PIP has me confused

Danday

Hi not too sure if this is the right place to ask my question or the disability one, but here goes

I had been on DLA since 2000 with middle care and high mobility.
Turned 65 in May 2013 and was told to move to PIP in June 2013. Had a face to face (awful) and was awarded standard care for 3 years to July 2016.
June 2015 was told to renew and filled in the big form again. Had another face to face November 2015 (again awful) and scored nothing. Sent in a 3 page letter from my GP for the reconsideration in February 2016 and they then gave me enhanced care & mobility for three years to January 2019.
Had a renewal form last month which I said no change and sent it off with the original 2015 nil decision as well as the revised decision. They already have the GP's letter so I expect them to look at that as well.

My questions are when it says no change on the form does that mean no change in difficulties or no change in decision? I took it to mean difficulties that's why I sent in the two decison notices to show that they got the wrong decison first time round. Anyhow yesterday I had a letter from ATOS telling me that they want to do another face to face on the 23rd next week.
This will be my third face to face since August 2013. Is that normal?
Also, given the evidence from the GP in 2016 which clearly describes my difficulties why am I only getting two years before having to reclaim?
It is pretty apparent that with the physical issues that I suffer from there can be no improvement - in fact one of those conditions is actually life threatening.on a daily basis. I have been like this since 1998
Hope that someone can make sense of all of this. It's getting me down and the thought of having to go through this every two years is surely not what the government intended

poppy12345

Danday wrote: »

Hi not too sure if this is the right place to ask my question or the disability one, but here goes

I had been on DLA since 2000 with middle care and high mobility.
Turned 65 in May 2013 and was told to move to PIP in June 2013. Had a face to face (awful) and was awarded standard care for 3 years to July 2016.
June 2015 was told to renew and filled in the big form again. Had another face to face November 2015 (again awful) and scored nothing. Sent in a 3 page letter from my GP for the reconsideration in February 2016 and they then gave me enhanced care & mobility for three years to January 2019.
Had a renewal form last month which I said no change and sent it off with the original 2015 nil decision as well as the revised decision. They already have the GP's letter so I expect them to look at that as well.

My questions are when it says no change on the form does that mean no change in difficulties or no change in decision? I took it to mean difficulties that's why I sent in the two decison notices to show that they got the wrong decison first time round. Anyhow yesterday I had a letter from ATOS telling me that they want to do another face to face on the 23rd next week.
This will be my third face to face since August 2013. Is that normal?
Also, given the evidence from the GP in 2016 which clearly describes my difficulties why am I only getting two years before having to reclaim?
It is pretty apparent that with the physical issues that I suffer from there can be no improvement - in fact one of those conditions is actually life threatening.on a daily basis. I have been like this since 1998
Hope that someone can make sense of all of this. It's getting me down and the thought of having to go through this every two years is surely not what the government intended

No change means, no change in condition, it doesn't mean no change in decision.

They review claims 1 year before the award is due to end so yes that's normal.

Most people have an assessment even for a review, so 3 assessment in that length of time is normal.

The maxium award length for PIP is 10 years with review at 9 years.

When you ticked the box no change, did you add any additional info? Or just leave it at that? I would have added as much info as possible rather than nothing at all.

The re-assessments are exactly what they intended when PIP came out, so they will continue yes.

Good luck.

pmlindyloo

PIP renewal forms are sent out a year in advance so given the dates you have stated everything seems to be in order regarding date of review.

As regards being called for a face to face having ticked 'no change' (which means no change in your ability to meet the descriptors) then this is becoming increasingly 'usual'.

Many people think they only need to tick 'no change' to everything and they will be automatically awarded the same PIP components.

From what I gather this is not always true. It still seems to be the case that you need to say(write) what difficulties you have with daily living/mobility and produce up to date medical evidence to back this up.

I do not know what your disabilities are but it may be that your previous medical evidence did not make it clear that there will be no improvement.

In a sense I can understand why people are called for another face to face assessment without having sent in strong recent medical evidence. There are medical advances all the time and just as importantly the PIP assessors/decision makers are not often doctors or specialists so will usually err on their 'safe side' and call for a face to face.

Danday

Thanks poppy thanks for all of the advice. I presume then that based on what you say, I can look forward to many more face to face assessments at 2 yearly intervals. Doesn't do much for my stress factor. I would have thought that some common sense would be shown by the DWP that given the diagnosis, the difficulties and medication prescribed by the various hospitals and my GP specifically giving the evidence based on each descriptor it should be clear as day that at 69 I ain't going to improve any time soon.

I just ticked the relevant boxes only as it didn't say I had to explain what the no change was. You only needed to give information if there had been changes.

I try to fill out these forms they send you the right way as per their notes.

Danday

Thanks PM for the advice.If they always now ask for a face to face where there has been no changes, I don't see the point in filling the form in. Seems that they are just ignoring what you put in any case. Like what poppy said, the renewal form did not ask me to give any information unless a change was being declared.
You are tight, As far as I understood the system was that I had to get evidence from my GP to back up the descriptors that I was relying on. He did a three page report showing each descriptor and explaining why I claimed it and what his opinion was about it.
I don't remember anything on the form or the notes that said I had also to get him to confirm whether or not there was any chance of an improvement in the long or short term.
I thought that decision was made by ATOS based on their knowledge of what are my medical problems and how they affect me. They are held out as disability analysts and should know that if someone hasn't got the use of their legs another won't grow and that walking or hopping any distance is more or less impossible.
The evidence was strong, it caused the DWP to ignore the ATOS report completely and made them award me enhanced for both.
What I find difficult to understand is what do they expect to see after two years given what the GP has already told them.

Danday

6 days to go before the face to face. Part of me feels anger and frustration of having to go through this again a third time in less than five years. Another part of me just wants to give up and walk away from it.
I cannot honestly believe that in this day and age the state thinks it acceptable to keep reassessing me every two years. I'm coming up to 70 in a few months and the thought of this carry on until I am 80+ is beyond a joke.
Still not decided how I will handle the nurse investigator this time round.

pepper77_2

Danday wrote: »

6 days to go before the face to face. Part of me feels anger and frustration of having to go through this again a third time in less than five years. Another part of me just wants to give up and walk away from it.
I cannot honestly believe that in this day and age the state thinks it acceptable to keep reassessing me every two years. I'm coming up to 70 in a few months and the thought of this carry on until I am 80+ is beyond a joke.
Still not decided how I will handle the nurse investigator this time round.

If your not happy.......walk away. Your choice.
The system wasnt set up with you in mind, it covers millions of claimants, I doubt its perfect for anyone.

xylophone

Still not decided how I will handle the nurse investigator this time round.

With care?:)

Danday

Thanks pepper. I realise that the system can't fit everyone, but surely there must be something wrong with it if after going to these assessments sees my award go down to nothing then jump back up to enhanced every time when I complain.
It's as though there is no consistency with the assessors. My medical problems and my needs don't change for the better so why should my awards go down on a regular basis?

Danday

Thanks zylo. yes with care. But when you know that what you say, if you are lucky to have the opportunity to say anything that is, is being used against you by twisting what is said,it doesn't give me confidence in the system.
As an example the last time I went, I am a full time wheelchair user, she had me do ankle movements, arm stretches etc which in the report were turned round that I didn't need a wheelchair and should be able to walk between 50 and 200 metres with no difficulty. I wish!
It was only after another fight with the DWP and me sending in a mobility report carried out in the hospital that they accepted that I couldn't walk even 20 metres.

Danday

Following the PIP face to face nearly a month ago I had a wonderful letter this morning telling me that I have been awarded the grand total of 4 points for mobility and 8 for care. This is exactly the same result as I had previous which was increased after lodging an appeal to enhanced care and mobility following a three page GP report. This time round a copy of that report (issued last year) was sent in with the review form together with a copy of the previous original award which the DWP increased. Yes I know I can appeal but this is getting ridiculous - this new award (standard care), the points and all of the assessors comments match exactly what was given for the last face to face assessment. Looks to me that the assessor has simply copied everything over and just changed the dates. GP isn't going to be happy in writing out the same report again which isn't much more than 12 months old.