Any experience of Fightback?

minimad1970

My son has just received his PIP decision and unfortunately only scored 6 points for care and 0 for mobility. He was previously in receipt of LRC and LRM of DLA. Normally I would help him, or use a local disability service or CAB to appeal the decision. I'm not well enough at the moment and neither of the other options have any available appointments. I found a group called Fightback and their FB page and website are pretty informative. A fee has to be paid for legal help from them so I'm wondering if anyone on here has used or knows about their services. Thanks.

poppy12345

Personally, i would never ever pay for help and advice because there's plenty of places that will help you for free and there's no need to pay. This link will tell you what's local to you for free help/support and advice. https://advicelocal.uk/

calcotti

Be aware that there is no equivalent of LRC on PIP. Standard rate Daily Living is equivalent to MRC on DLA (although assessed differently). Similarly LRM is harder to get on PIP than on DLA.

You need to look carefully at the descriptors for PIP and decide whether or not you think your son actually qualifies.

I have no knowledge of Fightback but paying for help troubles me. How soon can the advice agencies help? You could lodge an MR by ringing at the end of the month from date of decision and then follow up with more information assisted by an agency. 

minimad1970

Thanks for your replies. They were just an option I was looking at. Anywhere localish to us doesn't have any appointments for months. Fightback did advise to phone and ask for a copy of the assessors report but not to tell them that he wants to ask for a M/R, and then to phone them when the month is nearly up and then tell them. That would then give extra time to get an appointment with either the local disability service or CAB. He certainly fits the descriptors to get standard daily living, and although in theory he should qualify for mobility we will concentrate on the care element as he has scored 6 points. As I said I would usually be able to help him but not at the moment. My son is really angry because of the lies/inaccuracies in the report and his mental health has deteriorated due to this.

ejc81

He needs 8 points for standard rate DL on PIP. The PIP form and DLA form is quite a bit different and so is the scoring system. The PIP form is actually less complicated if you understand why they are asking the questions.

 I was reading something the other day about around 77% of benefit appeals being overturned. Which basically means they get it wrong 77% of the time!! Or just generally try and dismiss as many people as possible and hope most of them don't appeal!!

Check out this link for the PIP scoring method used. It's really straight forward. No way should you be paying for advice to appeal the decision. There's plenty of free information on the internet to help you do this yourself. Good luck

atlantis187

We have had personal experience with fightback dealing with my wife's pip claim basically she was awarded 0 points so we asked fightback for help they demanded a fee of £60 to go over her whole claim form and also if we wanted representation at the tribunal this would cost another £220 and if she won the tribunal then there would be another £395 to be paid to them from her back payment. We posted all the forms of to them to go over and they got back intouch with us to say from their 'professional opinion' she doesn't have a good chance and couldn't take the case on and represent us as we would more than likely lose at the tribunal.

So only having a little time we got back in touch with dwp and argued toss a bit more and eventually day before the tribunal they overturned the decision and decided to award her pip (I think the reason for doing so was they knew we would more than likely get an award if we went to the tribunal).

I know people rave about them on facebook and the many positive feedback they have on their website which i'm not saying are untrue but this was just our experience.

calcotti

ejc81 said:

 I was reading something the other day about around 77% of benefit appeals being overturned. Which basically means they get it wrong 77% of the time!! 

It doesn’t mean that because most claims don’t go to tribunal. Only about 9% of claims go to tribunal.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/831020/pip-statistics-to-july-2019.pdf
i don’t say this to defend DWP but we shouldn’t misuse the statistics.

Alice_Holt

There is some useful info online:
https://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-win-pip-appeal
https://www.rethink.org/advice-and-information/rights-restrictions/money-benefits-and-employment/personal-independence-payment-pip/
Benefits & Work have an excellent guide on PIP appeals - but membership costs c.£20 pa. 
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip

I would second calcotti's advice - get the MR in; and then arrange an appointment at your local advice agency to see what help they can give you with the appeal. 

Are there any inconsistencies in the scoring for DL - i.e points scored for needing prompting with cooking / washing but not with dressing?   

ejc81

calcotti said:

ejc81 said:

 I was reading something the other day about around 77% of benefit appeals being overturned. Which basically means they get it wrong 77% of the time!! 

It doesn’t mean that because most claims don’t go to tribunal. Only about 9% of claims go to tribunal.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/831020/pip-statistics-to-july-2019.pdf
i don’t say this to defend DWP but we shouldn’t misuse the statistics.

I'm not misusing the statistic! If you're actually saying that the 77% only relates to the 9% of claims that go to tribunal, then that's fine. It really only reiterates my point in that most initial claim decisions are wrong! Reply with the % of claims that have had a decision appealed and won/lost before and after tribunal!

Op asked for advice for paying help with PIP appeal, you've not really contributed anything to that. The issue here is, they've been used to dealing with DLA. This is now not the case, and at no point should anyone be paying for welfare advice!  

ejc81

Alice_Holt said:

There is some useful info online:
Benefits & Work have an excellent guide on PIP appeals - but membership costs c.£20 pa. 
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip

Are you mad? Why would you direct anyone to paid services when the free services available to anyone disabled and/or caring are abundant! 

calcotti

ejc81 said: If you're actually saying that the 77% only relates to the 9% of claims that go to tribunal, then that's fine. 

Exactly so. https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2019/september/pip-and-esa-appeal-success-rate-now-75-cent