Just been replaying my son's F2F and wanted to ask. Covering the" planning a journey" criteria, I assume, my husband as son's appointee was asked "could your son look up a route on Google Maps?" which my husband answered truthfully that yes he could do that but he wouldn't be able to do anything with it. In so far as he could find a route from Land's End to John o' Groats on Google maps but he isn't able to walk to the end of the street without an adult.
Later on my husband was asked to confirm that our son doesn't go to the local shop or anywhere else without an adult accompanying him which he confirmed was the truth. The assessor accepted that was the case without question really most likely because it tallied with what had gone before I imagine and my husband had given plenty of instances to support what he was saying and what was in the form and the reports although he hadn't read them.
So, from that, would you expect our son to meet the 12 points criteria for mobility given that he has no physical disabilities?

Mutty

I'm sorry but it's impossible to say what points he might score.

Planning a route is a separate activity, I would argue that using Google Maps does not constitute the planning of a route as it is the software that is doing the planning and not the claimant.

You say he cannot walk to the end of the road, but not why. To score the 12 points it has to be accepted that he cannot follow (navigate) the route of a familiar journey.

Gordon

Well the reason he doesn't go anywhere without adult support are multiple and varied tbh and it depends on the situation and how our son is at the time. So the reasons are primarily for his safety in so far as he isn't reliably road safe, that he is easily spooked and will run off say if a bird lands near him or he sees or hears an insect buzzing or he doesn't like the look of someone approaching, or a car horn or alarm goes off or whatever is triggering his anxiety at that time. When he runs he pays no attention to where he goes he just flees so will run into the road or will push through people (has pushed a stranger into road previously) to escape. Any social interaction is tortuous for him so will avoid it at all costs so would refuse to go out without an adult to rescue him from any interaction from others. He also is unable to speak a lot of the time so wouldn't be able to get help if he needed it and that coupled with his flight risk is a disaster waiting to happen.
Other reasons are down to his sensory processing difficulties so loud noises cause him physical pain, he sees minute details rather than the bigger picture so would see a crack in a tile on a roof opposite but would miss the car that he should be checking for to cross the road and these leave him few resources to cope with his other difficulties.
My husband had given plenty of examples like these previously because they are numerous and happen inside as well as outside the home and so wasn't really surprised when he was asked to confirm that our son always had an adult with him.

Mutty

If it is a couple of days since the assessment then you can request a copy of the report from the DWP office dealing with his claim.

Decisions are running at 3-5 weeks.

Gordon

Well the dreaded brown envelope arrived and our son was awarded 4 points for mobility and 2 points for daily living. I'm shell shocked to be honest, alway beiieved that we would need to appeal mobility but thought daily living was a given tbh so it looks like we will be asking for a mandatory reconsideration in the first place at least.

Mutty wrote: Well the dreaded brown envelope arrived and our son was awarded 4 points for mobility and 2 points for daily living. I'm shell shocked to be honest, alway beiieved that we would need to appeal mobility but thought daily living was a given tbh so it looks like we will be asking for a mandatory reconsideration in the first place at least.

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 his 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 he meets the criteria, there are many reasons he 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