PIP Moving around.

Hi Rambling Ted

1. Write how far you can walk by yourself. (No he doesn't count as an aid). Make it very clear why you cannot use aids.

2. What they base their decision on will be on what you write and how you explain it. I can't say anymore because I'm not an assessor and don't know your case. Try to eliminate any chance of them misinterpreting what you're saying. (It can be a challenge!)

BIS

Hi Rambling Ted,
To continue from what BIS has says about question 2.
Although you have been given injections and the swelling has eased, does this mean you can actually walk further? Does it help with balance? Is the pain less? Can you continue to have the injections every so often or is this a one-off? What, if anything has the consultant said? Think about the whole scenario.
As BIS says, there is a real danger that if you write that you have had the injections and things seem better, then you may not get points for mobility.
However, if, having thought about the real effect of the injections it may not have increased your walking ability, or it might have reduced pain but you still get eg breathless on walking, which hasn't been solved. Alternatively, you may still have falls, or eg your leg still gives way.
If having considered all aspects of your walking, and you think it is genuinely improved in terms of distance, safety, time taken, being able to repeat etc then you probably do need to mention the improvement. Otherwise by all means say that you have had the injections, but then say that although swelling has been reduced, you still can't walk X metres (whatever your PIP ability is) because, and then go through all the difficulties.
Walking ability isn't about what I call the duracell battery test. If you have seen the adverts, the duracell battery goes on and on, but the other batteries die out long before. You are not trying to prove how far you can walk until drop down from exhaustion and genuinely can not move!
PIP requires you to think about safety, reasonable time, repeating and acceptable standard.
Walking with severe discomfort has to be discounted. Note, severe discomfort is far less than excruciating agony, and can comprise breathlessness, pain, (not just leg pain) etc etc. If you always gave severe discomfort but grind through the pain, then legally for PIP your walking ability is 0m, but I would always put a small nominal amount as DWP don’t usually understand the severe discomfort rules! Falls need to be taken into account, and remember that a stumble is only a wobble away from a full fall. Speed and manner of walking are also relevant. Your PIP walking ability is the limit of what you can do without falling over, without getting out of breath, etc and what you can achieve in no more than twice the time of a non disabled person. If the injections only mean eg you can walk 40m instead of the previous 25m then you can still safely tick the 20-50m box.
I hope this adds a bit of clarity to thinking about your PIP mobility. This is always a difficult thing to analyse.
LL26