PIP help needed

Hi Pauline

We can't tell you what to do here, because only you know what reserves of energy and stamina you have to fight this.

You could put in an appeal. This often takes a long time and if you get more information before the tribunal date, you could put in for a change of circumstances and later cancel the appeal. This way, you have both options open to you. More than 80% of people win their tribunals.

BIS

Hi Pauline,
Firstly I would say appeal. There are two reasons for this. In my experience if you have had a recent claim turned down or down graded it is very unlikely that DWP will increase the award if you put in a new claim in a short space of time. Secondly, as BIS states, the success at tribunal is very good, and even people who get zero points can achieve enhanced rate of both, but the most important thing is that if you continue with an appeal, and you win, then your benefit will be backdated to the decision date or when you stopped receiving your previous award if earlier. If you don't instigate an appeal, then you will never get this money back, so that is perhaps some incentive to proceed! (Also if you receive additional means tested benefits and were previously entitled to any 'add-ons' called premiums as a result of your receipt of PIP, these will also be backdated as well.)
PIP is all about function rather than diagnosis, but DWP tend to forget this, and 'conveniently' write off what DWP thinks is vague uncertain illness. This shouldn't happen, but sadly it does.
All too often DWP use very bad analogies to convince themselves that few or no points should be awarded. 'You can drive - therefore you can...cook a meal' (Yes it is very common to see this) 'You don't have a specialist involved therefore your condition isn't serious'. This is hardly going to relevant for someone who is an amputee. Or of course 'you take no medicine, therefore it's not serious' - this is for someone with learning difficulties or autism. (All these comments have been on reports, too many reports!)
You have 1 month to appeal the MR decision. You can apply online - sscs1 form - or you can print it and send in. I find it easier to fill out all the address parts and info bits and draft the Grounds of Appeal in Word, or by hand and then upload as a document. The reason why I say this is that there is very limited formatting on the Grounds of Appeal page on the online form, and worst still, when you try and set it out in neat paragraphs with bullets points the formatting that appears on the screen is not matched when the form gets printed out by DWP when making the appeal bundle to present to you and the tribunal - you are likely to get one very long paragraph with no gaps, and it's very difficult to follow.
Set out your conditions and a bit of health background in an opening paragraph and then
set out the major points of concern as a few bullet points eg
- I do see a specialist
- I take oramorph which is a strong painkiller reserved for severe pain
- the decision maker has relied on incorrect cut and paste comments from the assessor
etc etc
You can then set out each descriptor - how you can/can't do the activity and the help etc required and why and explain the level of points you should have received. Alternatively if DWP awarded eg 2 points for aid/appliance and you should have received more - explain this eg
'Although DWP has awarded 2 points for needing and aid/appliance to help me wash, they have not explained what I should use. I should have received 3 points for needing help to get in/out of the bath. I only have a bath at home and no shower. Due to poor balance and grip, I have had fourteen falls when trying to get in the bath unaided - this caused a broken wrist and also separately a cut on my head requiring 12 stitches. I have been told categorically by the GP that I should have help when getting in/out of the bath, as it is extremely unsafe for me to do this unaided. Under regulation 7 (PIP Regs. 2013) I should be awarded the highest points values....etc etc
Write a paragraph for all the descriptors. Include any medical reports. Sometimes if DWP have disputed the nature of an illness, or diagnosis, I have googled the condition and included details of eg common symptoms/relevant first or second line drugs etc. - you can then add a paragraph 'according to X website the following 5 are common symptoms - I have all of these, and take Y medicine which you will see is a second line drug...' (Use NHS Website or similar or eg something like Lupus Society UK will provide the information you need - make sure you copy the link address.)
It is possible that a decision can be revised upon receipt of the sccs1 appeal form, if not, then as BIS says wait for the tribunal - it may take a while but there is an extremely good chance of success, and your appeal being allowed. I appreciate it is hard, but please, please do not give up.
I hope this helps.
Good luck.
LL26