PIP review question, question 7.

Hello jpg2502,

This is also one I always struggle with when I am helping someone with mental health issues to complete the form.

To quote from a UT decision SOS v GJ [2016]UKUT 0008 (AAC) CPIP/2301/2015
'21. ... I accept that anxiety caused by mental health difficulties can potentially lead to the scoring of points under activity 7 such that the activity and its associated descriptors are not simply concerned with physical or sensory impairments to communication. I also accept though, as highlighted in the government response, that there is a distinction to be drawn between the sorts of tasks the two different activities, and the associated descriptors, are seeking to test. In this context there is a difference between communication and engagement. If a claimant has difficulty in speaking as a result of anxiety, or perhaps some other mental health problem, it must be asked what it is that causes that difficulty. Is it a fear of social engagement? Of is it something simply connected to the activity of communicating verbally? It could, of course, be both but, equally, it could be one or the other. So it seems to me an anxious claimant who, for example, is not able to communicate with strangers or persons who are not well known to him or is not able to do so when in the company of a large number of people but is able to verbally express himself or herself and understand communication with a person with whom they are familiar and comfortable - would, in all probability, score points under activity 9 but not under activity 7. That is because, in such a case, it is likely to be the engagement with others which is triggering the difficulty. So, such a claimant would not be able to score points under both activity 9 and activity 7 as a consequence of an anxiety problem impacting upon the ability to engage with other people. However, if a claimant was so anxious that not only was he impaired with respect to engaging with others bu was also impaired with respect to the function of communicating verbally, perhaps a most unlikely eventuality, he might score under both activities.'

In practice, if I am working with a client who has significant difficulties with communication, I always record them in both sections of the form, if only to ensure that I paint a complete picture. I have in practice, I think, only ever known one person get points under activity 7 rather than, or as well as, activity 9. (But that could be my fault!)

I hope that helps a little
Catherine