PIP Mandatory Reconsideration - advice needed

IH

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Revision rates at the MR stage are very low, but they do happen, success at appeal is fa higher (60%+). Appeal panels treat the evidence in a much more balanced way than the DWP Decision Maker, not least because the DM is not medically trained and is wholly dependant on the assessor report, whether it is a true reflection of your problems or not.

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the PIP area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

Irene

Rather than tackling the report head on, I would recommend that you go back to basics and explain again why you meet the criteria, so using the distance you were alleged to have walked; I would explain why your walking is limited, how limited it is and the effects that walking has on you, then you can bring in what you supposed to have done and show that it was not reasonable either because it was too far for you to have walked or because of the effects it would have had on you.

Remember you must be able to complete an activity "reliably" and "on the majority of days" not to score points.

Gordon