To think she shouldn't get higher rate pip

[sunnydaysx]

My MIL receives pip because she has a bad back and asthma her daughter is down as her carer.
She hasn't had the central heating on in her home for more than 10 years and it's riddled with damp making the asthma worse...

Long story short she's not making her situation any better because she's not trying to get rid of the damp or taking most of her tablets she's meant to. Basically she's over exaggerating.

She is now writing to PIP to say she should be on the higher rate allowance because she has to keep going to hospital appointments and keeps coughing.

AIBU to think higher rate disability should be for people who actually can't move, talk, walk not somebody that can do her gardening, painting, wallpapering and just general everyday things shouldn't be entitled to it because they're playing on there illness or is it not my business?

I just think imo she shouldn't be entitled to higher rate and should be grateful she's even been awarded lower rate because she actually isn't disabled

So many myths on here
Your MIL will be assessed as will everyone claiming PIP and will probably be asked to go for a medical
The report along with her claim form and any medical evidence will form the basis for her claim - not what you think
I work full time and claim PIP - you wouldn’t know my disabilities from seeing me
PIP allows me to pay for extra help I need and therapy - it allows me to work, maintain my dignity and respect and be a useful member of society
I also help people who are worse off than me
What is your claim to fame OP?

You obviously have no idea how difficult it is to get PIP she isn’t going to have her payments increased just best she feels they should be.

She will need to provide support from either a nurse or doctor for her increased claim and then often assessed by an independent assessor

The paperwork is really in-depth and as much as someone might lie on an application a professional isn’t going to so they would be caught out

Obviously she is entitled to PIP and she maybe entitled to higher payments

I have higher PIP.

I can move , talk & walk . I work bloody hard at it , it's exhausting . I look "fine" , I certainly don't feel it.

You sound so very ignorant i pity you.

Yes. I think YABU. Why are young so bothered? Why isn’t she switching the heating on? Is it because she’s cant afford it?? Have you offered to help her? If it makes you feel better, she’s almost certainly going to ne refused the higher rate. I know someone with MS who is currently fighting to get PIP after being told they are not entitled to it. I get that your mil might not be an easy person to get on with with and it may be frustrating to see, but if you can’t be kind, at least try and understand.

If you saw me sat down or in my car you wouldn't think anything was wrong with me. But see me stood up or trying to walk & you would see that I limp badly, walk slowly, have poor balance & can't walk more than about 10 feet without stopping. You don't see the fact that it can take me an hour to get out of bed, go to the toilet & get washed, then another hour to get dressed & brush my hair. You don't see the strong painkillers I have to take every day, the sleeping tablets, the antidepressants, the nights I can't sleep from pain & intrusive thoughts. What I am trying to say is that all you know is that your mil has a bad back & asthma, you don't really know how much they affect her, you don't see how long it takes her to get up & ready in a morning or what medication she takes & if the doctor has warned her that her condition is likely to get worse, you only know what you have been told. The DWP don't award PIP for nothing, any claimant has to go through a rigorous assessment process, jump through many hoops before it is awarded. People like you are disgusting, you accuse innocent people whose only crime is to suffer poor health & disability of faking their condition. I would love you to have to go through the assessment process whilst still having to manage often severe health conditions which is even harder with the decline of the NHS. You make me sick to the back teeth.

She can claim PIP and still be in full time employment, PIP (and the legacy benefit of DLA) doesn't prevent people from working, it isn't that type of benefit.

Nevertheless, I think you're coming across really "catty", it isn't any of your business and I don't understand why you'd meddle in your husband's mother's financial affairs, you may not like her but out of respect for your husband stay out of it, that would be my opinion anyway.

Have you nothing to occupy your own life with?

for your information you can get the highest rate of mobility on PIP even if you have no problems walking at all

Quite - DP is blind and received higher mobility due to this.

And as someone with over 50 inpatient attendances, numerous chronic issues, and a wheelchair user, I'd like to add my own "fuck you" to the naysayers detailing how "easy" PIP is to get.

YABU, she has been assessed by someone a lot more qualified than you, and believe me it's very difficult to get PIP anyway, so if your MIL has been awarded it then she had met the criteria for it.

@JanMeyer you speak to people like this normally? I think not. Wind your neck in

@Banaleaf

If someone is talking bullshit about DLA, then yes I'd speak to them that way, whether in real life or online. I'm always going to call out people who spout daily mail headlines and their mythical "hundreds of thousands of people faking it to get DLA" crap. Always. And I'm not going to apologise for that, nor for my bluntness. My autism makes me very blunt and direct and in a normal social situation I do my best to moderate that. But not towards people who talk bullshit about autism or disability benefits. Why should I be pleasant or polite to such people?

Do you see her everyday? Do you know her struggles? I too receive pip and at times I can do some gardening and maybe paint. But most days, the days ppl don't see me I'm in agony. My nieghbors might say the same with me because they only see me on good days. Let me tell you unless you walk in her shoes keep your nose outta her beeswax. Why don't you offer help instead of trying to stitch her up

Sorry but this is 100% none of your business! People who get the higher rate of pip actually need it. My neighbour gets the higher rate and he can walk, talk even do cartwheels....He has the higher rate because at 51 years old he is waiting for a liver transplant and has an auto immune disease not being funny but keep your nose out of things that don't concern you

I only wish pip was so easy to get. I was turned down for mobility I used a stick and had a fall in with the interviewer. A week later I was given a rollator!
People wrongly assume that I get high rate mobility when I get none.
Yes it does get to me when I see ones playing the systeme . Have a wheelchair swearing they cannot move unaided. Reality the kids use wheelchair as a gocart and they drive arround in a paid for car , smoking and drinking and doing things I could never because of my health.

PIP is awarded for extra costs of being lucky enough to have some form of disability. It has nothing whatsoever to do with how much a person has in savings or does or does not earn.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is a thick, ignorant busybody who would be far better of concentrating on making themselves a decent human being, rather than sticking their warty goady noses into other humans lives.

My advice to the OP is to go out and try and make someones life better for a change. The world is waiting.

I don't know much about PIP but I think it's similar to DLA which I do know quite a bit about.

A bad back and asthma can mean a huge variety of things. You can have the odd twinge in your back and occasionally have to use a blue inhaler. Or you could be paralysed with a spinal injury and on continuous oxygen. I don't know where on that spectrum your MIL is so no idea what, if any PIP she should be getting.
You don't get PIP just by asking for it, if only it was that simple. My six year old has a cleft lip/palate, glue ear, speech delay, learning difficulties, rumination syndrome, ehlers danlos syndrome, hydrocephalus and hypotonia. He has had over 20 operations and spent more than 30 nights in hospital. He is not disabled enough to get any DLA at all.

None of your business obviously.

Benefit bashing, Mil bashing and no posting history, well colour me surprised

I have a wheelchair, can't remember the last time I used it.
I got so sick of stares, comments, of it being a Pita, and the fact that a lot of time I've no one to push me, I just don't go out if I need it, yet to people who see me about, but don't know me, they'd swear blind I don't need it and use my "paid for", car instead.
No one knows I cancelled a night out last week, I've no idea if I'll make my night out tonight, or trip out on Sunday, (had to cancel last Sunday too, lungs were fine heart went mad)
People see very little of my day to day health, sometimes I tell no one, and because I live alone, no one sees.
Oh, and I'm currently chatting online to my Dd who is, at 18, seeing her asthma consultant and is terrified she'll end up like me, at least I got to 31 before I got ill.
A life on disability benefits isn't great, that said, sometimes I have fun, and do nice things and I have the bitchy comments about that too, and how the taxpayer funds them, can't win really.

My bad back came from breaking five bones in it, and damaging a six, caused by high dose steroids I took for years to treat my brittle asthma.
Fuck knows where the SVT came from!

If someone is talking bullshit about DLA, then yes I'd speak to them that way, whether in real life or online. I'm always going to call out people who spout daily mail headlines and their mythical "hundreds of thousands of people faking it to get DLA" crap.

Feel free to save and repost this graphic wherever you need, asking people who read it to answer the question it asks.

Just before you tell them to fuck off ... sort of:

Why don't you have a look at this ... and then fuck off ?

(Notice how much unclaimed benefits are running at ...)

@SerendipityJane that infographic is really interesting - from my own perspective due to a miscalculation in tax credits and how they were handled I ended up with my parents taking out a loan and me repaying for 3 years. When that loan was paid I cancelled my tax credits claim even though I was still entitled as I was terrified of the same issue happening again.
I wonder how many others don't claim out of fear of them being paid wrong?
Of course if everyone who should claim did there would be a deficit.
I would much rather the outrage of people is aimed at companies not paying their taxes and a tightening up on laws around ltd companies going bankrupt when owing thousands in tax. Get rid of the loop holes and come down hard

I was amazed when I was awarded Esa. I didn't think I qualified. It was my work coach who suggested it along with PIP.
It wasn't just me saying right, I want those now.
They didn't just read the claim and say oh ok.
They accessed my medical files. They talked to me and after I left I convinced myself that I was right, I wasn't eligible.
People who look at me when I am out would be outraged if they knew I get the higher amount. Because to look at me, there is nothing wrong.

You don't know what is going on in peoples lives. I don't tell people all about me.

@SerendipityJane that infographic is really interesting

Not to hordes of MNetters who have ignored it when it's been posted, refused to answer the question it asks, and then carry on about how everybody on benefits is on the fiddle.

I posted it in a similar thread a few weeks ago. Nobody answered the question then, either. And there were hundreds of posts after it.

People don't want to learn. People don't want to be educated. They just want to judge, and have confirmation in that judgement. Even (or especially) when they are wrong.

AIBU to think higher rate disability should be for people who actually can't move, talk,

How did you arrive at this conclusion? What's the actual criteria as opposed to what a mumsnetter thinks? Just out of interest, how did you vote on the referendum? 😂

@JanMeyer

"I stated a fact. People were claiming DLA falsely, ALOT of people"

"Yeah, according to you and the Tories."
It was the coalition government of Conservatives AND Liberal Democrats who replaced DLA with PIP. Why aren't you attributing any blame to the LibDems?