advice please?

Hello Swans1?
Yes, I do know people who receive lower rate mobility for arthritis, but as you realise from your question it is not always easy to evidence, due to subjectivity of pain. I read a post by LL today where she had said something to the effect that if you score your pain out of 10 you should not be required to push it above 7/8 in completing the activity.

Do read your previous thread here which I think is almost the same question, but with different walking distances. I stand by what I said there, and dendy’s advice is also good.

The best additional advice I can give you is to carefully read our guide ‘The Best Possible Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Claims and Reviews on Physical Health, Mental Health and Learning Difficulties Grounds’. Look particularly at the reliably criteria – a key factor in a condition such as yours. You should only be considered able to do something if you can do it safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly and in a reasonable time. This is explored in the guide and pages 67 – 72 give particular guidance regarding the walking sections.

PIP resources

I hope that having read the guide and perhaps completed a diary you will have a clearer idea of how you can present your case.
Catherine

Hello again,

There are two very general categories of reasons why people may have difficulty getting around. The first is either mental health or sensory issues, the second is physical limitations.

In the PIP world the first is covered by the section Going Out or Planning and Following a Journey. The second is covered by the section Moving Around.

Someone with Anxiety might not be able to go out without being encouraged, so they would potentially score 4 points in the first section because they 'Need prompting to be able to undertake any journey to avoid overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant'. In the same way someone who needed a guide dog due to poor eye sight would score 10 points in the sections because they ‘cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid.’

The other section, Moving Around, is more straight forward, it is based entirely on how far you can reliably walk. (If you recall I referred you to the reliability bit in our guide.) So if you can only reliably walk 80m then you score 4 points.

Then comes the adding of points. You need 8 points to be awarded the standard mobility rate and 12 points to be scored the enhanced rate.

So in my examples the person who was too anxious to go out without being encouraged would only score 4 points, so would not get an award. If however that person was also only able to walk 80m reliably, then he would score another 4 points for that. That would make a total of 8 points, meaning a standard mobility award.

The person with poor eyesight would score 10 points and get the standard award for needing his dog, but if he was also only able to walk 80m then he would score another 4 points. This would give him a total of 14 points and the enhanced rate.

So in your example, in the past you may have scored a few points in the Planning and Following Journeys section due to your Mental Health, but not enough to score an award. You might now also score some in the Moving Around section giving you a total of 8 or more.

I hope that makes it a little clearer.
Catherine