Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am new to the forum as my daughter was only diagnosed with Austistic Spectrum Disorder last summer, after a year and a half of assessments. We applied for PIP last April (I am her appointee) and have just been sent a letter saying she will not receive it, despite never going out alone and not being able to cope with communication with people other than her immediate family, and that is limited. She scored 4 points for 'engaging with other people face to face' and 4 points for 'planning and following journeys'. Zero points for everything else, despite a face to face assessment where I explained that she goes out on average once a week, sometimes less, and is always accompanied. She has lots of sensitivities, particularly with food.
Has anyone else experienced this? I am preparing an appeal. It says on the covering letter ' I realise you have a disability or health condition and receiving this decision isn't the news you were hoping for'. It's a joke.
I hope you get it Caitilin. I felt a bit encouraged by Doglady's tribunal as my issues are similar to her daughter's and I scored the same - it is because they changed the criteria to get rid of people. I also noticed that the things I got DLA mobility for are now split across care and mobility. I am currently waiting for the results of my appeal. I am however concerned by the fact that I was unable to attend the tribunal as it would have been too much, and paper considerations are much less likely to succeed. The other issue is that I was not able to go to a charity for help because I wouldn't be able to talk to them. DWP very much held against me the fact that I can be articulate on paper, and have degrees. The other thing they held against me was driving myself to the centre and meeting my friend there, even though I could only do that because the DLA had helped me to run a private vehicle, as I cannot use a bus.