Social Anxiety - Engaging with others face to face

Hi Anxious Anonymous

The Guide to PIP claims - page 71

"Engagement is needed
An upper tribunal judge has ruled that ‘isolated and specific’ examples of being able to interact with
other people, such as being able to talk to the health professional at medical assessment or to staff
in a local shop you go to regularly are not enough to prevent you scoring points. In this case the
claimant went to the pub and a chip shop every day, but said she avoided any engagement with
other people and would move away if anyone stood next to her. She was able to respond to the
PIP heath professional’s questions without prompting and had adequate eye contact and rapport.
The judge held that simply going to the pub and the chip shop or responding to questions from a
health professional was not evidence that the claimant engaged socially with other people or would
be able to engage with people she did not know well."

So the fact you talk to a doctor does not mean that you can't score points - nor does a one-off engagement with your friends.

Hi Anxious Anonymous

You need to explain how you condition affects you, you say that you won't even go to shops, how do you do your shopping? if you do it on line, how do you react when your shopping is delivered. These are some of the question you may be asked.

Have a look at our guides for guidance, they are well written; benefitsandwork.co.uk/guides-for-claimants/pip

Gary

Hi Anxious Anonymous,
You will get points if you can show that you can't perform the descriptor activity
Safely, within a reasonable time, repeatedly across the whole day and to an acceptable standard ' for the majority of days'.
The descriptors have a level of activities that for the most part show increasing disabilities reflected by higher points scores.
The way I deal with this is to consider whether a simple aid or two would alleviate the problem- so for an easy example if I can't bend to put on shoes, I could use a long handled shoe horn and that would give me 2 points, (6b)and that's all the help I need.
However, I might also need help to put on my trousers (2 points 6d) This is still 2 points so it doesn't matter which section applies. But, if I also need help with my shirts and jumpers, because I can't lift my arms, I can achieve 4 points under 6e.
Regulation 7 provides that the highest value within the descriptor set shoukd be awarded when 1 or more sections apply equally fir the sane time, ie for the majority of days. If unequal proportion of days occur then the correct award is the most prevalent section.
You can also aggregate 2 or more activities where neither one reaches the majority level - if you add uo the total time for all activities in the descriptor set and together they comprise more than the majority of days you will score the most prevalent or the highest value if equal.
Similarly with engaging with others - maybe a few prompts is enough? 2 points 9b
If not perhaps I need to have someone with me and get support from them? 9c - 4 points
However that might still not be enough help to allow me to interact socially and understand body language etc. Therefore if I can show that either I have 'overwhelming psychological distress' (OPD) or behave in a harmful way then 8 points can be achieved -9d.

The majority of days is NOT the same as most of the time.
If you can not complete the descriptor activity (at the appropriate level) safely, timely and acceptably across the whole day, as many times as is reasonably required then that day will count towards the majority amount, unless the problems you have are for a very short insignificant time that day. This is because you have to 'repeat'.
The rate of repetition varies according to each activity. For cooking food, this might be 3 or 4 times per day. Toilet times could be 5 or 6 maybe more if incontinence occurs.
Social events are likely to occur once ir twice per day. Communication might be required 24/7.
Remember too that if you avoid doing something this can be evidence of a problem. People who can't do up shoes or clothes use pull on ones. If you can't access the bath without help you don't use the bath!
Likewise you might avoid social events - why? Maybe because it is all too overwhelming and even the thought sends you in to a state of huge anxiety. Maybe you don't go socialising because you know will become aggressive and might hurt someone?
There is a principle of 'normal life' - this means that DWP can't just say that you can do without eg buttoned tailored clothes, and baggy pull up ones will do. (And hence no points get awarded!) It is not unreasonable for someone to want to wear smart clothes. Likewise it is not unreasonable to want to go to a party or family gathering, but anxiety etc prevents this because it is too overwhelming. DWP can't just assume that you are happy to stay at home and want nothing more.
So...basically if you can show that you can't socialise because of OPD, and this is for all of the time - either you try and do this but the anxiety gets too much, or you avoid because you know it will be too much then this should get 8 points.
If the OPD etc occurs on at least 51% of days then you should get 8 points. (Even if you have absolutely no other problems for the remaining 49%!)
If you can manage with eg prompting say 30% of days, and on 40% of days OPD prevents socialising the aggregating rules would give you 8 points. (Add together both and you reach over 51%, and highest value- here is most prevalent too.) If both scenarios 9b and 9d were 30% each- then also 8 pts 9d as highest value.
If the OPD occurs for the whole day, (or you avoid socialising to prevent it occurring,) that is a day towards the 51%.
If OPD/avoidance only happens for part of the day this could still count as a day towards 51% as long as the OPD state occurs for a major part of that day or perhaps immediately at the time you need to go out, preventing you going out to an event or making this extremely difficult if you did manage to arrive.
Banal chat saying hello to the cashier at Tesco, or going to the doctors is not a social event.
I hope this clarifies things.
LL26