PIP - CHANGES (UPDATED - 2/2/18)

PIP Going Out

Update 2 February

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3716-no-f...on-pip-reassessments


Update 30 January

See the following News article

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3713-1-6-...mental-health-awards

Please understand. There have been three Ministerial announcements in the House of Commons, none of them have resulted in any briefing documents, there have been no memos issued, the guidance to Decision Makers remains unchanged and the changes to the legislation that were made last March have not been repealed.

It's no that we do not want to answer your questions, we do not have any answers, so please no more questions about this in the forum,. we will update you with new information as soon as it becomes available.

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Update 29 January

The DWP have announced that they are now reviewing all 1.6m PIP claim to date and expect some 220,000 claimants to have a revised award.

Please do not post about your individual claim in the forum. There is no additional information, as of today there has been no official Press Releases or change in the guidance to Decision Makers. We cannot answer your questions!

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Update 24 January

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3710-hund...urn-rises-to-220-000

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As many of you are aware the DWP on Friday 19 January announced that they would not be pursuing an appeal against the three Judge Decision referred to as RF.

As a result the changes made in March 2017 to the PIP Descriptors for the Going Out activity will be repealed and returned to their original definition and the interpretaion of judgement CPIP/1347/2015 will be applied.

Please be aware that the changes effecting the Managing Therapy activity remain in place.


What does this mean for members

The DWP have said that they are going to review some 160,000 PIP claims, they have not said which claims they are going to review, but it is likely that they will look at any claim where the claimant scored points for Going Out. They may also review claims where the claimant did not score, but the underlying argument of their claim was based on mental health issues.

As it stands you do not need to do anything, especially as this has only just been announced, we expect that the DWP will contact claimants if they intend to revise their award.


What does this change mean

It is important to understand the the Judgement does not fundamentally alter the operation of the Descriptors in the Going Out activity, it merely extends the circusmstances in which a claimant might meet the criteria.

The two primary Descriptors effect are;

d. Cannot follow the route of an unfamiliar journey without another person, assistance dog or orientation aid. 10 points.

and

f. Cannot follow the route of a familiar journey without another person, an assistance dog or an orientation aid. 12 points.

These Descriptors are about the following, or navigation, of a route and only issues which would prevent a claimant from doing this will be considered in regard to their scoring points.

It is now accepted that overwhelming psychological distress could be a reason why the claimant could not continue to follow a route, but you must explain why this is the case in detail and specifically why it would prevent you from continuing to navigate the route, to have a reasonable chance of scoring points.


Other areas covered

Prompting to help you start a journey
The tribunal decided that b) is about ‘prompting’ such as encouragement and reassurance that a claimant needs before they are able to set out on a journey. It’s what they need to get them out of the door, but It does not cover prompting needed in the course of the journey, in spite of what the DWP have argued. So, if you need prompting in the course of the journey then the higher scoring descriptors d) or f) may apply.

Help whilst on a journey
The tribunal decided that if a claimant suffers ‘overwhelming psychological distress’ then they may be able to score points for d) or for f) as well as b) or e). They are not limited to only being able to score points for b) or e), as the DWP had argued.

So if you suffer from extreme anxiety that means you need someone else with you in order to follow an unfamiliar route then you may be able to score 10 points for descriptor d) and if you need help with familiar routes you may score 12 points for f) and be eligible for the enhanced mobility component on this basis alone.

Help to ask directions
The tribunal decided that not being able to ask directions if you became lost was not sufficient grounds to score points. However, if you suffer overwhelming psychological distress just because you come into contact with other people when on a journey then that would need to be taken into account.



Claimants who met Descriptor (e)

I'm afraid the news is not good, one negative aspect of the judgement is that it is accepted that if a claimant meets

e. Cannot undertake any journey because it would cause overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant. 10 points.

then they cannot score for Descriptor (f), in simple terms; if you cannot undertake a journey then (f) cannot apply because you would not be able to follow a route even if you had another person with you.

Original News Item

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3708-comp...unded-by-our-readers


Gordon

as above