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.

It is still evidence from a professional. So, it is objective.

@Kitkat1523

I think that's just miscommunication tbh

Evidence is what people mean, sometimes it's medical and other times not. I don't think anybody is saying all evidence must be 'medical' but for many it is so they don't realise the difference, or maybe over time these conversations have led to people saying you need medical evidence to just mean evidence.

I wouldn't get too hung up on that o do think people mean the same thing.

As a social worker, I write lots of reports and send my social care assessments and care plans as evidence for benefit claims. It’s actually more useful IMO than a basic medical report saying “Jim has a diagnosis of cerebral palsy and a learning disability”.

I agree….far far more useful than any ‘medical’ evidence as it shows a persons difficulties with regard to the PIP descriptors

You're absolutely right,some pp like the nut you replied to with the Draconian big brother measures,I hope they encounter the benefits system at some point and find out the realities and not the myth's of the DWP procedures first hand.

I have, and so have at least four others, some more than once. Unless they're taking over five years to investigate, they haven't bothered.

In the past it has enabled me to pay for private therapy, as the NHS does not provide EMDR in my county. I can't afford that any more, as prices have gone up so much since Covid.

I mostly now use my PIP for the extra costs of being physically disabled. Heating and electric, adaptive equipment, wheelchair maintenance, someone to mow the lawn and clean, a carer to help me on certain days, etc. It doesn't stretch very far.

If you couldn’t afford the AP and adaptations, you could have applied for a grant.

All businesses who carry out government contracts should be paid in vouchers so we can make sure they're not paying their CEOs too much.

"Benefit claimants could have a benefit bank account and debit card and account for everything too."

What purpose would this serve? Do you not understand that this would waste money?

Sorry @Kitkat1523, like someone else , I misread your posts and mistook you for another poster. There’s so much ignorant bashing on here it annoys me occasionally and I don’t always pay full attention. I thought you were trying to imply they give PIP out without evidence. That would be disingenuous and would only cause more hateful attitudes. I do apologise for my misunderstanding.

Gosh is this really true.

I have a genetic muscle wasting disease. I can’t go up stairs I have to crawl. I have reduced lung function. Half my face doesn’t work. It affects everything about me but I was assessed and awarded 0. I’ve had to go back to full time work as PIP have declared me ‘cured.’ My life is very Victorian and hard.

No worries 😊

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

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 ☹️

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.

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

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.

Ring today…..start the bill rolling

ball 😁

Agree. Where has logical/critical thinking gone ?

I have a feeling that poster was being sarcastic!

Thank you!

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.

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.

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).