information related to this claim will be out of date.

As to your ESA, PIP and ESA have few areas of overlap and even where they are the criteria are usually quite different, we haven't seen a PIP report used in a negative way for an ESA claim.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
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7 years 1 month ago #181044 by David
Replied by David on topic Whether to take decision further or not?
Hi
You have nothing to gain as you already have maximum award, however it might be useful to ask for a copy of the HP report
The following user(s) said Thank You: celiopig2002

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7 years 1 month ago #181046 by celiopig2002
Replied by celiopig2002 on topic Whether to take decision further or not?
Hi Gordon, thank you so much for the reassurance. If everything should be fine, we are more than happy to let it alone. As you said we really do not want to go through mandatory reconsideration when it is unnecessary overall.

I do realise in the scheme of things ,given some of the horrendous stresses some people experience in the process this worry was trivial in comparison. We have such a legacy of trouble form before we found benefits and work that we didn't dare to believe it could be okay without checking. So thank you so much for the reply and reassurance.

Thank you as well to everyone who contributes to benefits and work in general. There are no words to express how grateful we are for the time and energy given. Thank you all and best wishes to everyone else going through the process.

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7 years 1 month ago #181056 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic Whether to take decision further or not?
celiopig

Congratulations on the award, well done.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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