Husband refused PIP so scared about what we are going to do

bspm

Faith177 wrote: »

He missed out on points

They have scored him 0 in sections that he should have scored points on

Yes it will be ongoing he has a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder, possible cartilage damage in the shoulder leaving him with 30% movement, he has a possible c-spine compression, anxiety, depression, an ongoing investigation into a brain injury, possible PTSD

Yes we sent the private medical report the insurance company had done, his report from the fit to work scheme (government based) and letters from the 2 different consultants he is under

Rotator cuff damage is repaired usually by surgery (just had it done myself) this would lead to cartilage damage I think, I cannot see how someone would qualify for PIP when an operation could correct it.

Not sure a 'possible' c-spine compression or an ongoing investigation into a brain injury would be awarded points either, (was this caused due to the RTA or was it an earlier problem when he worked?) the DWP want firm evidence, not possibilities. Anxiety and depression would follow a car accident especially if the claimant had previously been gainfully employed and is now suffering pain.

You said the car accident was two months ago, were you both able to go on holiday in March? How was your husband during the holiday? Have they not said when they will repair the rotator cuff? I had one from February until June this year and the pain was excruciating, especially with any attempt at backward or upward arm movement. After surgery my shoulder movement is 95% better, unfortunately it would appear I now have the same problem in my other shoulder.

Personally I think you have quite a battle to qualify for PIP but who knows these days.

Faith177

bspm wrote: »

Rotator cuff damage is repaired usually by surgery (just had it done myself) this would lead to cartilage damage I think, I cannot see how someone would qualify for PIP when an operation could correct it.

Not sure a 'possible' c-spine compression or an ongoing investigation into a brain injury would be awarded points either, (was this caused due to the RTA or was it an earlier problem when he worked?) the DWP want firm evidence, not possibilities. Anxiety and depression would follow a car accident especially if the claimant had previously been gainfully employed and is now suffering pain.

You said the car accident was two months ago, were you both able to go on holiday in March? How was your husband during the holiday? Have they not said when they will repair the rotator cuff? I had one from February until June this year and the pain was excruciating, especially with any attempt at backward or upward arm movement. After surgery my shoulder movement is 95% better, unfortunately it would appear I now have the same problem in my other shoulder.

Personally I think you have quite a battle to qualify for PIP but who knows these days.

The accident was 6 months ago on the 6th March initially he was told that he had post concussion syndrome and would be better in 6-8 weeks. We went to Budapest on the 17th March for 5 days (with GP permission) and he struggled but was ok as he still had headaches and was in a bit of pain with his arm

At the start of April his headaches started to get worst. He then woke up one morning couldn't talk properly, couldn't bare light and running a high temp. We took him to A&E who originally thought he had sepsis (unknown origin), then they thought it was meningitis the finally after nearly a week said he had a brain injury and referred him to the National hospital in London. He was also referred for speech therapy at this point

He has had trouble with feeling in his hand since day one originally they were going to do physio but had to delay that because of the brain injury being investigated as they were concerned they may cause further complications. He was then seen by a shoulder specialist after referral by his GP who wanted him to be looked at further with MRI's because he felt the labarum in his shoulder had been either moved or damaged as well as a torn rotator cuff. He is due the result from his MRI on this today to see how they plan to fix this at the moment the two options on the table are a repair or a joint replacement depending on the level of damage. He has next to no feeling in his hand he has 30% movement in the limb and his arm is weakened and he is not able to use it properly as his grip is virtually non existent.

The C Spine is a recent development as it was only when he went to the shoulder specialist that he raised it as a possible explanation to some of the problems he is experiencing. This is still under investigation and they are looking at surgery for this too again we will be getting the results from this today

The trouble is that we have had long waits between appointments coupled in with the hospital he first attended on the day of the accident not doing any CT's or X-rays despite him showing signs of possible issues (ringing in the ears, headache not knowing if he had been knocked out)

Faith177

Thank you for all the helpful advice and the areas that you have raised we did detail on both the form and in the assessment with regards to prompting on a variety of day to day tasks. We feel like all of this was completely ignored as we raised budgeting, eating ect as issues

We are going to ask both his occupational therapist and GP to see if they can provide a letter detailing what is happening. We also now have a report from the neurologist which we didn't have previously and he was seen by his neuropsychologist on the 30th August and we should have a report from his shortly. Unfortunately his next neuro appointment won't be till the end of Oct so will miss the 28 day deadline for submitting evidence. Another added bonus will be hopefully today we will have more knowledge on his shoulder and spine fingers crossed

bspm

Faith177 wrote: »

Thank you for all the helpful advice and the areas that you have raised we did detail on both the form and in the assessment with regards to prompting on a variety of day to day tasks. We feel like all of this was completely ignored as we raised budgeting, eating ect as issues

We are going to ask both his occupational therapist and GP to see if they can provide a letter detailing what is happening. We also now have a report from the neurologist which we didn't have previously and he was seen by his neuropsychologist on the 30th August and we should have a report from his shortly. Unfortunately his next neuro appointment won't be till the end of Oct so will miss the 28 day deadline for submitting evidence. Another added bonus will be hopefully today we will have more knowledge on his shoulder and spine fingers crossed

I think a lot of the problem is because the disability needs to be
that you have had these difficulties for 3 months and expect them to last for at least 9 months, with all the ongoing investigations and possible corrective surgery maybe they do not think his disability will last 9 months, who knows.

Good luck with everything, please let us know how you get on.

pmlindyloo

PIP is going to take some time to be awarded (if your OH is eligible) so it might be worth looking at your expenditure and budgeting in the meantime. You are working full time and when your OH's SSP ends he may be eligible for contribution based ESA but the amount will be a little less than his present SSP so financially things are not going to change for a while.

Have you checked whether you are eligible for any other benefits? Do you rent/own your house/mortgaged?

Could you pop your details into the benefit checker on https://www.trun2us.org.uk to see if you are eligible for anything. You would need to say no to PIP/DLA and yes to contribution based ESA for a more accurate result.

Or you can tell us about your circumstances to see if we can help.

Since you are struggling it may be that there are some options for you if you have a mortgage/debts/other problems.

Of course you may not want to share. Entirely up to you.

The Debtfree Wannabe forum are full of very helpful people who could offer support and advice - not just for people in debt.

In general terms when you are struggling it means cutting your expenditure, putting on hold any debts or making token payments to your creditors and letting everyone know that you are struggling and why.

MoneyMate

Don't forget 60% of appeals are successful Approaching CAB for their help is essential. :money: it's free

FBaby

Has he been referred to a psychologist or Occupational Therapist? You would expect him getting support with his memory issues, be it psychological or of an organic nature. Understandably, they can't just go by your say so, otherwise, anyone claiming would say that they need help prompting with things (actually, many do, but only because they are mentally lazy and get away with someone else doing the thinking for them!).

If the only think that failed him is the needs resulting from poor memory, are you able to provide any medical evidence to it and how it affects him?

Alice_Holt

Faith177 wrote: »

We are going to ask both his occupational therapist and GP to see if they can provide a letter detailing what is happening.

It would help your appeal if these letters reference the PIP activities and descriptors you will be asking the tribunal to decide on (help with medication, budgeting, social engagement etc).

See: http://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-win-pip-appeal (Section7)

"The most useful evidence will explain how your illness or disability affects you, and the help you need (paying particular attention to the descriptors that you meet). This is unusual, so your doctor/social worker etc may not understand that. Look at How to write useful evidence for PIP appeals. This is a guide for your doctor, social worker, or anybody else writing evidence for you.Print it out and mark the particular activities and descriptors you believe you meet. When you ask them for evidence to support your appeal, show them these pages. It will help them to write evidence that will be really helpful to you."

The tribunal will :
Already have knowledge of the general health conditions from the appeal papers;
They will be looking specifically at how these affect the ability to perform the relevant PIP activities / descriptors;
If your GP writes that your husband can't reliably perform an activity, the tribunal has to consider this;
If you, your husband, GP, etc give evidencel that an activity / descriptor applies then this gives a counter view to the (flawed) assessment;
The tribunal has then to decide which evidence is more credible.

Bear in mind that the tribunal will be reviewing your husbands condition on the date that the DWP decided not to award PIP. It helps if you can reference the GP's letters to this date.

Be careful about presenting evidence that relates to more recent developments (esp if your husbands condition has worsened), it can muddy the water for the tribunal panel.

Faith177

FBaby wrote: »

Has he been referred to a psychologist or Occupational Therapist? You would expect him getting support with his memory issues, be it psychological or of an organic nature. Understandably, they can't just go by your say so, otherwise, anyone claiming would say that they need help prompting with things (actually, many do, but only because they are mentally lazy and get away with someone else doing the thinking for them!).

If the only think that failed him is the needs resulting from poor memory, are you able to provide any medical evidence to it and how it affects him?

Yes he is having occupational therapy has been for a couple of months now and he was recently re-assessed by a neurophysiologist and they are still raising it as a concern

We only had limited medical evidence as he was referred end of june and we put the paperwork in in july so he had only just started really

Faith177

Alice_Holt wrote: »

It would help your appeal if these letters reference the PIP activities and descriptors you will be asking the tribunal to decide on (help with medication, budgeting, social engagement etc).

See: http://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-win-pip-appeal (Section7)

"The most useful evidence will explain how your illness or disability affects you, and the help you need (paying particular attention to the descriptors that you meet). This is unusual, so your doctor/social worker etc may not understand that. Look at How to write useful evidence for PIP appeals. This is a guide for your doctor, social worker, or anybody else writing evidence for you.Print it out and mark the particular activities and descriptors you believe you meet. When you ask them for evidence to support your appeal, show them these pages. It will help them to write evidence that will be really helpful to you."

The tribunal will :
Already have knowledge of the general health conditions from the appeal papers;
They will be looking specifically at how these affect the ability to perform the relevant PIP activities / descriptors;
If your GP writes that your husband can't reliably perform an activity, the tribunal has to consider this;
If you, your husband, GP, etc give evidencel that an activity / descriptor applies then this gives a counter view to the (flawed) assessment;
The tribunal has then to decide which evidence is more credible.

Bear in mind that the tribunal will be reviewing your husbands condition on the date that the DWP decided not to award PIP. It helps if you can reference the GP's letters to this date.

Be careful about presenting evidence that relates to more recent developments (esp if your husbands condition has worsened), it can muddy the water for the tribunal panel.

Thank you that is extremely helpful!

Luckily his GP is a gem so i'm hoping he will be happy to do it and his occupational therapist seems a nice guy too he has been really given OH a lot of support and they have quite a good relationship built up