17 yr Autistic daughter just refused PIP

We have had very very good news regarding our grandson's PIP allowance. (We are his legal guardians). He is 16 and has been diagnosed with high functioning ASD/PDA and severe mental health issues arising since he was 4.  He has been given enhanced care and mobility for 5 years. I sat and cried for a good half hour when the letter arrived and thoroughly enjoyed it. I dont understand why it has to be this stressful or why some get it and some equally deserving don't. I will not give up fighting to have this appalling welfare reform scrapped and replaced with something that acutally works and supports people who need it. 

Hi, I am also new to this forum, but am having the same problem for my son.  My son was diagnosed at th age of 3 and has always received DLA, but now that it has changed to PIP they are saying he is not entitled to anything!!! I sent a letter of reconsideration and they still came back with the same answer...,  It is a joke, at a time now at 16 when he needs to money more than ever, and the reasons I have put in the letter have just been ingored. It is so stressful, that I now have to appeal to the tribunal, but why should wejust give up.

I got a letter from the Tribunal office on Christmas Eve (thanks!) which turned me down for an appeal to the Upper Tribunal. But I can apply to them directly and I have a form to complete; part of which can be completed by a solicitor if you have one. So I will contact the Law Centre for London and the South East again for their advice. And I will also find out about Legal Aid and getting a solicitor to help with the next steps. Will keep posting on the forum with news to help others.  A Happy New Year to those who use the forum and success to those who are fighting to get PIP like me.

thanks, not a problem that's what these forums are for for us to help each other where we can I guess. Another thing I recommend you do is register as a carer with your council and GP and request a carer's assessment from your council - it is your legal right.  I had a look and there is support for carers in your area- www.carersbromley.org.uk/ who have advisers who can help you navigate through this maze, they are paid to help carers such as yourself. Also try Carers UK website they have lot of useful guidance and a helpline also.

Good luck

Hi there.

Just wanted to share my late diagnosis of being autistic, OCD and Tourettes.

I am so happy with my identity and just wanted to send my regards to your daughter and any others that need it.

From Lincolnshire, UK.

Thank you so much le8man. You are an angel  . I contacted the Law centre for London and the South East and spoke to an extremely helpful member of staff. So helpful in fact that I now have a letter to send to the tribunal office. Just have to add 1 or 2 sentences myself and attach whichever docs are necesssary  . And a big thank you to the Law Centre too. Will add another post later on about my progress with the aim of helping others in the same situation. Could be a while though knowing how long these things take!

suggest you try checklegalaid.service.gov.uk/legal-aid-available

u18s don;t require financial check

also try the links on the bottom of that page such as

www.lawcentres.org.uk/.../welfare-benefits-upper-tribunal-service

as there is a lawcentre service in the London and South East that deals with Upper Tribunal cases

The disability rights UK website and their handbook to benefits is very useful.

Are you a member of a professional body or trade union, some offer support via their members legal services, as do some home insurance policies

Thanks F Gump. Wish someone would set DWP straight! I was told by ATOS that it would all go through with no problems and my daughter would get the PIP money into her bank. But sorry to say that DWP had other ideas and so did the first tribunal. The first tribunal said they took everything that DWP said with a pinch of salt (!!) and my daughter's problems were down to her being a normal teenager and not to do with her autism. Made me so angry so I am determined to continue to an Upper Tribunal. Just need to know how best to do this, how should I word the letter and how to cover the part about an 'error in law' . Thanks again.

Thank you le8man. I'm in the Bromley area, not a good place to be if you need any kind of help it seems! No local autism support group, no welfare rights group and I've tried 4 solicitors, none of them interested. CAB can't help and I've also been working my way through a list of 10 different help/advisory groups. I have until the 4th December to respond to the statement of reasons and request an appeal to the upper tribunal. Getting desperate!! Could try my local MP but I'm not sure that will help in time. Running out of ideas which is why I posted this cry for help  : (   .. If I could just get some help or ideas for the response / request upper tribunal letter it would be a weight of my mind.

Ok, you dont mention what part of the country you live in, but there will be a number of solicitors practises that deal with benefit cases near to you. Also there may be a specialist welfare rights support group near to you, is there a local autism support group?

Failing that contact your local MP's office and make an appointment to go and see them, so they can take up your case.

First of all don't worry, we just stuck to are guns. You will need to go to the indpendent triubunial stage. PIP is just out to save money by setting the bar to high. We won it at a higher rate even though pip said we didn't qualify! It did take 10 mounts to sort though. My husband did have a couple of different conditions and I must say the women came to the house from capita was nice, it was the DWP that made all the problems. Capita said he should of had the high rate and DWP egnord them and said no! He's having nothing just go the tribunal they will put DWP straight.

Hello,

This is my first post on this forum so please bear with me while I try to explain our situation. My daughter aged 17 has high functioning autism. We applied for Personal Independence Payment in Dec 15 but have been turned down at the 1st tribunal stage in Sept 16. I applied for and received a statement of reasons 11 pages, 103 paragraphs). If I respond I have to say why I think the tribunal made a mistake such as an 'error of law'. I don't want to try and do this all by myself and find it fails again. Please can anyone help me with this i.e suggest a solicitor or organisation that can help. I have been everywhere, CAB, SOS sen, etc... There must be others in the same situation! I'm beginning to think its just a lottery whether you get PIP or not. Some do depending on where they live, the judge or whatever. Thank you so much, I am grateful for any advice and help. 

Hi F Gump, it varies, but in our case appeal was lodged in mid-June and tribunal was at beginning of October. The DWP is under pressure to speed them up. It also depends on where you live and where the nearest centre is. If you haven't anything after a few weeks, you can ring the HMCTS to ask what is happening and what the likely timescale is as they will know that.

Hello how long did it take between applying for a independnt hearing and getting one? I'm going through it now and been waiting a mouth so far After sending the sc forms of

Hi.

Just an update that will hopefully be helpful to anyone going through the PIP renewal process. My daughter's current PIP award runs out in April 16. I re-applied in February making sure I wrote an essay on seperate paper to accompany each question in the booklet. It was stressful going into great detail again, especially as it is less than a year since we attended a tribunal to get PIP awarded the first time. I was really hoping to avoid a face to face assessment as my daughter would not have coped and thankfully PIP has been awarded without one. The amount is reduced as this time she has not received enough points for mobility, but she has received the standard amount for daily living. The best part is that the award is for 6 years, a huge relief. I could appeal the mobility but then risk having the award stopped or the term reduced and we just need a break from all this for a while.

Good luck to anyone going through this and write as much information as you can on those forms.

hi our son was asked to go to anassessment but if you get evidence from yr gp ,mental health worker or whoever u get support from they will look at all the evidence and talk to the nominee on the phone ,me in my case,and he didnt have to go it would have set him back days even weeks if your child couldnt cope wiyh this assessment i suggest u try this route tell them how poorly it would make yr child it worked for us he was awarded high mobility and the high enhanced bit,he doesnt leave room doesnt eat etc exactly same stand yr ground good luck to all of u x

Hi all, 

After my last post, i have some good and bad news. i went for my appeal today (23/03/2016), the people in front of me wouldnt let my mate speak on my behalf, i had to pull all my power to talk to them three people, it got that bad i was crying for about 10 mins due to the stress of what was being asked. i was in the room for about one hour. 

they sent me out of the room to pull myself together then got asked to go back in to be asked more questions, i did get my mobilty side of things as they thought i am ok, keep in mind i dont go out with out no one, as that i break down and start stressing about some areas when out and about, but they give me the highest rate for daily living. after 12 months of trying to get this benefits they done till May next year.

I am happy in one way but so worn out with what happened today. 

Hope all have luck in what you going to try and get and please keep pushing through, i couldnt of not done it with out someone being there today. 

Love all 

Pete

Above post reported to moderators.  The poster is well know to other autism websites, where they have been banned for their spamming.

Hi DogLady! Autism is often characterized by varying degrees of difficulties in verbal or nonverbal communication and in social interaction. We highly recommend you consult some autism support groups. They can give professional advise on how you can possibly handle the situation you're in with your daughter who has autism. Just in case you haven't, you can also consult a naturopathy expert who specializes in the use of natural medicine to make people's lives better. We recommend you visit naturopathy expert Dr. Sundardas' web sites for more information.

sundardasnaturopathy.com/
www.naturaltherapies.com/

Hi Pete. Applying for PIP is not easy and ironically the problems you have probably make it even harder. I would suggest contacting your local Citizens Advice Bureau as they will help you with the process for free. Wishing you all the best.