Driving myself to PIP appeal

Thanks Denise, I forgot to say my son doesn't drive! He's not interested in the slightest but so long as he is with me I'll manage, so long as I don't feel ill on the day.

Sukes, that's a really good idea, the trouble is I live about 22 miles away so it might look a bit suspicious handing in such a small taxi fare.

I'll let you all know on Friday how I got on.

I was concentrating more on the standard care element but I am trying for standard mobility as well. I don't drive any distance without my son, unless it's along to the village and back, and that's usually to pick up prescriptions from the chemist and the a doctor's appointment. Obvioulsy when I'm flaring I don't drive at all - I can't even get out of bed sometimes!

I'll report back once I get home again.

Well had the appeal, went as expected and was refused, which I fully expected because of one panel member. The doctor was great, he grilled me but was very fair and pleasant. The disability advisor was not of this planet. Or she was trained for the interrogation process by the gestapo and the judge was a deaf old coot who didn't hear half of what was said!

I was reading on one of the disability websites that you are not to worry because the panel are very nice people and are not there to try and trip you up. This is usually true, I know, but in my case I always seem to get one that will not play by the rules. The first time (3 or 4 years ago) it was the doctor, this time the Disability Advisor.

She never asked me the questions about my illness that affected me the most and by time we were halfway through, I'd had enough. I just wanted to get home so I kept my answers short because I knew she had already made up her mind. I wish now I had just put in a paper appeal, because it was not worth the stress. I know I've just been unlucky again - I think I must be the unluckiest person in Scotland!

Anyway, the representative was not happy with her at all and said he would speak to my own Welfare Officer about it. I'm sure there must be something we can do about this. It was recorded after all and she was a real bully. She probably would've believed me if I'd had the decency to just die on the spot!

Seriously though, I've read about other people having a similar experience never thinking that could happen to me twice! Anyway, we'll see what happens next week.

If anybody has an appeal pending, please don't be put off by my post, they usually are a nice bunch of people. Like I said, I'm just unlucky.

I'm so sorry the decision didn't go in your favour! You're right about it being unusal because the Tribunal are generally very fair! The only problem you have now is that to Appeal this decision to the Upper Tribunal you must ask for a copy of the statement of reasons. Once you have this you have to prove that an error of law was made in making the decision and to be honest that's extremely difficult to prove. You would need help with this from someone who knows what they're doing and what to look for in the statement of reasons. If no error of law was made then you won't be able to take to the Upper Tribunal.

Were you claiming DLA before or was this a new PIP claim? You could of course wait a little while and put a fresh claim in BUT there's a chance they'll refuse you without a f2f assessment. This has been known to happen before when someone starts a new claim so soon after a failed Tribunal decision. I'm so sorry it's not good news for you.

Thanks Denise, I have various appliances now that I didn't have before so the Welfare Rights lady said if I lost the appeal based on the old info, we could claim again because they usually award PIP if you have appliances.

It was a DLA to PIP claim. By the way, I didn't drive in I got a lift at the last minute, just as well as it is 40 miles to Dundee not 22 from where I live!

I keep you informed of what's happening.

Hi Patricia sorry your appeal wasn't successful, it does happen of course just not often, you say you have a different criteria for your claim, didn't you give them all the new info when you did your changeover claim or for the appeal.

This would have helped, didn't anyone advise you to send in all your medical reports

Yes, they had everything I could give them. There's of couple of strange things that I don't understand though. The proof of appliances was put to them a few days before the appeal. The medical reports were there with the original bundle of papers but the doctor was amazed when I mentioned the huge hernia I have and the problems it causes because he said there was no mention of it anywhere? It's definitely on my claim form and the MR letter and probably my doctor's report as well.

One thing I did notice about the disability advisor was that she could NOT hold eye contact with me, she kept looking down and playing with her pen. Even my son noticed and he was sitting at the back of the room.

I really don't want to go through that again. I'll have to wait now and see what transpires next week.

Oh Patricia,  I don't know what to say to you, I'm so sorry. 

Its hard to know what to say in these circumstances, I don't think that pip is anything like DLA its a totally different criteria, years ago the means to get DLA was to just show what ailments you had and prove it, now its about proving what problems you are encountering, like OTs and physio are more important to give you reports sooner than consultants who just give you a list of diseases you have which could not give you many symptoms to give you the means to get pip.

I have a few and some are not elligable for even looking at PIP but would probably have been OK for DLA

Hi Patricia, sorry you did not get the results you wanted, have you received the verdict by post yet? I also had hellish experience with the doctor, but the Disability Advisor was like you, say bang out of order! This was in the South West Of England. This afternoon the postman came with a letter from DWP, telling me that my PIP, Will end on 24/09/2017 and I will need to claim again, do I call them today or do I wait until September? Can you help Denise15811? Thanks Twiglet.12

I would start the ball rolling now, it might sound a long way off but it goes by so fast, you could start amassing your medical data, this can take a while and will need to be current.

I know you asked for a specific member to reply so just disregard this if you wish I want be offended.

HI Twiglet, I wouldn't like to advise on that because I haven't been in that situation before, but you have my sympathies regarding the DA. I guess we were just unlucky there.

My welfare rights officer phoned today and suggested I claim again because we have new evidence and I should do better this time. Phoned straightaway for the claim form - just updating everybody.

Good luck with yours.

Hi,

Please remind me of your situation, were you claiming PIP? Was it a review and you lost your award? Did you ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration or did you get as far as the Appeal Tribunal? Sorry for all the questions but there's so many that post here i can't always remember everyone's different stories. Please let me know and i'll advice you as much as i can.

Hi,

Is there any reason why you didnt send this new evidence in for your recent tribunal? The reason i'm asking this is because you've very recently been refused by a Tribunal then putting in a new PIP claim so soon may not be to your advantage. I've read a lot of stories where people have done exactly this and haven't even got as far as an assessment this time. They've been refused on a paper based decision because of being refused so soon previously. Hopefully this won't be the case for you.

Hi Denise - it does seem a bit soon to be puttng in another claim but my WRO said to do it straightaway especially with the new evidence which the DWP didn't have with the original claim.

I've had a lot of trouble with my back over the last few months as well which I thought would wear off eventually but it hasn't. I'm going to see my doctor again this week about that.

The panel also said they didn't know anything about the hernia I have underneath my stoma, which is strange because it was on the claim form, so I'll need to get my doctor to do another letter including it.

The DA seemed to be under the impression that I had bought the bath panel and perching stool myself, I was so stressed by that time I missed the word "purchased" which she slipped in while asking me a question about bathing. It was my son that pointed it out later. My representative hadn't picked up on it either. It's like they hadn't looked at that evidence at all.

Would the DWP have received the appliances evidence along with the tribunal's decision so they would be aware of it now? I'm not sure if they receive a bundle of papers back or just the decision letter.

Your thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

 

Hi,

I still don't understand why you didn't send this extra evidence with your previous claim? You didn't answer that question, sorry. It would have made more sense to send that evidence at the time. If you didn't purchase the aids i'm guessing it was social services who gave them to you? Did you send proof of this?

I'm not sure what is sent back to DWP but i doubt that would help you with your new claim anyway. If you're going to make a new claim you'll need to concentrate on that now and try to forget about that last claim you made otherwise you're going to be even more stressed. I just hope that having recently been refused that this won't go against you again. Good luck.

I didn't have the extra evidence with the first claim in November last year so no, they didn't have any of this then. It did go to the tribunal though, which seems to have been ignored. 

As you already sent the evidence to the Tribunal that doesn't sound good, i'll be honest. Well all you can do is try, there's certainly no harm in doing that. If it was me though i'd wait a while for fear of going through all that stress for a refusal. Good luck and i hope for you this time the outcome will go in your favour

Hi Patricia so if I'm understanding you right, you had the information last November but didn't add it to your appeal and now you are going to start a new application with evidence from last year, is that righr

Hi,

No she didn't have the evidence when first claimed last November but sent it to the Tribunal but it doesn't seem like they took into consideration. My first thoughts were DWP will take a look at the new claim and refuse it without a f2f assessment. I've heard of this happening so many times, sadly. Would like to know your thoughts Alexandria please?