New Pip law for engaging with others

Hi everyone. I hope I’m posting correctly on the forum. I’ve been reading through the guidelines for who may have been affected by the law change. I have suffered with social anxiety and agoraphobia for around seven years, however, when I was awarded PIP back in 2019 I was given zero points for this particular descriptor the reason they gave was that I wasn’t on any form of medication for anxiety and they said they felt I could engage with others when I clearly can’t. Reading through the guidance on here, I am still a little confused as to whether I may be affected by this law change? I stated in my original assessment back in 2019 that I never leave the house whatsoever except for times when I HAVE to e.g. hospital appointments and at these times I have to have my mum or my son with me. I assumed this would count as prompting or needing assistance, however, like I said they awarded me zero points. I know I should have fought against the decision back then but i’m afraid it was all so stressful but I just took what they gave me and ran. I was 1 point off enhanced daily living, however I got enhanced mobility . Do you think I may be eligible for that descriptor being backdated? I did send off my review form nearly 2 weeks ago with a lot more evidence now of my mental health issues so I’m hoping I get awarded the full points this time, but still unsure as to whether I may be eligible to have that particular descriptor backdated to 2019? Hope this makes sense!

Ah yes, I see I’m getting the two questions mixed up! However, because of the social anxiety I don’t mix with people at all except my 16 yr old son who lives with me. I’ve worked from home running an online store for 5yrs and had my shopping delivered for around 7 years with a sign on the door for the driver to just leave the shopping at the door so I don’t have to talk to them :/ I think the lack of being able to leave the house is a mixture of both the agoraphobia and social anxiety because it’s not just the public places that cause me to panic it’s being around people so I guess the two descriptors merge a bit for me! I won’t even go into my front garden until I’ve checked the ring doorbell to make sure the street is empty. The only time I ever have had to engage with someone where I’ve had no choice ie going to hospital then I can’t physically get there without my mum or son because it’s so traumatic! So with the case of that particular descriptive, I was expecting to either get the full points for being ‘unable to mix with other people whatsoever because of extreme distress’ or at worst thought I would’ve got the points for having to have ‘prompting and assistance’ from either my mum or my son. I was using the ‘I never leave the house’ example as proof that I don’t mix with other people because I don’t even leave my house. For example, in the last approximately five years I have left the house and ‘mixed with others’ only three times- once for a rheumatology appointment for x-rays where my mum had to take me as it was extremely distressing, the other two times were to take my cat to the vet and again my mum had to take me and again both were horrific experiences but there were instances where I literally had to go. Because , at the time of my assessment, I was having a break from my medication (as a trial because of unpleasant side-effects) I was awarded zero points because they said I was not taking any anxiety medication.They believed I could mix with other people no problem :/ so although the never leaving the house example kind of relates to the other descriptor about going out I was using it as proof that I don’t mix with other people because how can they say I have no problem mixing with others when I’m literally too terrified to leave the house, do you think if I use this as proof to them if being unable to mix then they will think the same as you and see it as relating to the other descriptor?

Thank you. I’m still a little mixed up with the two questions, I’ll have another read through the guide. I think because my social anxiety is so great and my fear of mixing with others is so bad that this has them developed into agoraphobia and never leaving the house at all, so I use not leaving the house as an example of how bad my fear of mixing with others is, I can see how they would view this as undertaking a journey etc though :/
Also on another note: I’ve just rung today because they’ve had my review form 4 weeks and my claim ends on the 29th of this month so I was starting to panic- apparently my form is now with the decision maker and I should have a decision in the next few days! Does this mean I’m not needing another medical assessment? I daren’t hope too much in case I jinx it !! My original assessment was horrendous:/