Need advice - should I appeal?

TiredMK

I am afraid that this is a decision that only you can make but if you are to go forward with a challenge then you will need to be able to show that you meet the criteria for a higher award, this means that you will need to be unable to reliably stand and walk more than 20m on the majority of days.

There is a risk to your current award, although I would expect it to be low but it cannot be ignored and needs to be balanced against your ability to gain the extra points.

If you want to go ahead then 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

TiredMK wrote: Thanks Gordon. That's the thing, how do I prove that under 20 meters is my limit? It's not like there's a test for it. Do I just tell my doctor and ask him to put in my records?

My gut is just telling me to leave it, and make sure that there is some kind of documentary evidence available before my next round of ESA/PIP assessments next year. I found my previous appeals with the ESA extremely stressful. Now I'm in the Support Group with low rate mobility. It's not a huge amount of money but I'm not struggling financially.

Are your conditions consistent with your not being able to walk far?

Are there examples of things that you cannot now do? For example; do you go out at all and if you do where do you go? How far are these places? What impact does any walking you do have on you? Do you struggle to walk in the house?

Gordon