Activity question on daily living

Hi stevegill5257,
There is an overlap with descriptors 7 & 9. The thinking seems to be if you have issues around being with people and get anxious you may need communication support as well as support to engage face to face, or if bad enough, you may qualify for 8 points under 9d if you have overwhelming psychological distress or perhaps get violent etc.
As with all the descriptors, Judges have shown increasing reluctance to award points for effectively the same issue. So, as an example problems with self-catheterization would count as points under Descr 4 as 'toilet needs' rather than Descr 3 - managing therapy.
I was actually looking up about Communication and Engaging with people yesterday. it is possible to get points under 7 for issues caused by anxiety, as well as 9, but for pure anxiety it will be exceptional to be able to score under both.
For the most part, communication difficulties seem to divide into two main areas - physical problems such as deafness, throat problems etc or comprehension problems caused by learning difficulties, autism or mental health problems. Sometimes problems can be caused by fatigue. Some health issues do of course aggravate underlying anxiety.
Much of the difficulties giving points under 9 is related purely to anxiety, fear of people, fear of being judged, sometimes physical difficulties such as incontinence, or more lately risk of illness is the cause.
So, there is an overlap, and the same health problem can give rise to points under different activities, but it very much depends. Many people do successfully get points under both 7 & 9.
You mention the Supreme Court - do you mean the so-called LEAP review cases? This concerned the under-award of points due to DWP refusing to accept the correct definition of 'overwhelming psychological distress' and how it applied to the 'planning and following journey' mobility descriptor.
Whilst this might have some relevance to descr 9d for daily living, this wouldn't obviously affect the other descriptors at 7 or 9. Maybe you mean a different case?
However, whilst the LEAP cases maybe an exception because of widespread error of law by DWP, normally there is a one month time limit on appealing a decision - via Mandatory Reconsideration, if this just after an initial decision, or appealing to the tribunal after MR. There is an absolute 13 month limit the one month time limit can only be extended if there is a very good reason. Of course if the MR/appeal is just a few days late you may be allowed to proceed without much of a reason, but by the time it gets to 12 and a half months late, the reason will need to be very compelling indeed! Therefore you may be able to appeal, if you have good reason and are within the overall time, if not then I'm afraid you will not be able to appeal and can not achieve any back dated pay. If a change of circumstance has occurred and your health has become worse, you could ask for a review - it is likely that this will instigate another claim form or review form and maybe an assessment. Otherwise you may need to wait until your next scheduled review and make out the best possible case, referring to the members guides as appropriate if you need help.
I hope this helps.

LL26