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Starting the DLA to PIP Battle

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6 years 5 months ago #199594 by Rich
Replied by Rich on topic Starting the DLA to PIP Battle
At least it's out of the way for you now. Hopefully not too long to wait and the right result.

My wife's appointment is the 31st. Time to prepare or to worry depending how you look at it. Capita got the case on the 3rd and the appointment letter is dated the 16th so they don't seem to have requested any more info. I'm happy with that as it means they get to see what we wanted them to.

I think there are pros and cons to the home visit. I read in the guide that they can't use the software so you are more dependant on the assessor's competence to do the job. On the other hand, they can't lie about how far you walked to get there.

We will be studying the questions they are likely to ask and practice dealing with trick questions. We might be obsessing altogether too much about this but it's hard not to. I've had another sleepless night just from receiving the appointment letter. :unsure:
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6 years 5 months ago #199640 by Capyboppy
Replied by Capyboppy on topic Starting the DLA to PIP Battle
It seemed no time at all from when they received the letter to the DWP phoning me up and offering. the appointment for 2 days later. The first timeI sent it back by registered post to have it sent back to me. With all the stress I had forgotten to date and sign it! So took a chance and sent it back recorded as I was reluctant to pay another £7+. I am pretty sure it was the end of last week when I received the text to say they had received it, then it was this Monday I received the phone. call for the visit on Wednesday. At most it would have been only the week before.

I have one concern on one of the questions she had repeated. She asked me a couple of times how often I took my nebuliser and for how long. I presumed she was referring to the preventative Ipratropium bromide and not the salbutamol. I said the same answer each time, but hubby broke in and said however much it is needed and then went on to mention about my portable nebuliser for when out. I hope she realised we were both talking about different medications.

I have been reading up on the guidance leaflets for Mandatory Reconsideration and Appeals. It looks so detailed on how we would have to go about it which adds so much stress. I know everyone encourages us to fight to the end but I sometimes wonder if it really is worth it. Someone I knew had theirs lowered which mean their brand new (a couple of months) customised wheelchair would have to go as it was on motability, or she would have to buy it outright. She decided in the end rather than risk what she had and all the stress involved she would not take it any further. She said for her it was the right decision.

You mentioned about not having the software? The assessor was at typing away on her laptop after asking me the questions and getting the answers. Would the software not be on her laptop?

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6 years 5 months ago #199661 by Rich
Replied by Rich on topic Starting the DLA to PIP Battle
Re your last question, the guide says that they don't have the PIPAT software for home visits. I am guessing here but it gives them access to your scanned in documents which should be confidential. When they are office based they could access those via a network rather than on their own machine. Carrying them around on a laptop would not be secure.
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6 years 5 months ago #199664 by Capyboppy
Replied by Capyboppy on topic Starting the DLA to PIP Battle
That does make sense Rich. I asked her if she had seen my claim form as I noticed she didn't seem to have any. documents or a clipboard or anything like that. She said she had seen it; so that ties in with what you have said.

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6 years 4 months ago #200217 by Rich
Replied by Rich on topic Starting the DLA to PIP Battle
My wife had her F2F at home today. Not sure what to make of it. It seemed very fast, about 45 minutes. The guy seemed to blast through the questions, sticking mostly to what is on the PIP2 form.

He didn't ask her to walk or see her walk. He seemed to putting words into our mouths about what she could do. He said she could walk about 2 metres. We said no, 5/6 metres. Would she have to pause after two metres? No, she can do the 5/6 metres with an aid. Would it take about 30 seconds for that? No, nothing like that. Very weird.

We didn't get the supermarket aisle thing. He asked about shopping but assumed I would do it. I said she goes with me but we use a trolley attached to the wheelchair. He pretty much skipped over that.

On the form, we didn't try for anything on planning a journey as it's more about the psychological aspect of it. My wife said she couldn't follow a journey because she can't go out on her own. He started asking if it was due to her lack of focus and concentration. It's not really but he seemed to be going with that.

On the daily activities, I'm not sure if we expressed the difficulty of some activities and the problem of repeating them. He seemed keen to get through them and get away.

Although my wife uses two hearing aids, we also didn't expect to get anything on the communication front. But with him speaking so quickly and quietly and mumbling, she had plenty of difficulty understanding him.

It's hard to say how it went overall. I will be requesting a copy of the report as soon as possible and see how we stand.

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6 years 4 months ago #200225 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic Starting the DLA to PIP Battle
Rich

We've given up trying to predict how am assessment went by what happened during it :)

Contact the DWP office dealing with her claim for the assessment report.

PIP Decisions are taking about 2-4 weeks at the moment.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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