Reliance on evidence over 2 years old

DameEdna wrote: Thank you - that's helpful. I guess it doesn't matter too much in the scheme of things.

I don't know if this is usual but the PIP assessor seems to have been very selective in what she has based her scores on and also did not record all the difficulties that we discussed at the time.
Her scores mainly seem to be based on the fact that as my son is studying for GCSE's this means he is capable of managing all the daily activities with no support. Because he has studied Maths he can manage complex budgeting apparently.
Oh well, I'll just try my best.

You need to go back to basics.

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 his 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 he meets the criteria, there are many reasons he 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 he walked 50m, he did but they have failed to document that he 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 his claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon