Pip mandatory reconsideration

Razors50 wrote: I have just been awarded the standard care component for 6 years. This was after informing DWP about a worsening of my condition. Back problems over many years which is now impacting severly on my mobility. I also have a long history of depression which combines with the chronic pain to make things difficult.
When I was last awarded Pip I again received the standard care component which I am happy with. However I was awarded 4 points for planning and following a journey and no points for moving around.
This time I have been awarded 4 points for moving around and none for planning and following a journey??
As the decision maker agreed my condition has worsened I find the mobility component confusing. Any advice, I would like to request a mandatory reconsideration, thanks

Mental health problems continue to be a problem at assessment where there effects are minimised and usually misunderstood.

The four points would have been awarded because you were considered to

b. Needs prompting to be able to undertake any journey to avoid overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant.

This is about you undertaking a journey and the difficulties that you would have doing so, one of the key points would be your showing that you would suffer "overwhelming psychological distress". A lot of our members use the word anxiety when discussing this subject, but to my mind this seems to be inadequate to meet the requirement.

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the PIP area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

Razor

Average walking speeds for a healthy person are about 90m per minute so by saying you could walk for 2 or 3 minutes you were assessing yourself as being able to walk more than 200m, even at a slow pace you would still be near the 200m mark.

I'm afraid the DWP are entitled to review the care component as well as the mobility one, there is nothing you can do to prevent this, it can result in you receiving fewer points, but this does not happen very often.

The situation at an appeal is different and the panel have to warn you if there is any risk to your current award.

Gordon