PIP (Personal Independence Payment)

I'm currently receiving the enhanced rate of PIP for basic needs, and the standard rate for the mobility component. However, it was certainly not an easy process to get to this point...

My application forms were all done with the help of an advocacy service which the CAB had put me in touch with. They were very helpful with ensuring that I didn't sell myself short with my interpretation of the questions. For example, even if you are physically capable of cooking a meal, executive function impairments which make it difficult to organise, or sensory impairments which make you insensitive to hunger, are perfectly valid reasons to state that you are disabled in that sense - after all, you end up not eating either way.

After application and my medical assessment I was awarded zero points! The letter said that there were no signs of "cognitive impairment", which was rather ironic, as the first attempt to assess me was cut short because the assessor said I wasn't fit to be interviewed because of my obvious cognitive impairments! I was on my own that time, but luckily managed to get an advocate from a disability organisation before the re-booked appointment - though, obviously, that didn't help much (not the advocate's fault, of course, he was wonderful, and would likely have given up at that point if it weren't for him). Most of the questions I was asked were utterly irrelevant, and the assessor said at the start that he was trained as a paramedic (an admirable occupation, of course, but hardly appropriate under the circumstances).

For the "mandatory reconsideration" (you have to ask them to look again by post before an appeal can be started), I was also awarded zero points. They said that my reconsideration letter did not address any relevant points. Again, rather strange, as I had sat down with the advocate, and we addressed every single point raised in the refusal letter one by one - we even used quotes from the refusal letter as topic headings!

I appealed, and waited about nine months for an appeal hearing date. The DWP messed up the paperwork somehow, so this had to be adjourned without a decision being reached (though my extreme anxiety was lifted a little bit by shadenfreude at seeing the DWP representative get a very stern dressing down by the tribunal board, who were very apologetic to me about these procedural problems).

Six months after that, at my second tribunal hearing, I was finally awarded 17 points! The tribunal board's questions were absolutely spot on, and there was a psychologist present who obviously understood neurological conditions.  I have to say, the tribunal service were incredibly considerate throughout (the usher even had hankies on hand for when I burst into tears at finally getting the good news - I hope the people in the waiting room as I walked out didn't get the wrong idea!) Whether because of the dressing down they got before, I don't know, but  the DWP didn't even send a representative for the second hearing.

So yes, it can be tough - I have an autistic friends who's tale is much the same, and have heard similar from other people I've met on forums over the years. But you have nothing to lose by trying, and if you do need to appeal, there's a very good chance that you will get a fair hearing, whatever the DWP may have decided (around 3/4 of decisions are overturned). The waiting without knowing what's going to happen isn't nice of course, nor is having to attend all those interviews - hence my stressing that the appeal tribunals were so much less frustrating and more considerate of my impairments than the DWP assessments. I should also add that, besides my autism assessment report, I didn't have any other documentary evidence (my GP said nothing except to confirm that the diagnosis was on my medical records) - so this isn't necessarily a complete bar to receiving an award; though it makes it more likely that you would need to appeal.

Best wishes.

thanks for this feedback - i admire your peristence i just could not face such scrutiny :(

you're leading the way for others :)

thanks for this feedback - i admire your peristence i just could not face such scrutiny :(

you're leading the way for others :)

Don't set me on too high a pedestal - my sense of balance isn't very good! As I said; if I hadn't had the help and encouragement of the advocate, I doubt very much that I would have persisted beyond the initial rejection.

I think the most important thing for me was to keep reminding myself that, even if things didn't work out, I would be no worse off than I already was. Keeping the "not knowing" anxiety at bay was also crucial - although the process took about a year and a half in total, the actual time spent enduring the most stressful bits was really only three or four days of my life, and during that period, there had been plenty of other stressful things to endure that were completely unrelated to it.

Whether I will cope with reassessment so easily, I have yet to discover - it's only a matter of months now until my award runs out (it was given for four years, but that included the time that I'd already waited). And next time I will likely have to face it without very much support, as the advocacy service I used has since closed due to cutbacks in local authority funding (likewise a couple of others that I might have used).