Fingers crossed. We had lower rate DLA for my son, but scored Zero on PIP and only a couple more points on appeal. We gave up as most Type 1 teens don't get the help, despite the fact they can't look after themselves (being a teen with a life threatening illness)and need extra help from others.
bearnecessities
I HAD a friend in the welsh universal welfare call/assesment centre who boasted that she and her colleagues got a kick out of denying people benefits.
Wish I taped it to send it to Panorama, so I believe Rusty on this.
Breaking news:
and the results are in......
Nil Points.
quite how, I don't know yet, I've not seen the report.
still, at least we know the process of appeal well enough.
:-/
And that, Mr Anderson, is the sound of inevitability.
Good luck with the appeal.
Indeed.
Not told daughter yet. We'll wait until later on and deal with the outfall then.
Yep corrupt , manipulated system. welcome to tory rule.
Pm me if you want help
Mrs To does this for a living (appeals)
Bummer. That can't have gone down well with your daughter.
Oh, and if you were avoiding TJs offer because of his quirks on here, think again. He's a very nice man in real life.
Thanks TJ, I think we've got it sorted. CAB are helping again. 🙂
Daughter has a day planned tomorrow, so we're waiting until after that to tell her.
Crossing everything for you wookie.
That post of yours Cougar is good news for me & the wife, years ago she was given a lifetime DLA award Mid-Care & Higher-Mobility she has secondary progressive MS, sadly now quite advanced she cant even feed herself now.
So when we got the PIP forms I nearly ground my teeth away while filling them in 🙁 the questions are so loaded that there is no option to fill the correct answer in for someone who cant do anything for themself.
Example: Preparing a meal, do you use adapted utensils.
1. No
2. Sometimes
3. Always
Strange there is no "I can't prepare a meal"
I ended up writing some pretty sarcastic stuff in the right hand boxes, we then had the home visit by a "health professional" To be fair to her she looked really embarrassed when she saw my wife's condition & said sorry to me as she left.
We then received a letter saying they were considering her case! At this time I had taken her for an appointment to see one of her consultants who was furious when she found out what was going on, 2 days later a letter arrived I was copied in on she had sent one to the PIP panel!
I have to say she didn't pull any punches as what she thought of the situation & the utter cruelty of the system including some words you don't often hear used in official communication!!!
As a result of this my wife's care component was upped to the higher rating, so in the end a result but degrading for my wife & bad for my teeth.
Glad you got the outcome there MrOvershoot, but very crap that you had to go through it at all.
CAB were mighty annoyed. Point made that DWP have essentially gone against the previous tribunal outcome for a lifelong condition where there will be little to no change.
The new scottish social security bill didn't come in until the 21st June, so just after the forms came through. I'd hope that the new bill means we don't have to go through it all again.
mandatory reconsideration in.
I fully expect this to go as far as tribunal again.
Jeez, that's rough. Fingers crossed for you
Envelope dropped this morning. Standard rate of daily living support, standard rate of mobility support. To be reviewed July 2020.
We don't need the money for household bills, otherwise we might push for higher rate, but if having regular money from outside prompts her to start making decisions for herself, that would be fantastic.
Bloody hell, writing that last sentence has made this screen dusty.
Mandatory decision notice came through last week. nil points, still.
That's after they lost the appplication and our MP got involved.
Mrs Wookie had a meeting with CAB this morning to initiate the tribunal process.
hey ho....
I'd like to say that during the period of lack of PIP we've incurred no additional costs or stress, but I'd be lying.
Thankfully daughter has now got funding from Uni to get a taxi from the house to the train station and to the uni the other end. They seem to have things tied up a little better, one on one specialist meetings as often as she needs too.
still, Mrs Wookie has had to hold off on work for the time being as daughter needs daily support doing her assignments. The PIP would help with external support, and mean that my wife would have access to carers allowance and more importantly respite etc.
Good luck. Part of the design of the system is to make folk give up claiming.
I know it is not like a national newspaper, but have you considered writing in to Private Eye about this? MD is heavily critical of the system and it might get you more visibility.
no willard, I've not. It was a new thing to us to have the local MP involved. we tend to just deal with things as best we can, with the advice and support from CAB, who are great.
The tribunal worked for us last time, there's no reason to think that it wouldn't be the same. it's just the amuont of time it takes.
In theory at least, the next time, the PIP will be under scottish control, so the process should be slightly different.
Think we are on the second appeal for my wife, her care team are very good at dealing with it as it seems an all to common part of their workload now. I've seen the response her nurse sent, it is very harsh, but a reflection of the worst days. Quite hard reading as you don't realise what you do day to day. Not read the consultants response, even harder reading apparently. Not fully rejected so far, but basic payment is a long way off previous DLA and they appear to have not read any of the supporting notes with the first appeal which included calling out plain lies from the assessor at the meeting.
It's frustrating because not only does it cause the applicant and their families a lot of stress, but takes healthcare professionals away from patients.
Hi
My OH won at tribunal last year and got full award after being given zero points at assessment. we’ve just been through the review process. We had lots of medical evidence and supporting letters from consultants etc and went for another assessment.
To be fair the assessor was very thorough and fair and we just got the decision letter yesterday which renewed her award for a further 3 years.
Just stick in, put your case together and fight them all of the way and it is possible to be successful.
It shouldn’t have to be this way but we can blame the fakers for ruining it for the genuine people.
You have my sympathies and well wishes.
Cheers
Steve
Got a call from Mrs wookie earlier, daughter has had a wadge of cash put into her account. could be PIP, they were both hopeful, but nervous as we'd not heard anything since my last update and were expecting a tribunal date.
She called to see if it was anything to do with them to be told that there should have been a letter last week and that we were reassigned a new case officer, who'd reviewed and disagreed with the original assessment (and appeal result) and had reinstated her PIP for 4 years.
Awesome news as this takes her right through uni and certainly takes the pressure off financially for us and her. To not have to think about budgets when she's not able and have the funds for those extra bits of support, reminder apps like brain in hand, that sort of stuff is great.
6 months of stress and uncertainty, my daughters self doubt on the validity of her difficulties. Guess we got there in the end though.
Brilliant news, sorry the system put you and your daughter through so much pain
I thought if you failed to attend you were denied, and if you did attend you were well enough not to qualify.
Good news op, what a stress that's been.
fatgit
It shouldn’t have to be this way but we can blame the fakers for ruining it for the genuine people.
I don't agree with you there.
I know 3 people that have gone through the pip process. 2 of which went all the way to tribunal and won their case. Up until that point they were no more than "fakers" as far as the DWP were concerned.
The "fakers" are not to blame for pip and all the pain it causes as pip is designed to assume that EVERYONE is a faker till proven otherwise.
It's a heartless system, rotten to the core and imposed by an equally malignant government.
The fault lies with them. No one else.
I thought if you failed to attend you were denied, and if you did attend you were well enough not to qualify.
Ahhh, Catch-22, the greatest catch of them all.
That's great news Wookie. It gives me a glimmer of hope that there are some humans in the PIP assessment system.
Boy2 received his PIP forms just before Christmas. He's 16 and still at school. He has moderate but complex autism. The Wife completed the forms as his advocate, he's in no way able to do that, and he had his interview / assessment on the 9th January.
The medical centre where his assessment took place was in Worcester, we're in Hereford, 25 miles away, at 5pm. Luckily we were both able to take and support him, but asking someone to travel by taxi, train, taxi, at busy times, when he struggles to cross a road without help is just cruel and unnecessary. The added stress to what is already a stressful procedure just shows that the whole PIP process is designed to remove as many people from the help they need. Whilst humiliating them in the process.
We are now playing the waiting game.
I wish you all the best blackshed. Tenacity pays off if the initial outcome is not as hoped. That said I hope you get good news right from the off.
Blackshed, all the best in yours.
The PIP response this time was quite different, lots of 'as would be expected with someone with that condition' written into the evaluation.
Travelling must've been a nightmare. Difficult to believe there's nothing in Hereford. the idea of getting a bus/taxi to the train station in the hope that you've got on the train the doesn't just blast through foregate st and dump you at shrub hill is one thing, then taxi/bus the other end, then questions/misinterpretations, confusion, (accusations) and then coordinate enough to be able to get back.
That's a definite nope.
Hope it all goes well for you, let us all know here.
Hi wookie,
Great news about the PIP.
You mentioned that your daughter is going to uni, just making you aware (assuming you're not already) that she would be eligible for Disabled Student Allowance.
It's nowhere near as traumatic as PIP to claim, just a few forms and a needs assessment (from a third party). It will pay for things like Brain in hand and other assistive technology as well as study support and mentoring. It can even help with things like extra time in exams and extensions for coursework.
Thanks fin.
DSA has been got, which was some relief, specific funding to make life a bit easier. Uni's can be a bit slow so we had to push hard to get them rolling otherise we'd have been a couple of terms in and no support. They're on board and she now (as of this term) has an additional needs officer and single point assistance which is great as she requires quite a lot of clarifications after lectures and the lecturer isn't often about to ask specifically. The assistance she does have seems to do OK, as it's mostly interpreting questions and objectives that can be a struggle.
it's great what services are available now.
The “fakers” are not to blame for pip and all the pain it causes as pip is designed to assume that EVERYONE is a faker till proven otherwise.
It's designed to exclude as many legitimate people as possible, relying on the fact that most won't or can't make it through the appeals process. Morally bancrupt; but that's the Tories for you.
If too many people successfully appeal, they'll just make it harder again to keep the numbers down.
Quick update.
Boy2s PIP review came through today. He's been assessed at enhanced level for both PIP and mobility allowance, both increased from his DLA.
I could argue with some of his assessment scores, but it wouldn't make any difference to the award level. So we'll save that fight for later.
It's a weight off our minds, I'll tell thee.
Good news.
Good news! Gladit's sorta kinda not really but slightly working for you
great news, must be a hell of a relief.
if only the system didn't put everyone involved in the application through the grinder along the way things would be much better.