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DLA changing to PIP

ofme
ofme Community member Posts: 18 Listener
Hi everyone, I'm Ofme, Thank you for adding me. I'm about to be reassessed from DLA highest rate care and mobility, to see if I'm eligible for PIP. I've been on benefits since about 2002. I'm supposed to be on benefit for life! I've heard very bad things about being reassessed and I'm dreading it. Any suggestion about the best way for positive outcome.  Thank you for belong to your group x

Comments

  • Yadnad
    Yadnad Posts: 2,856 Disability Gamechanger
    ofme said:
    Hi everyone, I'm Ofme, Thank you for adding me. I'm about to be reassessed from DLA highest rate care and mobility, to see if I'm eligible for PIP. I've been on benefits since about 2002. I'm supposed to be on benefit for life! I've heard very bad things about being reassessed and I'm dreading it. Any suggestion about the best way for positive outcome.  Thank you for belong to your group x

    Just hope that you get a half decent assessor.
  • CockneyRebel
    CockneyRebel Community member Posts: 5,209 Disability Gamechanger
    There is no guaranteed way to receive the award you deserve

    It does not matter whether you are making a new claim, a change from DLA to PIP, a re-assessment, an MR or an appeal. At the moment the only way to receive the award you deserve is to prove that you meet the criteria for for an award.

    We see so many people on the forums that do not understand what is required, who then blame the system for not giving them what they think they deserve. Rightly or wrongly PIP is not DLA and the two are very different.

    PIP is a test of functionallity not condition. All the medical evidence that you have this or that condition will not mean that you qualify for an award. It is 100% up to you to prove that your functionallity is affected to which ever degree fits the descriptor and then back it up with medical and other evidence.

    More is not always better.

    If you send in the equivalent of "war and peace" as evidence, don't expect the DWP or HCP to read it. Send only relevant evidence that attests to your lack of functionality. If you do have a lot of evidence, then include a summary and a reference to where the best support is by page and paragraph.

    Many of us with long term conditions are used to managing and hiding how we are affected. This is not to your advantage when applyinng at any stage. You need to become the you that does not have these coping mechanisms in place. Sucking your belly in to impress a girl does not work.but you will fool the assessor and lose what you are entitled to.

    Forums are full of tales of injustice, of HCP's that lie, that make stupid assumptions. HCP's are taught how to ask question, much like sales people, to gain a specific answer. No it isn't right and often a false result is recorded.

    We are all conditioned to reply in the positive. " how are you "  "I am fine thanks " .

    When asked can "you do x" we will reply automatically "yes but " that is to late the assessor has closed the window at yes

    Try and reply "no but  " the assessor then has to explore further

    Try it in every day life.

    Yes the deck is stacked against many people but with a little knowledge and understanding of what is going on we can achieve what we deserve

    Yes there are HCP's with an agenda, yes there are HCP's that will fail even a corpse. The system is far from perfect, because of cuts there is little in the way of help

    CR
    Be all you can be, make  every day count. Namaste
  • Yadnad
    Yadnad Posts: 2,856 Disability Gamechanger
    edited October 2018


    Many of us with long term conditions are used to managing and hiding how we are affected. This is not to your advantage when applyinng at any stage. You need to become the you that does not have these coping mechanisms in place. Sucking your belly in to impress a girl does not work.but you will fool the assessor and lose what you are entitled to.
     
    We are all conditioned to reply in the positive. " how are you "  "I am fine thanks " .

    When asked can "you do x" we will reply automatically "yes but " that is to late the assessor has closed the window at yes

    Try and reply "no but  " the assessor then has to explore further

    Try it in every day life.

    CR
    Try it every day??

    If you have spent years trying to adjust to your difficulties and make the best out of what you have left, I for one would find it not only depressing but almost impossible to revert back to wallowing in my own misery. It would be alien to go back to those days of blackness only seeing and feeling your own inadequacies.

    To appear that way to anybody would be seen as clearly trying to hide something - generally seen as trying to pull the wool over the assessor's eyes in attempting to exaggerate your difficulties and the impact they have on your life. 

    Surely would they not be expecting to see disabled people as being positive in outlook? The majority of disabled, sick and ill people will always try to see the best that they are - not the worst that they can be.
     
  • wilko
    wilko Community member Posts: 2,458 Disability Gamechanger
    CR, you said it all, covering everything many of us would have put in a reply but clearly and in more detail. Yes we have to be proactive in our claiming of benefits or loose them 
  • chiz
    chiz Community member Posts: 59 Courageous
    Hi @ofme
    Iv recently migrated from dla to pip .. i to had highest dla indef...
    The process was quite straightforward and my assessemnent nowhere near as scary as i thought, my advice would be send as much paperwork as possible not necessary diagnosis but how your disability effects you ,
    Eg.. how far you can walk..
    How much help you need to get in and out the bath..
    How you cook your meals ect..
    If you can get any of the above in writing it will help enormously,
    I had a positive outcome and all pretty straightforward , 
    Try not to worry to much and gather any written evidence no matter how old , alot of mine was from 2012 upwards, 
    My process took 8 weeks from 1st letter to desicion.
    Goodluck and keep us posted xx
    Ellen x
  • Pippa_Alumni
    Pippa_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 5,793 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @ofme, and welcome!

    Wishing you all the best for your PIP assessment. Glad to see you've had some input from others. You may find this page on PIP helpful too.

    https://youtu.be/qq5QV_SnkJs
  • ofme
    ofme Community member Posts: 18 Listener
    Thank you for your tips. I hope I can be helpful to someone soon x

  • Yadnad
    Yadnad Posts: 2,856 Disability Gamechanger
    edited October 2018
    chiz said:
    Hi @ofme
    Iv recently migrated from dla to pip .. i to had highest dla indef...
    The process was quite straightforward and my assessemnent nowhere near as scary as i thought, my advice would be send as much paperwork as possible not necessary diagnosis but how your disability effects you ,
    Eg.. how far you can walk..
    How much help you need to get in and out the bath..
    How you cook your meals ect..
    If you can get any of the above in writing it will help enormously,
    I had a positive outcome and all pretty straightforward , 
    Try not to worry to much and gather any written evidence no matter how old , alot of mine was from 2012 upwards, 
    My process took 8 weeks from 1st letter to desicion.
    Goodluck and keep us posted xx
    Ellen x
    Hi Ellen

    A great deal rests on the quality of both the assessor and the case manager at the DWP.

    Yes I too was another DLA recipient from 1995 to 2013 - high for both components indefinitely. But unfortunately due to the assessors that I have had, all three wrote a report that did not match in any way what I had told them or what had been put on the PIP2 form or what the evidence said. As an example I was assessed as being able to walk more than 200 metres with no difficulty despite being accepted under DLA that the distance accepted was less than 50 metres and written evidence of tests carried out in hospital that I fell off their walking machine after 10/15 metres!
    As regards evidence, I produced reports of my abilities as assessed by many people including an OT from Social Services. The last re-assessment in late 2017 and at the MR stage informed me that the above evidence from 2011 & 2012 was not considered reliable as it was up to 6 years old.

    There was no other evidence that was under 2 years old that indicated my difficulties and the impact they had on my life so saw no good reason that a Tribunal would change the decision. At that point I had had enough of the PIP system so never pursued the matter any further.
    However I would add that the previous two MR's changed the decisions of 0 points to enhanced for both components, but the third failed using the same evidence.

    Could I ask what type of evidence did you supply that proved the impact and which descriptors applied. It may well help other posters to see what you had and where it came from in order to give them an idea of what they need to be looking for.
     
  • chiz
    chiz Community member Posts: 59 Courageous
    Hi @Yadnad
    I had my carer send a letter describing the help she gave me and my other letters came from the surgeons who have treated me yearly , 
    Each letter stated how my condition  effects my daily life and they all stated how i use crutches and scooter outside.
    Also i had letters from the young carers society explaining how my children are also carers and what they do to help .
    I have said in other posts my assessor recommended 2 yrs it was the DM that changed the desicion to  ongoing with a review no earlier than 2028 and my desicion was given over the phone by DM as my letter was lost in the post thats how i found out about the DM changing award to ongoing x
    So sorry to hear your story .
     
  • ofme
    ofme Community member Posts: 18 Listener
    Best wishes and thank you for your comment x

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