Re SHOULD I ACCEPT THIS CHANGE OF DECISION AND DROP MY PIP APPEAL?

Hi citizenschambers,
It is always very annoying when you don't score all the points for all your heath conditions!
However, the bottom line here is that DWP are offering you the maximum award of benefit, which will be backdated - presumably to the date when your award was reviewed and your previous award was reduced. There is nothing more than you can gain from the tribunal.
There is no guarantee that the tribunal will make the same award so you could lose out. Depending where you live it could take several months for an appeal to be finalised, so although you will get the relevant backdated payment, it could take quite a long way for this to actually be paid ...if you succeed at tribunal!

My advice is to take the DWP offer, you can not possibly achieve more, and may achieve less, plus with all the hassle of having to have a tribunal hearing.

I'm not sure whether you are at the Mandatory Reconsideration stage or you have done that, and now wish to appeal? If you have done the MR -then this appears to have worked as DWP have revised the decision.
If you have completed the appeal application, and have done MR, then in accordance with the law, DWP must review all the appeal application, and again can revise their decision to avoid unnecessary appeals (ie to resolve these cases promptly where possible and thus to avoid costly hearings)
I am a little surprised that DWP has made 'an offer' - normally in these circumstances DWP would write and say that they have revised their decision, and hence the appeal has lapsed, but you have a right to go to appeal if you wish. However, it is likely that a standard letter is sent confirming the right to go to the tribunal, but if Enhanced Rate of both components is being paid there is nothing to appeal, and it is unlikely that the tribunal would consider the appeal, unless there was another issue such as the length of the award.

About the 'missing points' - once DWP has already awarded sufficient points to achieve Enhanced Rate they are not obliged to consider any more descriptors - sometimes they do, but they don't have. This could be one of the reasons why it appears that you have less points than you should.

Unfortunately there seem to be far too many Assessment Reports that play down or ignore obvious disabilities. It happens all the time, with many claimants, so please do not worry that it is personal. -It might seem that way but it isn't! Moreover, the Decision Maker clearly hasn't paid too much attention to the Report, otherwise he would not have awarded the highest level of benefit.

I appreciate that you are worried about your next review, even though it may be in several years. At the moment you have plenty enough points to sustain both components at Enhanced Rate, so even if other descriptor points are not awarded this will not affect your benefit. My concern is that if you write to DWP complaining about certain descriptors being incorrectly scored, you might confuse DWP, which could lead to them revising their decision again - you could lose some benefit, or (probably most likely) they will do nothing. They will probably have lost any letter by the time the next review comes in any event!

However, presumably you have a copy of the claim/review form which will show which descriptors you thought applied, and if there is a subsequent problem, you can refer to the historic paperwork to show eg ongoing disability. But that is for the next review.

Accept the 'offer', get the money, and then worry about the next review when need be. Let the sleeping dog lie, and don't poke the beast.

I hope this helps.

LL26

Hi citizenschambers

LL26 will not take it personally due to the volume of traffic we get on the forum.

We are pleased that you took LL26's detailed advice and hope that you are now less stressed and overwhelmed.

Gary

Hi citizenschambers,
Aha...Absolutely no problem! As Gary said I'm not offended at all. (But thank you for the belated thank you!🙂)
Many of our queries come from anxious and stressed claimants who are overwhelmed by the demands of the benefits system. The really important thing here is that you found the advice helpful, and having knowledge to move forward and be less anxious
Stay safe and try not to worry too much.
LL26
PS you know where we are if you do get worried again.