Family member awarded enhanced pip - AIBU?

Yep. Benefit claimants are far easier to target, and disability benefit claimants have always been the low hanging fruit in every round of welfare reform, regardless of the colour of government. This government could have chosen to put the minds of disabled people at rest by confirming they won’t be taking up the proposals in the last Tory consultation paper. They could have been less tight lipped about their plans for disability benefits during the run up to the election. They didn’t. They chose to keep disabled people hanging on, anxious about what may be coming. So logically, either the news is bad and benefits will be harshly targeted or, they will be largely left alone with maybe some tinkering around the edges, and Labour will be seen as Lady Bountiful !! I think the latter is doubtful.

IMO Labour are no different from the Tories, in this respect, and what really concerns me is that they don’t appear to know the difference between out of work sickness benefits and universal disability benefits. If you don’t understand what a benefit is designed to do, how can you possibly target it at those who will benefit most ?

It’s not a whinge @Thelastebs. I would think most people who are genuinely disabled and in receipt of PIP are probably feeling the same reading some of these comments.

You’re missing the point. The purpose of PIP is to level the playing field so that disabled people can take part in society on the same terms as non disabled people. The clue is in the same personal independence payment, so if disabled people want to go to the cinema and the only way they can manage that is by taxi, what’s the problem ? It’s a legitimate extra cost. Are you saying they shouldn’t be able go out and socialise because it costs them slightly more ? REALLY ?? There are two models for assessing the financial cost of disabilty - social and medical. PIP relies very heavily on the medical model, which is deliberate because it makes it harder to claim, forcing the claimant to think about what they cannot do, rather than what they could do if they had the extra benefit. But the intention of PIP is to make the lives of substantially disabled people easier. And that includes socialising. Why wouldn’t it ?

@PandoraSox thanks, I didn’t mean to have a go at anyone just moaning in the void. I’m glad for this thread because it’s made me think I’m being a martyr not trying again.

Don't apologise. Please do apply for PIP again or appeal. It is outrageous that you have been turned down.

Sorry that was a bit of a whinge I apologise!!

People who get so frothy on this feel free to swap with me. Apparently I’m not bloody applicable fif it anyway, even the fact I can barely walk and my life span is limited. Feel free, I’d rather have my body than have the extra money.

To walk when I want, to go and buy the paper, to have friends again because I can follow a conversation again and reliably meet up with them without my whole body blaring in pain due to joint contractures and scoliosis.

I wish I’d had kids, a family. I’d swap in a heartbeat. In fact the only thing that keeps me going is that the field of gene therapy seems to be rapidly moving and they’ve now started testing one for my gene mutation, fingers crossed it’s before my heart starts failing.

This. Far more money is lost through tax fraud, for example.

I agree - input from this type of professional involved with the claimant will potentially be more useful because it can give a much clearer indication of functional ability instead of just a blanket medical description of the condition.

Well the fact is they can spend it on whatever they want….and no need to justify to anyone

Bullshit which anyone who has experienced a pip assessment will know.

And whilst benefit fraud is appalling it's absolutely not the reason our country is a shit show

Well, no. This poster has a fair point - means testing is irrelevant when you’re talking about how the benefit is spent, and state pension isn’t ‘earned’ it’s a state benefit like all the others, paid for from general taxation.

Benefits are paid as cash, in most cases directly into a bank account. There is no requirement to account for how they are spent. So any attempt to scrutinise what a universal disability benefit is spent on, or to limit that spending via vouchers and other means, could, and probably would be seen as discriminatory. For it not to be so, the same conditions would have to be applied to all benefits. So those advocating for such scrutiny of the spending of disabled claimants, might want to think how they would feel if they were forced to account for how they spend child benefit, student grant, or indeed, state pension. Not such an attractive prospect now is it ?

These are all significant extra costs incurred every days by disabled people as they need to pay someone to do them if they can’t manage themselves
I do find that what PIP receiver claim to be expenses they wouldn't have if not disabled quite stretched at times. It's almost as if it is co pared with a non disabled person who would have no life. Like, using PIP to go to the cinema (they wouldn't otherwise). Using a taxi to get back after a night out (because non disabled would automatically just get on the bus), use of extra electricity (because all non disabled people are out of the house 12 hours a day, and those staying in can cope with just a water bottle).

It doesn’t serve any purpose whatsoever, and as you say, it would just add in a layer of cost. Benefits are paid into the claimants’ bank account and the DWP can ask to see bank statements any time they like if they suspect something is amiss. From the end of 2025 if current legislation goes through, they will be able to use AI to monitor the accounts of all benefit claimants, including state pension claimants.

To suggest that disabled claimants have a specific bank account and have to account for everything they spend - presumably to check that it’s all disability related - is ableist and discriminatory. For a start, who decides what is disability related and what is not ? There are numerous health conditions and disabilities, the extra cost of which, claimants will support in different ways according to their own needs. This is exactly why disability benefits are universal and there is no prescribed way to spend them. And it’s exactly why the present talk of vouchers, catalogue shopping and one off payments demonstrates that the government know little about how disabled people actually live. The government minister for the disabled acknowledged recently that many disabled people use their PIP to make ends meet, and confirmed that this is one of the intentions of the benefit, as it confirms the extra costs that make it difficult to make those ends meet in the first place.

Imagine living alone with severe disability which limits your mobility and restricts what you are able to do. The following are things which able bodied people do without thinking and at no forced extra cost:

Being able to manage your own personal care - washing, bathing, toileting, dressing/undressing/getting yourself in and out of bed.
Doing housework/cooking/laundry.
Gardening - even just basic mowing and weeding.
Essential home maintenance.
Buying groceries and putting them away.
Even changing a light bulb.

These are all significant extra costs incurred every days by disabled people as they need to pay someone to do them if they can’t manage themselves. The list isn’t exhaustive and doesn’t account for the extra cost of specialist equipment - a significant amount of which disabled people have to source and finance themselves because the basics provided by Local Authorities for example, are basic and don’t meet their needs. Nor does it include things like increased bills as a result of disability - for example someone who is incontinent will incur significant extra energy bills because of increased washing/bathing/laundry. Those reliant on specialist equipment will have significantly higher bills because that equipment needs to be charged.

The disability organisation Scope, commissioned a report recently, and that report concluded that the average extra monthly cost for someone living with a substantial disability is just over £900 a month. Even the combined enhanced rates of PIP mobility and care components fall £200 a month short of that, and people here are advocating for reducing it further or forcing absolutely meaningless conditionality onto people whose lives are already more difficult that most of us care to imagine. MN is an absolute cess pit sometimes.

I wonder how many people save the child benefit they receive for their children. I wonder how many students use their student grants and loans for buying pints. I wonder how many pensioners use their state pension to buy their grandchildren a Christmas present
To be fair, the top two are mean tested and the last one has been 'earned', so they are different.

Thank you!

I have a feeling that poster was being sarcastic!

Agree. Where has logical/critical thinking gone ?

Ring today…..start the bill rolling

ball 😁

I have fifteen years experience of PIP and other disability benefit applications, and a good success rate first time. If you would like any specific help completing the form PM me and I’ll be only too happy to help.

Oh yes, let's pay teachers, nurses and the police in vouchers. That will sort the little matter of recruitment and retention.

I think the purpose of ‘medical evidence’ has been misinterpreted somewhat. Medical evidence is required in all cases to make a decision on PIP, but that medical evidence doesn’t necessarily need to be provided by the claimant. I’ve posted upthread with some info about the various ways in which medical evidence is obtained and provided to the case manager, in the event that the claimant doesn’t submit any themselves.

It’s worth repeating though, that if you can obtain your own evidence, including medical supporting evidence from the healthcare providers involved with your care, that will always be best case scenario. Without your own supporting evidence you are reliant on the assessors’ report alone for the award, and as I said upthread, the high level of success at tribunal is a clear indication that they don’t always get it right.

I know I should have. I found it very humiliating and gave up. My family have told me to apply again. I know I should as things are so hard now. My DH has to do all the extras of life and he’s run ragged ☹️

Apply again….get some help filling in the form….give 2 to 3 real life examples for each descriptor…..use the words ….safely…..reliably and in a timely manner….for each descriptor….,take it to tribunal if you get refused again

No worries 😊