urgent advice needed (pip denied for my daughter)

hey henry thank you so much for your kind words and advice, ive not heard of a welfare officer i shall deffinatly look into that anything is worth a shot right now 

Go to your local council offices they should have a department in there which deal with cases like your daughters good luck sweetheart

With respect, nobody is entitled to PIP. They may well be entitled to make a claim, but there is no entitlement until she can prove that she scores enough points in the various descriptor boxes. Only the DWP or a Tribunal can authorise 'an entitlement'.

 

Absolutely!! There are three main reasons why PIP decisions are what they are. (1) a poorly completed PIP2 form, (2) the failure of the claimant give a good and clear explantion of the difficulties that they experience because of the disabilities, and (3) the failure to ensure that the DWP collect the appropriate evidence from the best source.

As you can see, failure in a claim is mainly down to the claimants themselves.

I would also add that CAB are no longer able to offer good support simply because they no longer have the funding to employ professional welfare rights people and many councils, in the main no longer employ Welfare Rights Officers for the general public because they were the first to go due to cuts in the grants made to the Councils. They still generally have one or two employed, but these are restricted for those who are clients of Social Services.

I should have added - (2).....good and clear explantion to the assessor of the difficulties.....

That is perfectly true Les. It is better to send in a complete and highly detailed application, that they can see a lot of time and effort has gone in to the Application. And, any additional A4 sheets you supply you must make sure they have your National Insurance number on, as well as your name and address.

Even these websites that get a very high pass rate, it is all down to the initial PIP Form, but they charge you for this information, because so many people are not able to complete these forms correctly or rush them, but by doing so, they make themselves look bad, even before the assessment.

You have a few weeks, my wife spent over four days filling mine in just for a rate to be put up. The letter we received back from the DWP was not something you see very often, they guy that went through my case stated I should of applied many years ago for the DLA High Care Rate, he even said I cannot authorise a back payment before the application date for the increase. I got about £400 roughly, it came in handy to be honest just before Xmas last year - we did not spend it on presents, we needed a new cooker. These days they must be connected and delivered by authorised guys, government regulations for house insurance purposes.

I might ask Alan if I can send him a link to add to the pinned post - of the A- Z Adult Medical Conditions, I would need to check first. I have looked all over the gov website and cannot find any backlinks to it, so whether it is meant to be an internal document only, I don't know - if thats the case, then it is no wonder documents are 'leaked' on to the web - I only know of this one, which I found by mistake.

Regards,

Les.

If registered disabled with the council and social services then they will get help from the welfare rights officers and here the welfare ppl work full time , there's a lot of association and specialty with the mentally ill ppl ,and depressed, waiting time is 6 weeks and just around where I live there's  maya for ladies and manor garden ,Cdat it's a walking clinic for disabled and personality disorder services,and another one  in psychiatric hospital and walk in clinic at the welfare at any Gp in here . If there's cut not we are not  hit by it yet in islington and Camden .but they did cut one thing in here the Christmas lights 

The days of a local authority keeping a register of all of the disabled people in their borough are long gone.

In my area (Kent County Council) there are just two full time Welfare Rights Officers now. You are only allowed to have them help you if you are already under the care of Social Services.

As you can imagine, the bar that is now imposed on those eligible for help from Social Services is extremely high - you have to be at a very severe level of needing care.

You do have the right to have a Social Services Assessment, but if the result of that assessment shows anything but 'severe' you get no assistance. This was used as a 'backdoor' to get help from the Welfare Rights Officers, but far too many abused it so it was stopped.

The Mental Health day units in Kent were all closed. We now have just one secure unit covering the whole of the county.

I have been both an in patient and out patient with the Mental Health Service in Kent since 1995. Because I refused to fully engage back in 2003 and preferred alcohol instead, I am no longer able to access any of what I had in the past. Now I just try to cope with what the GP can offer.

 Maybe the reason as to why and how the London Boroughs can afford these centres is because all of their children's services have been taken over by Kent County Council. Margate with it's multitude of empty hotels is now used to house the majority of London's difficult children. In addition Kent C.C. is totally responsible for any immigrant that lands in the county. That is their health, housing, social care, education up to age 25, etc. 

Hi Tracy and Les,

I can phone my local Adult Social Care, and ask for a review at anytime - they take my details and phone me back normally the same day, or a day later. They have all my details on their computers.

I have my own dedicated Occuptional Therapist and District Nurse, if I need them at anytime.

I do not have assessments from Social Services, if I require anything then Adult Social Care normally deals with it, or my doctor deals with it by passing my details on to the District Nurses. I am fully registered with them, because of equipment that I use for my disabilities.

Most of the time my Team lLeader Neurology Consultant, asks for reviews if anything as changed during a 6 month period. Today, the hospital phoned me to make two appointments for January and February 2016 - January for 6 BoTox Injections by one of the Neurologist Team, then in February I have a 20 minute slot with the Bristish President of Neurology Dr G Fuller, whom everyone respects, he deals with NHS and Private patients as well as Research Seminars and Conferences in London.

The only problem I encounter is with Electronic Prescriptions, I can usually order online all my medication in advance, by 2 months. This is then sent electronically to the local pharmacy - this is okay, until I put in a repeat for Class "A" medication. These do not get sent to the Pharmacy and prescribed - The Pharmacy does get the prescription but a paper version only, which needs signatures in two places due to the type of medication being Class "A".

Where I am situated is strange because we come under two councils, I have to phone Adult Care Sevices in Town A, to get through to Town B which is 7 miles away. We live in a village, yet it is split in boundaries under 3 towns. There is a road in the nearest town to us, all the odd numbers come under one council, while the even numbers come under another council. It was done during boundary changes to keep Tory's in power.

They have done cuts around here, but they try as much as possible to keep them to a minimum - we are always kept informed by councils because we have IMJIN / NATO just up the road.

You may find the Red Cross could help you in some way, they do a lot of work around here.

Regards,

Les

Then you must be very thankful that you do not live within Kent!!

Here Social Services just close your file down after they have reviewed the assessment and have offered what equipment they can. 

I gave up with SS as you have to go through the syatem everytime you contact them.

As for being kept in the loop, I am supposed to be under the Community Mental Health Team for the Older Person. Had all of the tests for Dementia (diagnosed over 3 years ago as early onset) failed miserably with frontal lobe damage (trauma) and haven't heard a damn thing from them since! Mind you when we did have a dedicated Mental Health Day Service up until 2005 I was a long term patient and received regular appointments. That closed down and i suppose everybody had to sort their own problems out - well I had to.

It is a clear policy in Kent that if you are not classed as being in the most severe/vulnerable category you now get no help. Been and tried it - I'm not ill enough.

So in a nutshell, it seems that down here you are ignored until something drastic has to happen. 

Hi Les,

This may seem a stupid question, but is your property "flagged" for having a disabled person living in it?

I have a Personal Care Plan - which my doctor put me on. It is a 4 page document, that we have copies of which my wife gives to the Paramedics, it contains all my details they would normally write down, it lists all prescribed medications, medications provided in hospital every 10 weeks, which Neurologists I see - and it breaks down over a yearly period. All seizures I have whether they are Epileptic or Functional Episodes (28 variations), which is my core underlying problem which is Dystonia. I know back last year they started rolling them out, they are updated at the hospital and my doctors surgery. It's basically an easier way for any person in the Health Authority to view my records, which in a paper A4 form covered over 3 volumes of data.

If your premises is "flagged" has disabled then your energy supplier calls you quite regular, to see how you are getting on and can they offer further help. On top of this, they send your details on to your energy distributor whom pay you compensation by the hour if the electric or gas is down in your area, they also notify you via phone.

On top of all that I am also on the "Telecare" Emergency System, which comes with the red button wrist bracelet and fire alarm, they also run tests on the phone line (this can be annoying if you are talking to someone) and the Emergency Line Box cuts in asking you to replace the handset while an Emergency Line Check is done.

I'm nowhere near Kent, opposite side the south west, but closer to Wales. To a degree I am housebound - I cannot travel more than 20 miles in any direction from our bungalow, I rely on electrical equipment in the premises. I did not used to be like this, it just become worse over the years. I nearly died twice from my intestines going gangrene, each operation takes over 10 months to recover, but I have never been right since - and thats not even my core disorder. So you can probably imagine I have to attend hospitals virtually every month, either by an appointment or by ambulance. While my Consultants are still trying numerous medications, even now - last change was about 5 weeks ago.

How I would cope in Kent? I have no idea - that my friend is something I don't want to even think about....

Regards,

Les.

Thanks Les, that has given me a lot to think about. I have never heard anything of that nature. I can see how it would work, and to be honest it would be invaluable for me to have such a plan. I have a complication where all of the ateries in the chest and stomach (liver to spleen via the aorta are kinked and thrombotic. In consequence the veins that run through the stomach wall have swollen to become the new arteries (obviously with a much thinner wall). When they bleed into the stomach I have to be conscious to tell them that it isn't an ulcer but collaterals which if not treated within minutes I die. When admitted into A&E if they decide to  give me IV Morphine (Chronic Pancreatitis) I have to be conscious to tell them that I am already up to at least a100mg level in my body.

Yes it could well be a lifesaver.

Energy supplier - never heard of it.

Telecare ???

Where on earth do you get all of that info from? Nobody has mentioned anything to me. I am in a pretty bad way most of the time and have to look after my wife who is in a worse position!

To be totally honest I have no faith in any system that involves Social Services or the DWP and therefore avoid them like the plague if I can.

Neither have been helpful to me, As I have said, I refuse to involve SS in anything as it is always a 'new case' and have to go through the system which then ends up with a case manager being appointed who then decides that there are cases out there worse than me so the file gets closed down. 

As for GP involvement well that is another subject, I can't say that over the past 5 years at least I have seen the same locum more than once! Of the 10min limit given it takes 5min for me to go through the history then tell them what the current problem is. This generally ends up with either a blood test or some pills and told to go away. Christ, I know whats wrong with me and how it should be treated - but they say they know best! 

The best was last year when a locum diagnosed my wife as having a bit of a virus, telling her to go home, keep warm and rest. She ended up the following night unable to breathe, rang 999 and she was admitted with a PE and fluid around her right lung!!

Still enough, think yourself lucky to be in the Avon area and not in Kent.