How is points given on multiple illnesses pip

Hi Fiona

I know you're really worried but you are going to try and tie yourself up in knots with a question like this. It's impossible to give you an answer that will make you feel okay.

Lots of people are in a similar position to yourself with multiple illnesses that fluctuate, and some will be happy with their PIP award, and some won't be. We often hear about people who appear to have the same medical conditions and symptoms and there seems to be no logical reason why they get such different results. As you have already noted sometimes an assessor appears to ignore evidence that people have provided and there can be multiple reasons why they do this. Sometimes people get awarded points where they are not expecting them. Sometimes people have a good experience at their assessment only to find the assessor has reported they are fine and they lose their award. Some have a terrible experience - lose their awards and some have a terrible experience and get an improved award. There are so many different things that can come into play. And now I have probably worried you even further, which I don't mean to.

You have sent your form off now and there is nothing you can do apart from get hold of your PA4 when it is available. Hopefully, you will get the award you are hoping for, but until you know, you should try not to focus on it - even though I know you will be dreading that brown envelope. As hard as it is, it is easier to deal with facts rather than what may be.

And you don't have to apologise for asking questions. You are free to ask what you like - it's just we can't always put people's mind at rest or give them a satisfactory answer.

BIS

Hi Fiona,
To add to the previous comments - PIP is all about whether you can complete the set of prescribed tasks to the required standard, as a result of poor health - this could be injury, disease or something from birth. Here's an example about walking problems - a bit far fetched but should illustrate how DWP should decide.
Claimant has sciatica, migraine, IBS, asthma,
Monday - sciatic pain - too painful to walk - can only 'walk' 10m
Tuesday - no sciatica but have migraine - severe dizziness eye sight very poor, very poor balance - you can only 'walk' 5m
Wednesday - asthma attack - but at least no migraine or sciatica today - very breathless - feel like you are about to pass out , you can't walk at all
Thursday - only bad IBS - terrible griping pains walking more than 7m is not possible the pain becomes too severe
Friday - things get really bad, sciatica recurs, and another attack - today you are lucky to 'walk' 3m.
Despite the varying causes of walking disability - all of these fall within the 1-20m category and all therefore achieve 12 points Mobility 2e.
Of course there may be a cumulative effect of everything, and life in general which could include some working if you are able - this might preclude'repeating' a task across the whole day as many times as reasonably required. Chronic fatigue can often have this effect. (Caselaw on this - also functioning alcoholic who can do tasks at the beginning of the day, not the end.)
Regulation 7 provides that you can aggregate - so using the example above, amended a bit - supposing for a quarter of the time each - sciatica reduces walking ability to 60m, migraine is now 15m,
IBS is 10m and asthma is 70m.
The pattern is 50% 1- 20m (asthma/migraine) and 50% at 50-200m
Reg 7 provides that where 2 or more descriptors in the set apply equally the higher scoring value applies - so here 1-20m
If the pattern was unequal eg 60% 50-200m, 30% 20-50% and 10% 1-20m, then the correct score is the 60% as the most prevalent - ie 50-200m.
If say the variability across eg a week or was 30% at 50-200m, 30% at 1-20m and 30% at 20-50m, then you could aggregate each of the 30% to create here 90% which of course is more than the required 51%. Again the higher value is correct if each level applies equally, or if unequal the most prevalent.
Now my example is perhaps rather far fetched in that it is unlikely that illnesses will only affect someone exclusively on one day. However, the principle remains the same - providing you have health problems that limit you (for all descriptors, not just walking ability, ) look at what you can or can't do across the week. This is why a disability diary is a great idea, and you can still do this despite sending off the form as it could be helpful if you need an assessment.) Work out the pattern across the week. bear in mind that if you can't 'repeat' the activity via pain, fatigue, or simple physical inability etc then even if the failure to repeat is only for part of the day then that day will still count as part of the majority of days pattern. (It is then a question of relating why you can't repeat to fit within the descriptor levels - eg could you perform the activity with an aid or gadget of some sort, maybe supervision, prompting or physical help is needed, or maybe you just actually can't do it. ) the majority pattern could equate to what happens over a week if some days are better but the same disability occurs. Or eg over a day - so there is always some sort of disability level - sometimes a gadget, sometimes actual help - then do the aggregating exercise as described above per Reg7.
Finally any days when doing the descriptor activities you are not safe, not reached an 'acceptable standard' or not within 'reasonable time' (Reg4(2A)) then you will not be able to 'repeat' either. (These will also be days to count within the majority of days.) Again similarly if there is a general disability of varying levels on every day you will need to consider what can make you safe/acceptable/within time - then per Reg 7 - highest or most prevalent value to reflect the help you need. If nothing will allow you to be safe etc then it is likely your correct score is the most points - usually 'I can't do...'
I apologise if this a bit technical- please let me know if you need further explanation and I will try and break this down more. It is very complicated!
However DWP are terrible at aggregating and the reliability criteria of Reg 4(2A)- they really don't understand or choose to ignore!
I hope this helps.
LL26

Hi Fiona,
It's probably just a waiting game for now. Keep us updated and obviously if you need more help let us know.
LL26