Important question about PIP Mandatory Reconsideration answer length

Hi Mimi

Unfortunately, I cannot give you an answer here. There is no 'ideal length'. No one knows whether the DWP read everything that has been sent in or not - they are certainly supposed to and there are no guidelines on the length of a Mandatory Reconsideration. Some people would advise you to keep it brief and others would say put in as much detail as possible to not leave anything to chance.

I am afraid you can only make a decision on this one yourself. Ask yourself whether giving five or six examples really tells them anything new or would two examples be enough for one question. For example you mention your depression. If you are answering the question about communicating with others - you have given a great example in your post about sitting on your bed all day because of your depression. Explain the impact of being isolated, how it makes you feel, how your life has changed, how you don't feel better even though someone is trying to keep in touch. Illustrate that answer fully ( or another one just like it). Adding another five or six examples won't make it more meaningful to anyone reading it.

What you are trying to do in the Mandatory Reconsideration is challenge what the assessor has said. Assuming you have the assessment report (PA4). If they have said that you communicate freely because of your medical studies, you need to say they are mistaken and say why.

BIS

Hi Mimi,
To add to BIS' excellent reply, also say what your friends do for you do they prompt you to go and socialise, do you feel safe with them etc and why. It is likely that they are your support network allowing you to do many things you wouldn't do but for their support. Maybe one or more of them could make a statement for you explaining what help they provide.
BIS is right an MR letter can be as long as you like. If you feel that what you are saying contributes to the picture of your disabilities then keep it, if it then no. Maybe ask for one of your friends to read your letter and criticise it.Be open to that criticism however hard it may be. This is from your friend so they will be wanting to help you!
Good luck.
Let us know how you get on.
LL26

Hi M,
Remember that whatever you think never say assessors lie. They can get confused, misunderstand or perhaps misheard! This is very important. The MR shouldn't be a personal attack or DWP will just lose interest.
And as to your question, why do Assessors get 'confused' I don't know, sometimes (and I genuinely think this is true) the computer isn't cleared from the previous claimant and things get carried over, otherwise some really random stuff is entered!
I write long MR letters! (So can't advise whether short is good!)If you are struggling to keep it short try writing bullet points on a spare page.
Condense the criticisms of the assessor into 4 or 5 points. You can go through the report and list the major issues. Don’t try and list all decorate 39 spelling mistakes or the 15 times where there is no full stop. If these sort of mistakes occur this could be a bullet point-
•many grammatical errors and passages that do not make sense
eg 'Claimant has not not had painful feat'
(which can then be commented on showing lack of attention to detail which eg could support the idea that the assessor wasn't really listening)
Another bullet point could be eg
•Assessor has misheard what I have said on many occasions
Eg 'I do not walk to visit my mother, she passed away 15 years ago.'
Or maybe
•The assessor has made many incorrect assumptions
Eg 'Claimant works therefore can prepare food.
However I am blind and I have many 'reasonable adjustments' to allow me to work, such as voice recognition software, and a braille keyboard. I can not see to peel vegetable safely...

You can then go through each relevant descriptor. Refer back to the members guides if you need to. Decide what points award you believe us correct. You can always ask a friend's opinion. Remember 4 criteria (all must apply)
Safety
Acceptable standard
Reasonable time
Repetition across the whole as reasonably required.
Think how you manage the PIP activities for the majority of days, so you can ignore the better days.

Then on another scrap page write your bullet points for each descriptor. What can/can't you do. Why? What did the Assessor say. Whats incorrect. Give up to eg three examples of what different things can go wrong/why you can't do X. You can either keep these as bullet points or expand into proper sentences as you write the final MR. If you feel you need one or two more examples include them, if they add something.
Consider if less than three examples eg of getting lost and not following a journey maybe necessary. You can say 3 times last month I got lost, eg on Monday 23rd XYZ happened and explain that or just use a quick sentence of one line to sum up each incident. Alternatively you can just say eg 'in the last 6 weeks I have fallen over 11 times, including straining my ankle and on another occasion breaking a wrist. This is due to poor balance and indicates I need assistance....'
You don't have to explain everything calamity, just the important ones use bullet points or lists.
If your MR is say 20 pages of normal type it probably is too long. If it is 4 or 5 pages,perhaps 6 or 7 then it is OK, but it really depends on whether you score on all descriptors or just a few.
Hopefully this will help!
LL26