Descriptors

jony wrote: Hi, can anyone tell me why the pip DM is more likely to take points of the mobility section of the discriptors if you get the 12 points needed for enhanced mobility across both sections.

I'll stress it not a hard and fast rule

It's worth noting that on the whole the DM follows the assessors recommendations. The DM is not medically trained and so they are reliant on the assessor to evaluate the claimants abilities in the two Mobility activities.

In general the PIP has harder to meet criteria than DLA and PIP assessors on the whole mark harshly so if an assessor recommends 12 points in either of the activities it is because they clearly believe the claimant meets the criteria and the DM would have to give good reasons for ignoring this.

On the other hand, claimants tend to mark optimistically and assessors tend to mark based on the assessment than the form, so if the assessor does not recommend maximum points it's likely to be at odds with how the claimant has scored themselves and where there is a discrepancy, the DM will pay more attention to what the claimant has written this can expose "holes" in the claimants explanations of the problems which otherwise might have been missed.

This is particularly the case for the Going Out activity where we regularly see members trying to fit the Descriptor to their conditions and falling fowl of the DM fundamentally disagreeing with what they have written.

Gordon