PIP for a relative

Hi Perdita,
I have just written a long post about what I believe is required for communication. www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/kunena/10-dla-...ip-activity-7#301904

Communication involves the ability to speak hear and understand and be understood. The words used are 'express and understand.' Communication is a 2 way process. Can the claimant tell someone how I feel, what I want, how I want to do something etc etc can this be done for the majority of days, across each day, or a very great part of each day? Do people understand me? Do I understand them, when they want something, or want to give me information etc.?

Avoidance.
Many people (disabled or not) avoid things that are too difficult. Think loose pull on clothes, or maybe avoiding noisy pubs that cause hearing aids to reverberate. Or maybe not going out because the fear of doing this is so great it will give overwhelming psychological. All of these are from recent cases. Avoidance is a real thing!
However, it is unlikely that DWP will award points on the basis that 'you might struggle '. Have a think about what stops the claimant preparing vegetables. Is there a safety issue, what about pain or breathlessness? Perhaps slow speed is the problem or maybe something prevents this task being repeated over the whole day, as required. Analyse what goes wrong or what the problem is and then you can say eg
I can not peel and chop vegetables. I am not safe, and I can not do this activity to an acceptable standard., this is because...[explanation and examples here] I have to use frozen vegetables.

I hope this helps.
LL26

Hi Perdita,
What happens without the notes?
Does your friend get help making the notes?
Presumably notes only help if you know you have a meeting or appointment? Meetings etc will only comprise a short part of the day!

If it is only meetings that cause communication problems, then I'm not sure that this would be sufficient difficulty. However if ad hoc conversations can not be done within the 4 criteria I have already described for the majority of days then this will indicate a score of points.
If a crib note is required, then this could amount to an aid. pipinfo.net/activities/communicating-verbally
See this link - scroll down there is a Northern Irish case - 3rd case down BM and Dept for Communities which suggests writing notes could be an aid. This isn't a binding case but could certainly be used as an argument to apply to English law.
And if this means the whole being able to express oneself and or being understood takes too much time, yes then it could also fail under 'reasonable time '.
Otherwise if another person, (who could be a relative who knows you well,) needs to 'translate' what you need to say, or maybe assist by clarifying words, or suggesting words, then unless this is at a very basic level indeed this is likely to comprise points under 7c. For basic words this will be 7d.
On the link above have a look at the definition of "communication support".
This includes the type of 'translation' exercise I indicated above.
Think about what happens for the majority of days. If more than one descriptor of the set apply equally, then the higher value should be awarded.
I hope this helps.
LL26