Change of circumstances

Hi Rexer,
Walking ability for PIP isn't simply the maximum you can walk. There are criteria that need to be considered. These are what many people call 'reliability'. If you have a fair amount of pain either constant or that gets worse as you walk or eg you get breathless then this will end the period of walking. This is because walking with significant pain or being out of breath means you won't reach an 'acceptable standard '. If you have constant pain, it is perfectly possible that even though you grind through the pain and can reach over 200m for PIP your walking ability could actually be zero!
Similarly there is a need to consider safety, speed and ability to repeat across the whole day as many times as reasonably required.
Be absolutely certain that your daughter's walking has actuallt improved. If she is still in pain or out if breath at before 200m, she will still fall into one of the scoring descriptors. How fast does she walk? Is this within twice the time of a non disabled person? Does she need to stop - if the pauses are quite long this will affect the reasonable time.- it will create a series of small walks. Are there safety concerns, falls or stumbles? Think also about the manner of walking eg veering to the side,being unbalanced etc. As well as being unsafe, this can also comprise not bring acceptable standard.
Lastly consider whether your daughter can repeat. - What 'walking' could or would your daughter want or need to do across the day? Rejember that even a car journey will involve a short walk from the front door to the car
Go to school
Walk to local shop at break time
Come home
Go to music lesson come home
Visit friend come home
Go to post office to return Anazom parcel
There many more possible 'walks' that could be done or your daughter woukd like to do if eg she wasn't in pain, or fatigued or more prone to fall over etc. If your daughter can't repeat all these types of walks throughout the day, she should receive points in accordance with what she can repeat, whilst being safe, within reasonable time and acceptably. The figure which is the walking distsnce for PIP is almost certainly not the absolute maximum, and will be the figure where all 4 criteria can always be met. And this is the figure that can be achieved for the majority of days.
If there are a few better days when 200m is easily exceeded these can be discounted. Also consider whether doing several walks one day affects the next ( so you can't repeat).
It is entirely possible your daughter's walking ability is now over 200m fir the majority if days. If so, having done the analysis set out above then it is important that your daughter contact DWP to inform them if a change of circumstances.
However, if your daughter gets points under Mobility 1 as well as Mobility 2, then be mindful that a genuine reduction of points under Mob 2 might not change the award level if there are still plenty if points under Mob 1.
There is only a duty to inform DWP if health improvement that reduces points.
Unfortunately I don't know much about your daughter's actual health problems. Be aware that this could just be a temporary improvement. However if your daughter ( and your self as a bystander) genuinely think this is a permanent improvement then subject to what I have said above, you would need to report the change. Given that you have the firm you can use this. Maybe hold fire in returning the firm until almost last minute to confirm whether the walking improvement is still present. Remrmber also, that actual walking distance might have increased but breathlessness etc or pain might be still be worse and hence will counter the improved distance.
Since the potential walking ability improvement is recent it is likely that DWP will reduce the points and unless your daughter has sufficient points under Mob 1, then the mobility award will be reduced or removed as appropriate. Given that you will have reported the change in a timely manner if it then takes a long time for DWP to act this should not give rise to an overpayment.
I hope this makes sense and helps.
LL26

Hi Rexer

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