PIP TRIBUNAL

Alison,
The citizens advice service should be able too help you ,also if you can ask someone too ring your local town hall they can put you in touch with the benefit welfare officers ,as they are usually based within the town hall...there is a charity called turn 2 us ,you can find them online ,these can give you advice too and maybe put you in touch with someone !
Today i received the notification of Davids award from the tribunal and a point i want too tell is this regarding PLANNING AND FOLLOWING JOURNEYS, David was awarded 10 points by the tribunal ,their reason being in their opinion David cannot undertake any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress too him ..hence the standard mobility award was granted !
They also said in the letter of award ,that Davids attendance and distress was evidence enough for them too override the previous decisions.
So Alison you have every chance of getting your award by your attending the tribunal,Davids award is for 3 years !!!
There is help out there for you,and people who can represent you ,also you can ask for a later date for the tribunal while you are seeking help!
Please think about this Alison, you dont have too do this alone ! ,i had a support letter from Davids GP,i had too pay £25 for it ,but it was worth every penny !
If i can help you in anyway Alison, just ask
Brenda

hi brenda ,
thanks for your support and advice replying means alot,. i shall ring my town hall monday and see what they can do for me , i contacted mind originaly and they told me that they dont do home visits for appeals for pip ,,so they then give me the number for catchup told me they do home visits as ime agrophobic,, i rang them and was then told that they dont do hime visits and the woman who does deal with appeals is off on sick but would be back on the 27th july ,,he said as soon as shes back he would get her to ring me ,,she actualy lives in same area as me so ime realy hoping she would make a aception and come to my home but given the luck ime having i see that dountfull,. the 10 points is what i was hoping to get origanaly but only got the 4 for prompting, which i find incredable them coming to that decision as it was supported by my GP i have agrophobia since suffering PTSD after i was held against my will by my ex partner with a shotgun pointing ot my head for over 6 hrs ,i sufferd MH problems most of my life but since going through that traumatic experiance my MH has deteriated to the degree ime teriefied to go out the door and scared of my own shadow ,i dont have any quality of life anymore i wont answer the door to nobody apart from my family who i no are visiting ,wont answer the fone ,my son answers it for me ,havnt slept since this happening as the slightest noise ime terrified someone is trying t get in , i suffer OCD tendancies also and spend most of the evening checking my doors locked ,windows are shut ,,i drive my son up the wall with these constant rituals ,i realy dont think these health assessors have the first clue about MH and the quality of life it takes away from you suffering with this , was your son actualy able to speak to the panel brenda ?or did you talk mostly for him on hos behalf .ive heard some stories that only the person appealing has to answer question and then if whoever is with them supporting them can add anything after they feel important to say ,,
thanks alison,

Alison,,
i truly understand your anxiety !
As Davids appointee the panel knew i would would be responding for David ,my son is 24 years of age,i have told him about your appeal ,he told me too tell you have nothing to lose ,but everything too gain by going too the tribunal,they will see the real you !! you have too realize that capita who do the assessments are there to save the DWP money,thats why they are making the assesments so difficult...
We entered the appeal court ,myself david and the benift welfare officer,and we sat,the judge said too me ,hello mom,i believe you are davids appointee so we shall be asking you what we need to know !
I answered everything they needed too know,i did get upset ,so the benifit officer took over,one of the panel then said to david ,"can i speak too you david " and started too speak to him,david got so overwhelmed and started too cry that the Judge said thats enough ,we have all that we need thankyou !
We then waited for approx 10 mins ,and then they called our benefit officer back in and he came back telling us we had been successful and had the enhanced care and standard mobilty!
so alison,i do think if you can find the courage too attend with help from someone ,i do think you will be successful,just for the fact that the state you will be in,it will be evident that you are need of care...
When the tribunal form goes back in ,they will tell you too add any more information you may have ,even a letter from your son telling them how your life effects him would be support ,also add that you will have someone with you too speak for you as your anxieties prevent you from expressing yourself !
Have you contacted the citizens advice as well Alison as they do the appeals too!
Also ,some housing associations have welfare officers..our local council is whg and if you are a tennant you have access too their benefit officers...I have too admit without the support of Phil Blackham from Walsall benifit welfare we would not have been able too achieve what we did,as he was our transport there and back and our strong shoulder to lean on , he was our rock.
Alison let me know how you get on monday, and if you need too ask anything else please let me help you ,you have nothing too fear as you are telling the truth !!
brenda x

hi brenda,
aww tell your son thankyou for giving me encouragment to go through with this , and your right i have nothing to lose as such as not been awarded any care anyway , when i recieved the report from capita of the assessment i couldnt believe how the assessor blatently lied throughout ,siad i only showed mild anxiety and eye contact was good throughout assessment, i spent most of the time crying through it trying to answer her questions, ,didnt give me chance to answer as was so upset and she was moving on to next ,,she even wrote she observed me doing the lock mechanisum on my front door , how i cant fatham out as the only time i went to door was to open it after looking through peep hole as i was expecting them to come , i dont have glas on my front door apart from the top so no way would she of observed this from standing outside , , was lies lies throughout ,it made me feel why did i put myself through this as it been nothing but a nightmare ,ive never ever asked for anything in my life and have struggled ive relied on my parents to do so much for me past 4 yrs and my dad has had cancer as well inbetween all of my problems ,so i thought ide try for this extra help claiming pip , i was only put on the support group for esa back in january this year and that was stressfull enough getting that as was first put on wrag ,but asked for MR and they then put me on support group ,, in my experiance your actualy made out to feel like a con artist who playing the system, bit after joining this site its unbelievable how many people are going through the same battle and there heatlh is far worse than mine and they not being awarded anything, it so sad reading people journeys on here who realy need help with there daily struggles ,ime going to ring the council in morning and ask if there any help i could get ,i will also ask my parents to write a letter to say what they do for me etc and why ime unable to myself ,think thats what you mean is it ,? and my son also , going to ring my surgery tomorow also to see about looking at my medical records and hopefully be able to get some copies of evidence ,as my doctor wont right a detailed letter for me , not sure if theres anything else i can do now ,i recieved the letter from appeal be nearly 2 weeks ago now ,how long does it take for the actual pack to arrive from your case as i wanted to know if they did actualy contact my gp before my assessment and if so what information were they given ,i didnt make a copy of my initial claim form either and cannot remem what i wrote in it it took me a week to fill it in as i cant concentrate for long suffer athritus in hands so found it difficult .cant say thankyou to you enough for being so helpfull and supportive with your advice and encouragment ,its nice to hear from you as uve been through this urself with your son and it does give me encouragment to go through and see it till the end as you said the dwp are making it soo difficult that they hope the majority will just give up ,thanks brenda , .
alison,x

Hi Alison, I'm not sure if there is a question for us in your post above? If there is, will you please submit it separately (as I find it difficult to read a block of text)?

hi mrs h ,
no hun was just replying to thomas msg she wrote to me as shes been giving me advice on how her tribunal went and giving me a idea what to expect as i contacted my local support for help with appeal but the woman who deals with appeals is off sick untill the end of the month,.sorry if ive confused you by thinking there was a question i asked was just replying thats all mrs h,.
thankyou ,