PIP nightmare

[Rachel40]

My daughter is 17 in March, she was in receipt of DLA up until her 16th birthday when I completed the PIP forms, following this she had a f2f at home, the assessor was in tge house for 12minutes asked a lot of closed questions with the opportunity to answer yes or no, this is a concept my daughter often gets mixed up. She was originally diagnosed with GDD, this was later changed to Dyspraxia, she had OT, SALT and dyslexia services involved until high school then everything began falling away so we or I have generally muddled along, she was refused PIP as the assessor basically said my daughter was/is exceptionally able, she can’t cook safely, she has no concept of time, she has no insight into her difficulties, she does not seek out company, she has a phone but doesnt use it to socialise, she has no clue wuth money, she has little volition or drive to do anything. I wash and dry her hair everyday because she cant and I assist her with dental hygeine.
Does anybody think there is any point to going to tribunal

[Sophie]

I have a 43-year old son and went through a very similar situation! Firstly do please continue with the Tribunal. Secondly & just as important, do contact your local Citizen’s Advice and they will be able to help. Another avenue worth going down is write (by email is fine) contact your local Member of Parliament and also I contacted the Minister for the Disabled - was Penny Mordant, now it is Sarah Newton M.P. BUT I have just discovered a website for you to look at (really worthwhile), it is:
www.theguardian.com/disability-benefit-appeals etc. It was an article dated 11 Feb. 2018 and will assist you tremendously to understand what is going on! Having ‘been there’ I would do anything possible to help you. P.S. My son was eventually awarded Enhanced PIP! (The golden gate to everything!)

[Jo145]

Yes, I definitely think it’s worth going to tribunal. Please don’t give up with it if you can. I’d say get some help if you can as it’s all about the correct wording of how the disability effects the person. Someone from a local Mencap maybe, they would be able to help you with the tribunal and using the exact terminology that get’s the correct result. Good luck to you!

[charlie1]

Hello Rachel40
It is a year ago you wrote about your daughter and I wondered how you got on? Did you go to tribunal?
My son was on DLA for many years at low rate for mobility because he could walk but could not do it without someone supervising his outings, and middle rate for personal care because he did not need much help at night.
Within the last year I filled in the application for PIP and we were awarded full allownaceand was also able to get a motability car which has helped.
The assessments were different.
I found a document online and downloaded it .The document was the complete questions for assessors to allocate points to each section of the PIP form.it broke the section down into subsections and if read then you can allocate a total of points for each section and if looked at carefully you may see exactly where the person reading your completed form is getting the points total.It might give you an idea what counts and what fails but you will really need to be honest with your assessment and also provide supporting eveidence from a speech and laguage therapist(SALT) etc.Although my son can walk he could not plan a journey or has no real road sense so we were given the maximum 8 points for mobility.
I think it may have been on the Citizens advice website that I saw the assessessors handbook.Have a look.I hope you got the result you wanted but this may help other people.
regards
charlie