PIP Wheelchair use

Hi ElaineBeet

If you are in pain and breathless before setting off, then mention it at the start of your description, also describe what happened when you last had a seizure, did you need help in getting up. I know of some claimants when they have a seizure become incontinent, you need to describe what happens to you and what help and assistance you need.

Have a look at our PIP Claim guide for a better understanding of the criteria you will need to meet.

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

The Going Out activity looks at three things.

Planning a route - this is primarily a cognitive or sensory (e.g. blindness) activity. You are being asked about the problems you would have with working out how to get from one place to another, you do not need to be able to follow the route that you are planning.

Undertaking a Journey - this is to do with mental health issues such as agoraphobia and social anxiety and is concerned with you leaving the house to go somewhere, they will be interested in the things that stop you doing this. You need to show that you would suffer "overwhelming psychological distress" to meet the criteria.

Following a route - This activity about the problems you would have navigating a route. So, are there any problems; cognitive, sensory or mental health issues that would prevent you from doing this? This is different from undertaking a journey, in fact, if you cannot undertake a journey then you will not score points for following one and vice versa.

If you say your walking is restricted, you would need to be unable to reliably walk more than 50m to score sufficient points for an award just on the Moving Around activity.

I would just explain the difficulties you have just as you have explained your difficulties on the forum, if you have any supporting documents which tie in with your difficulties then link them so that the assessor can find them easily.

It is perfectly OK for you to type your answers and attach them as extra pages to the form, just make sure that each page has your full name and NIN at the top and that they are numbered, we recommend "page X of Y" so that it is easy to see if pages are missing. Make sure you clearly mark on the form where your answers are and on the relevant page that you are answering question X.

I would not split your answers across the form and attached pages, do one or the other for each activity (not question), splitting it risks the second part of your answer not being read.

Attach the pages to the back of the form using a staple or make a hole in the top left corner and use a treasury tag, string or ribbon to the form. The pages need to be easily detached so that they can be scanned by the DWP.

Gary

Hi ElaineBeet,

Any walking done with 'severe discomfort' has to be ignored. Therefore if as soon as you stand form a chair to walk, if you have 'severe discomfort' then for PIP purposes your walking ability is zero metres. On that basis you should fall within 2f. Severe discomfort is more than just a small ache, and less than excruciating agony. I try to explain this on a scale of 0-10, where 10 is excruciating pain, you would have pain at around 7-8. Severe discomfort also includes breathlessness, fatigue, it could comprise incontinence, migraine - so not just pain. Remember also, that you need to take into account stops - this is for 2 reasons - firstly that stopping for any more than a brief moment is likely to indicate severe discomfort, and secondly because if stops means that your walk now takes over twice as long as someone without disabilities, then according to PIP rules, you should receive points.
In your post, you described being able to walk 10/15m in extreme pain and being breathless. On that basis you could fit within Descriptor 2e or 2f. You will need to carefully analyse what happens when you stand up, and go for a walk. Does the pain/breathlessness come on immediately, does this happen everytime? Also consider the impact of walking later in the day, can you repeat the walk? Once you have analysed all aspects of your walking, you should be able to decide which descriptor category you fall into, for the majority (or possibly all of the time.) Select that category and write the form accordingly. It may be better to write 'I can not walk more than X metres without severe discomfort...' (rather than 'I can only walk X metres...') and fully explain why.
Make sure you are consistent across the form. Think about how your mobility difficulties relate to other activities - does your mobility problem affect eg getting into the bath, or dressing, have you adapted your activity somehow to reduce issues in this respect? Explain these.

I hope this helps. Good luck

LL26