Family member awarded enhanced pip - AIBU?

[Orangecrocs]

My family member has just been awarded enhanced pip in both living and mobility components.
Shes told me that she’s twisted the truth during the assessment and told the assessor that she has lots of pain and can’t really walk at all, but she walks all the time as I see her out and about - we live in a hilly area. I know people who are in a wheelchair and struggle to get enhanced rate - so I really don’t understand how she’s managed this.
I know people will say mind your own business but she’s told me she’s actually lied to them.

So you really think that the DWP just takes peoples’ word for it that they can’t leave the house ? This is just nonsense. I’ve supported people at tribunal whose benefit has been stopped just for attending the assessment !! The descriptor you’re talking about actually requires that someone can’t leave the house due to overwhelming psychological distress. This has to be supported by medical evidence from a consultant led mental health team. You’re talking nonsense.

That really isn't why this country is on its knees! But you buy into the lines fed to you if you like.

That's not true.

This. I do wonder if it's genuine users who keep starting these.

It will be monitored by AI in the main. The systems have been developed over the last couple of years and the benefits subject to scrutiny will be most working age benefits. State pension claimants will also be included if current plans are actioned. Labour haven’t yet signalled whether they intend to go ahead with the plans, but I can’t see government of any colour rejecting them given the control they will confer.

Something new, hey? The millions of two healthy very young adults never being in work, with big brood of kids and all paid up

Because they’ve stated they’re unable to leave the house!

Well I hope it falls to shit and if they want to start questioning my multiple card payments to Home Bargains then they can crack on 😂

Yep, it’s absolutely not true. All applications for benefit are scrutinised by DWP assessment providers who will provide the DWP decision maker with a report - either paper based on the claimants’ own medical evidence and information provided in the application form, or as the result of a face to face assessment. The person who makes the decision as to whether benefit is awarded is the DWP case manager, who is not medically trained so relies on these reports as the basis for the decision, along with other evidence provided by the claimant. The notion that they award benefit on the basis that they can’t prove an illness either way is just ridiculous.

Why can't they leave the house?

If you mean they are housebound, being housebound does not=never being able to leave the house. It means not being able to leave the house without assistance.

For PIP, your worst days should account for 50% of the time. So someone too anxious to leave the house could have days where they might feel able to (and that is usually with someone else).

I don’t know why they can’t leave the house, much of the time seems to be “too anxious”

No, they haven’t. They’ve stated that they can’t leave the house without overwhelming distress, and that they need substantial support from another person in order to be able to do so. And to secure a PIP award on this descriptor they would have to provide evidence to support it. Fifteen years as a disability benefit support worker, and I’ve never yet seen someone secure an award of this nature without incontrovertible evidence to support it. This is just more whataboutery.

So you admit you know nothing about their condition then ? To secure benefit at this level for this descriptor there has to be a substantial level of impairment, which goes far beyond ‘anxious, and is supported by actual medical evidence. The DWP decision makers aren’t medically qualified and rely on medical evidence to get it right. If there is the slightest doubt, benefit will be refused. The level of actual knowledge on this thread about how PIP awards are actually decided is severely lacking.

Exactly. The descriptor implies a substantial level of support on days when they do feel able to leave the house. I really don’t understand why so many people keep posting when it’s clear they don’t know the first thing about how PIP is awarded.

@Rosscameasdoody I was merely responding to a PP, a benefits advisor like yourself, who said that many people state they are unable to leave the house and then when she rings them they are out and about or on holiday. It would be unusual to go on holiday if just leaving the house caused you overwhelming distress. But you of course know best.

PIP isn’t an out of work benefit. It’s universal and intended to assist with the cost of living with a disability. Nothing to do with being unemployed.

If what you are saying is true, then she is stealing. And it makes you just as bad for not reporting it. You are condoning it. What would you do if you saw a pickpocket stealing a purse from someone’s handbag? Let it go would you? Just because you don’t see a victim doesn’t mean nobody suffers for her crime. You’re just as bad as her. Shame on you.

I have bad anxiety and OCD and I go days without being able to leave the house and other days I can but it is almost never alone. I get enhanced mobility.

You do realise that when someone reports suspected benefit fraud there are always consequences ? More and more the DWP stop benefit first and ask questions later, so you are potentially subjecting someone who is doing nothing wrong to financial hardship while they are investigated.

It really isn't nonsense. I'm a mental health nurse. I and my nursing and medical colleagues are regularly asked to provide statements to support, amongst other things, PIP. Now if a patient told me that they were unable to leave the house, I'd look at the entire picture; their history, their current presentation, lots of things. But in reality, I have no way of proving whether or not they are unable to leave the house or if they have left the house recently. I have to take their word for it. I can't park up outside their house 24/7 and spy on them to see if they are remaining confined to their home.

My son is disabled and had his PIP taken away before christmas. We had to take then to court to get it reinstated and if we hadn't been there to support him and fight for him he would have been screwed because 1 he couldn't afford to live and 2 he wouldn't have been able to fight it himself.

It really upset me when a friend has a blue badge, gets enhanced pip but is able to have a normal life, holidays, shopping, days out, nights out partying.

I don't understand how some people get things handed to them so easily and those in need have to fight for it.

Exactly. People can tell their health care professionals anything and loads of things cannot be proven. Neither health care professionals or the DWP can monitor people over a period of time. This is why the system is so open to abuse. There are loads of conditions mental and physical where things can never be proven. I think people are very naive if they think there is zero levels of fraud.

Actually shame on you for judging either of them with nothing more to go on than the opinion of a busybody. Unless you live with someone 24 hours a day and are fully aware of all the effects of their disability, familiar with their medical evidence, and know the details of their claim for benefit, you have absolutely no way of knowing whether it’s genuine or not. The likelihood is that all this person has done, is describe how things are on their worst days - something that DWP encourage all claimants to do.

Ah. So you don't know about their condition or how it affects them.