PIP Assesement - Complete lies 8 December 2018 at 10:05PM in Disability money matters 17 replies 8.1K views

atlantis187

My wife has the following conditions for the past several years:

Ulcerative Colitis
Arthirits (secondary to the above)
Mental health issues
Aczema

We completed the form and sent all medical evidence to DWP.

I know PIP is not awarded on diagnosis but on care needs, which my wife needs a lot of.

so basically I went with her to the pip assessment 2 weeks ago and explained everything in complete details everything my wife can and can't do.
The stuck up !!!! faced so called pip assessor has completed written a different version of events. Even though we have not received the final decision we have received a copy of the report from the dwp and on there she states there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with my wife and can do everything it asks on the descriptors and basically should be awarded 0 points for all of the descriptors.


God I am sooooo mad how can these people get away with this type of thing blatant lying. its a type of fraud denying her what she is rightly entitled to claim for.
It just felt like we were just a another number for her to decline so her organisation gets another fat bonus from the DWP.

We will definitely be asking for a MR and appealing but we feel extremely saddened by the blatant lies this pathetic woman has made up.

poppy12345

PIP isn't awarded based on care needs or a diagnosis. A person can claim PIP even if they receive no care at all. It's purely how those conditions affect your ability to carry activity based on the PIP descriptors.



When requesting the MR you should avoid mentioning the lies in the report because they won't be interested in any of those. What you should do is have a copy of the PIP descriptors and point out where you think she should have scored those points and your reasons why. Giving a couple of examples of what happened the last time she did that activity.


The evidence you send should state how her conditions affect her. Sending letters of a diagnosis, isn't going to help her claim. A letter from a GP also isn't the best evidence to send because a GP will not know how her conditions affect her, they will only be able to tell them about medication and a diagnosis, with very little information about anything else.


Having some understanding of what the descriptors mean will also help. It's very very easy to misunderstand what they mean and think you should score a certain amount of points for a descriptors, when realistically that just isn't possible.


This link will help you have some understanding of all the descriptors.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria

atlantis187

[QUOTE=poppy12345;75158023

The evidence you send should state how her conditions affect her. Sending letters of a diagnosis, isn't going to help her claim. A letter from a GP also isn't the best evidence to send because a GP will not know how her conditions affect her, they will only be able to tell them about medication and a diagnosis, with very little information about anything else.


[/QUOTE

Thanks for the link. Where are we supposed to get evidence how her condition affects here if not from a health professional?

poppy12345

She can write a diary. You can write a letter telling them how her conditions affect her against the PIP descriptors. Write as much detail as possible and use the PIP descriptors to write the letter.

Alice_Holt

OP,

I completely agree with poppy, you have to base your appeal on you the PIP activities / descriptors. This is how a tribunal panel will arrive at a decision. (Don't expect the DWP to overturn their decision at MR stage).
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-points-system

The link poppy has supplied to the assessors guide will be very helpful. Look carefully at the reliability section.

This is a good guide to the appeal process:
https://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-win-pip-appeal
If you follow this guide, and keep in mind timescales, it should help you through the process.

At the hearing, your wife's verbal evidence will be very important.
I would echo poppy's remarks about not being too angry about the report. Point out any internal contradictions in it, but in your written statement explain how and why the descriptors apply. Your wife can explain further at the hearing, and give examples / illustrations of these activities to the panel from a typical week / month.

If you can get help from your local advice agency / CAB, then I would suggest you do so.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/appeals/mandatory-reconsideration/

Was this a renewal? Was your wife previously in receipt of PIP?
If so, then there is some case law around the DWP having to give very precise reasons for ending a claim on reassessment (particular for chronic, degenerative, and continuing conditions).

atlantis187

Thanks alice and poppy

This was a brand new claim she has not been claiming dla or pip before.

We did actually include a diary of a typical day in her life on the pip form at the end where it asks for 'any extra info' but it seems like this has been totally disregarded and probably not even been read by that stuck up idiotic assessor.

poppy12345

atlantis187 wrote: »

Thanks alice and poppy

This was a brand new claim she has not been claiming dla or pip before.

We did actually include a diary of a typical day in her life on the pip form at the end where it asks for 'any extra info' but it seems like this has been totally disregarded and probably not even been read by that stuck up idiotic assessor.

I realise you're angry but when writing the MR request letter you really do have to try to control that anger. Lots of people claim PIP successfully first time without any problems at all.



Before writing the MR make sure you have a read of all of the links above, especially the link in my post.

Lanzarote1938

I agree that diagnoses don't necessarily mean much on their own.


I know someone who has lymphoma, just started his 5th line of chemotherapy. He has insulin dependent diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. His specialist haematology nurse has given him the fast track end of life form to claim AA but he actually needs no care on a day to day basis. However looking at his list of illnesses you would think he would.

Scaredforthefuture

I started a diary after seeing a simple one in the NRAS hand book - the same example is available on line but I've forgotten how to post links .

The first few days I thought it was a complete waste of time but soon the little excerpts I dictated added up to quite a saga! It's wealth of evidence!

I don't think that the assessors tell outright lies, I just think it's really hard to get convey our evidence.

Good luck!

atlantis187

Hi Poppy and Alice,

We finally received the dreded brown envelope on Friday and as we thought she has been turned down and awarded 0 points for everything.


The decision maker waffles on a little in trying to explain the decision same as the Assessor does in her report and constantly repeating herself even where its not relevant (looks like a copy/paste job to me).

Anyhow we about to the spent the next week to draft a MR letter to challenge this how are we best to tackle this?
should we go through what she has wrote in her decisions and breaks this down into small chunks and write how we disagree with each point?

Or should we just go back to each of the descriptors on the pip and write an explanation why she should have been awarded points for these?


Thanks

poppy12345

poppy12345 wrote: »

PIP isn't awarded based on care needs or a diagnosis. A person can claim PIP even if they receive no care at all. It's purely how those conditions affect your ability to carry activity based on the PIP descriptors.



When requesting the MR you should avoid mentioning the lies in the report because they won't be interested in any of those. What you should do is have a copy of the PIP descriptors and point out where you think she should have scored those points and your reasons why. Giving a couple of examples of what happened the last time she did that activity.


The evidence you send should state how her conditions affect her. Sending letters of a diagnosis, isn't going to help her claim. A letter from a GP also isn't the best evidence to send because a GP will not know how her conditions affect her, they will only be able to tell them about medication and a diagnosis, with very little information about anything else.


Having some understanding of what the descriptors mean will also help. It's very very easy to misunderstand what they mean and think you should score a certain amount of points for a descriptors, when realistically that just isn't possible.


This link will help you have some understanding of all the descriptors.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria

This advice above in my other post explains what you need to do for the MR request.