Pip assessment - have to smile sometimes - Headway

Headway

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Pip assessment - have to smile sometimes

sospan profile image
17 Replies

Today my wife got her revised PIP assessment back with a slight increase in her entitlements - which was nice.

However, two scores and the description should have made me livid but instead made me smile. For those unfamiliar the PIP scheme is split into 2 parts: your ability to get on with daily lives and also your ability to get out and about. The higher you score the more benefit entitlement you can get

The first one was in the daily living "can prepare a simple meal" in which my wife scored a whole 2 points. Not bad with a frozen shoulder in her dominant arm caused by a torn tendon, can't stand for long because of a torn cartilage. Poor executive function which means following recipes, remembering the right ingredients and the timings etc, is quite difficult. Throw in a pinch of dyslexia into the mix, some visual impairment and add in the lack of taste and smell. So I eat better than the judges on masterchef ! Honestly, even before her injuries she couldn't even make Jelly set and it hasn't improved by the injuries.

The other one was in the mobility section "can plan and follow a route" this the one that really made me grin. Yet again, she scored the magnificent score of 2. I am missing something or my wife has gained some super powers that I don't know about because I can't fathom out how a person whom can barely walk unaided, can't see properly, can't tell left from right, is dyslexic, has PTSD over travel and can't use a computer, can plan a route!

When I got the letter, I thought I would test her hidden "super powers". I asked her to plan a route from our house to Milton Keynes. She said I would go on a train. However, when asked she had no idea if the trains run to MK, how long it took or the changes. It is 6 hours under normal circumstances it is 3 different trains and 2 tube journeys plus at the moment because of train issues add in another bus journey and train switch.

Somebodies sense of humour made me smile

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sospan profile image
sospan
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17 Replies
Marnie22 profile image
Marnie22

Nothing would surprise me where these assessments are concerned. Thank goodness things worked out as well as they did! 🤔🌸

sospan profile image
sospan in reply to Marnie22

It is going to be to the "mandatory reconsideration" stage to get the evidence reconsidered. So yet another battle

Marnie22 profile image
Marnie22 in reply to sospan

Good luck with that. I had good advice from Scope when I did my PIP and my Work Capability assessment. If you haven't tried them, their number is 0808 800 3333. Hope it goes well.

Painting-girl profile image
Painting-girl

Glad you can smile Sospan, it sounds more like something out of Kafka x

sospan profile image
sospan in reply to Painting-girl

Out of Kafka - wasn't that a film with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. :-)

Painting-girl profile image
Painting-girl in reply to sospan

That'll be the one 🤣🤣

sospan profile image
sospan in reply to Painting-girl

I used to threaten our kids if they didn't behave I would make them sit down and watch that film or Dances with wolves. :-)

Marnie22 profile image
Marnie22 in reply to sospan

Ha ha! Nice one!

Shreds profile image
Shreds

When I was in a medically induced coma, I was assessed remotely by some incompetent, to be able to wash and dress myself, prepare food and a whole host of other things.

By the time I was out of hospital and capable of challenging this, I got the reply, “its out of time, as assessed and timescale set by us”. So never had a bean out of them although fully entitled to.

I give up.

And you wonder why I cant cope with such imbeciles?

sospan profile image
sospan in reply to Shreds

That has to be the best so far .....

Pairofboots profile image
Pairofboots

I'm glad your wife got an increase. Some of the questions are a bit impossible to fail.

Apparently I can plan a simple route, well I can with a sat nav, that I need even for local journeys, but in the explanation on this question, it does say about having to use assistance, or aids, sat nav I'd say is an aid.

As for preparing meals, the explanation takes preparation down to toast, or a microwave meal. Under this, some of my past patients should be able to live without support.

But it does as in my post about PIP seem that there has been a change in policy.

I've just been told that the back payment I was due to receive I am no longer getting, because I have an over payment dating back to 2013 that I had no knowledge of, plus a £50 penalty. Spent two hours on the phone yesterday try to find out about this, without success, apparently the decision maker has to phone me to discuss the details, I won't be holding my breath.

sospan profile image
sospan in reply to Pairofboots

I can understand the desire to weed out fraudulent and exaggerated claims but sometimes the decisions are just barmy. Especially the one mentioned by Shreds above.

I had known my wife for over 40 years before she had her first concussion. Then her University undertook a cognitive assessment and found that she had dyspraxia and was dyslexic. I had always thought she was a "dark haired blonde" because of all the dippy things she said and did. The diagnosis put everything in context, even why she could never follow a Sat Nav because she could never remember left and right and when it said 3rd exit where the third exit was.

The word the DWP assessors alway forget is the word "reliably" which is enshrined in the guidance they have to follow. Like the toast, if a person can make toast, several times but then on one attempt ends up burning it, then that isn't reliable. But the assessors conveniently forget that.

We are continually getting back dated payments. Then a few months later, a demand for funds because we have been overpaid somewhere else. Left and right hand.

Like today, she received a text message to undertake a Job Commitment telephone interview with the job centre next Wednesday. This should be an interesting conversation to see how her job seeking has been going .......

mushu57 profile image
mushu57

After care seems to leave alot to be desired , Unfortunately its not only people on the outside but the medical profession that just dont undertand the aftermath of brain operations . My rupture was in November 2020 , in hospital for six months where i ended up fracturing spine and pelvis falling while having one to one care !!!! I had the most awful hallucinations and its taken to last week even though i have been asking for help to be diagnosed with ptsd . Contact headway and groups like this are fantastic also speak to your Gp and get some help for yourself because it is a roller coaster ride x

ftt1960 profile image
ftt1960

Apparently I can plan and follow a route too, this despite saying I never go anywhere I’ve not been before and have never used the buses in Ayrshire despite having lived here for almost 20 years. I would know how to get into Ayr from the village in which I live but I would have no idea how to get to the different parts of the town on public transport.

Jodieb73 profile image
Jodieb73

I spoke with them yesterday to chase up my claim see if I’m awarded it’s been 2/3 months so far the lady said the average wait time was 29 weeks 🥹 6 months what are you supposed to do I’ve had to vacate my house and being so unwell I had no choice but to put my furniture in the tip as that was the only suggestion my “friends and family” could offer as I was not able to afford anything else

They are so unaware of the desperation and I got a job notification on my tax credit to say they were recruiting for DWP with salary of starting at £23000

I’d love to do an office job 2 times a weekand work from home but my licence has been taken due to my condition and live far from anywhere

After seizures how could you work

TheirMema profile image
TheirMema

My husband has had his full PIP reduced to nothing. Apparently he can drive so therefore can plan a journey, he can budget and he can plan and cook a meal. All things I do for him! I have sent off the mandatory reconsideration but quietly seething inside. Apparently having a wife do everything for him does not constitute having an aid for all these things. Also a wife does not constitute a carer so he must be totally able to do everything. The worst thing about it is he has been devastated by it all as we have had to spend the last two months struggling financially and he thinks it is his fault for "failing" the assessment.

I am wondering now if we should have hired carers for him and I stay at work, at least then they would believe the problems he has.

skydivesurvivor profile image
skydivesurvivor

good on u! My life is now made very much of smiles!!! Eases frustration?! All I can manage is to go into town for coffee with other disabled/ elderly friends. 5 stops on one bus!! Am partially sighted after acquiring my brain injury, spent 10 years supporting my cater?! /mum. Then she developed alzimers & of 4 kids! I became her carrr!! She’s gone too & now struggle to find a life! Social life other than coffee. Called social services & NO support!! Life is challenging to us all!! Good luck

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