PIP was 2nd claim with new conditions but from 15 April 2025 new 3rd claim as advised.

tifo

Hi, i have a thread on here from a previous claim which went up to tribunal but I wasn't successful. I still suffer from my eye conditions, gout and other issues but at the time the DWP and tribunal said they were not enough for a PIP award. I still disagree but anyway the judge said she doesn't believe me.

Recently i've been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in the knees, the left knee is stiff and limited in movement for the past month and the right knee is also stiff but not as much. I've had the x-rays etc and it could be due to age or gout which used to affect the left knee sometimes. I also now have pains in my fingers esp when I do tasks using them, for example keyboard. More so in the right hand.

My cholesterol is at 5 (2 years ago it was 5.5) and the GP says this is now considered high when previously it wasn't as they use different criteria and wants to put me on statins.

So, should I make another PIP claim? I see that the award success rate for osteoarthritis or generalised osteoarthritis is high at around 72%. My other conditions have not gone away as they're for life which I said in my previous claim, though my gout hasn't flared up much this year.

NOTE: From 15 April 2025 a 3rd PIP claim was made as the 2nd one failed on mistakes made, and as advised on this thread and by a welfare benefits adviser.

Thanks

Spoonie_Turtle

Only you know whether your knees affect your ability to do the PIP activities to a level that, combined with your other conditions, you'd score enough points to qualify for PIP.

I'm sure having gone to tribunal with your last application you have all the links to relevant information already.

[Your cholesterol level is irrelevant unless you need help taking the medication, but if that's the case then that surely already applied before.]

Ponsienella2

tifo said:

Recently i've been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in the knees, the left knee is stiff and limited in movement for the past month and the right knee is also stiff but not as much. I've had the x-rays etc and it could be due to age or gout which used to affect the left knee sometimes. I also now have pains in my fingers esp when I do tasks using them, for example keyboard. More so in the right hand.

My cholesterol is at 5 (2 years ago it was 5.5) and the GP says this is now considered high when previously it wasn't as they use different criteria and wants to put me on statins.

Thanks

You say that  osteoarthritis was only recently diagnosed and you've had limited and stiff movement in one knee for the past month and that the other is stiff but not as much. That is not enough time to be able to make a PIP claim. Also, Osteoarthritis is not automatically progressive. (I was diagnosed with it last year when I had pain in my knee. I had pain for about 9 months but it has now gone away). The Orthopaedic Consultant told me that x-rays would show most people over the age of 45 to have Osteoarthritis.

Also having pain on your fingers does not necessarily mean you cannot do things reliably, in a timely manner, as often as you wish and for as many times as you wish.

Having high cholesterol doesn't stop you from doing anything in the PIP descriptors so you will not receive points for that.

As you only received 2 points at your tribunal, I don't think there is any chance of you receiving a PIP award based on what you have said above. However, if you do put in a claim, you should focus, not on any diagnoses but on how your knees and other ailments affect you in each of the descriptor categories. I certainly would not try to claim because of experiencing gout. Gout is a temporary, treatable ailment.

poppy12345

In your last thread a year ago you said you were going to start a new claim for PIP, did you ever do that? I'm assuming you didn't?

teaselMay

I had a quick skim of your previous threads trying to understand where you're coming from OP and it's all very conflicted, you've an eye condition that you think means you should have LCWRA on UC and entitlement to PIP but it doesn't affect your driving? The fundamental thing to both UC and PIP is that they're not about diagnoses they're about what you can and can't do, i.e. how your health affects your function. Almost everyone over about 40, certainly 50, would have osteoarthritis if it were looked for, it means wear and tear. A tiny proportion of those people will be severely disabled by it. A stiff knee for a month won't entitle you to any points on PIP.

tifo

poppy12345 said:

In your last thread a year ago you said you were going to start a new claim for PIP, did you ever do that? I'm assuming you didn't?

No, i didn't do anything more after the tribunal as could not get the help needed, for example from an advice agency.

tifo

teaselMay said:

I had a quick skim of your previous threads trying to understand where you're coming from OP and it's all very conflicted, you've an eye condition that you think means you should have LCWRA on UC and entitlement to PIP but it doesn't affect your driving? The fundamental thing to both UC and PIP is that they're not about diagnoses they're about what you can and can't do, i.e. how your health affects your function. Almost everyone over about 40, certainly 50, would have osteoarthritis if it were looked for, it means wear and tear. A tiny proportion of those people will be severely disabled by it. A stiff knee for a month won't entitle you to any points on PIP.

"you've an eye condition that you think means you should have LCWRA on UC and entitlement to PIP but it doesn't affect your driving".

No affect on driving unless it was very severe which it was for six months and I didn't drive much, because the eye condition is in my blind eye from childhood and doesn't affect the vision eye. At every hospital appointment they do an eye test which I pass.

"you should have LCWRA on UC"

The issue with LCWRA is that the application did not get passed on when it should have due to DWP staff error (they accepted and apologised) and because of covid it took 2 years 7 months before I was seen. By that time the conditions had got better though they won't disappear and still affect me, i'm on yearly hospital checkups now rather than 6 months up to last year. And because they assess you on how you are at the time of the assessment not application I lost out 2 years 7 months later.

"Almost everyone over about 40, certainly 50, would have osteoarthritis if it were looked for"

Yes, and as we know for PIP it's how the condition affects individuals and everyone is different. One person with a condition will get PIP another one with the same condition won't. I know people who have osteoarthritis in the knees and they're on PIP, though they are older than me and have had it for many years. Some have even had partial knee replacements and are still on PIP, a friend had a full knee replacement some months ago and is still on PIP though they might say something at his next review.

"A stiff knee for a month won't entitle you to any points on PIP"

No, but I can make an application in several months and prepare my claim as I want to do it through an agency and they're busy so an appointment will prob be in 2 months.

I assume it's prior 3 months at time of application not assessment?

tifo

The GP has put me on medication for high BP too (143) but i know this is not a reason for PIP, just saying to be complete.

So, this month i've been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the left knee, high cholesterol and high BP which i probably have had for several years as my last full blood test was in 2022.

The osteoarthritis would be my condition for PIP due to diminished mobility and it will affect the left knee too i'm told by the hospital at x-ray. GP will look at the fingers at the next appointment in 2 weeks and it could also be osteoarthritis or maybe due to high BP. I will include the existing long term conditions in my PIP claim as I suffer from them regardless of whether the assessor thinks they affect me but they do.

This time I want to apply for PIP through an agency so I don't make any mistakes. I think last time I may have made mistakes but there was no one to tell me. This time I could get a more honest assessor who will not lie like the last one (I deliberately use that word) and a more sympathetic judge who will believe what I say and not be one sided. Because agencies are busy I need to talk to them now as appointments take time so that I can make my application in 2 months. Arthritis is a degenerative condition so will still be here for 9 months after the application.

As an example, my partner was diagnosed with mixed anxiety and depression syndrome and has several other issues such as high BP and sarcoidosis. She had a first WCA this year and the assessor gave her LCWRA, probably because of the MADD diagnosis. So depends who you get. Another example is a friend who suffers from an aggressive cancer, he says that others with him at the time got LCWRA and enhanced PIP for both, yet he did not get LCWRA and only the standard PIP and the chemo has destroyed other organs and body functions. He's scared to ask for a review in case they take away what he has but I doubt it as he's far worse now than 5 years ago when cancer was diagnosed. But his review is in a year and i've said they'll take longer to review you.

There's obviously something wrong with the assessment for both PIP and WCA which is widely publicised, even on this website, and I know this from my own claims .

peteuk

There’s a massive difference between believing you are entitled to PIP and actually claiming PIP. 

Yes I agree the system is flawed but in reality if your eye sight is good enough to drive then it shouldn’t stop you from doing certain daily activities.  If you doctor told you your eye sight was too poor to drive then even then, you potentially can still do the majority of activities.  

Arthritis is difficult because it affects different people, differently.  So can you walk/stand for X distance/time.  Have you been referred to Orthopeadics?  Are you on any medication specific for arthritis?  All this evidence makes it easier for the assessor to write a scoring description than it does a nil point report. 

As you say BP is not concerned for PIP, but I disagree, what are the symptoms you experience.  This could add some further weight to an initial claim, obviously if your well controlled on medication then its likely to add nothing. 

TELLIT01

I get the impression, hopefully wrongly, that the OP thinks that just having a condition on the list of those potentially entitling a person to PIP automatically means they will qualify, irrespective of how much that condition affects them.

That is absolutely not the case.  For example, I've had arthritis in both knees for many years following a motorcycle accident.  The knees are uncomfortable all the time, and quite painful some of the time.  I can still get about without the need for any artificial aids so would almost certainly not be at a level the qualify for PIP.

poppy12345

tifo said:

Another example is a friend who suffers from an aggressive cancer, he says that others with him at the time got LCWRA and enhanced PIP for both, yet he did not get LCWRA and only the standard PIP and the chemo has destroyed other organs and body functions. 

 If you are currently receiving treatment for cancer by way of chemo or radiotherapy. Or likely to receive such treatment in the next 6 months or have been through treatment in the past 6 months then you're automatically entitled to LCWRA. https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/universal-credit-uc/uc-faq/limited-capability-for-work-related-activity

Did any of those apply when they filled out the form for the WCA?