Hi @Babyroobs - thanks so much for responding. I've seen some of your other posts so I'm really grateful for your advice.
Re the descriptors - it seems to me that there's so many conditions which could potentially fall down the middle. Descriptors 1-5 are all about mobility but none of them check the ability to bend, kneel, turn your head, look up or look down. Descriptors 6-7 are about communication, 8 is about bladder problems, 9-14 are cognitive/mental health and 15-16 relate to chewing/eating.
DP has struggled with dizziness for 10-15 years and has a couple of collapses putting him in hospital for about a week. No diagnosis was ever reached but serious stuff like tumours etc excluded. Fast forward to September 2022 and he suddenly collapsed at work with excruciating pain in his head and horrendous dizziness which put him in bed for over a week. We've seen neurology, ENT, vestibular physio, and regular physio. So far the diagnosis is vestibular migraines, a visual processing disorder and they have a working diagnosis of PPPV (which is a chronic disorder causing daily dizziness and fatigue - covered by ENT and neurology).
I used to work as a health claims assessor for a private insurance company so I am luckily familiar with the process of being assessed for different categories of work. I don't know much about the current DWP process though but I did assume that it would mean all categories of work, not just his previous.
Neurology have been very explicit - he cannot return to any work with screens and he should avoid them entirely (which honestly is proving to be an absolute bastard). He can't drive because of the flickering lights and the dizziness. And he can't do any job where he has to turn his head, bend, or look up or down.
In addition, his symptoms are daily and vary in intensity - he might feel OK for a couple of hours in the afternoon, he might feel OK for about 4 hours. Or he might be totally out of action all day long. It's really shit tbh. The consultants are basically saying this is the nature of PPPV and to just avoid triggers and try to manage what he can to achieve a quality of life between attacks. He takes heavy duty drugs which make the mornings difficult and if he has to take more because of an attack during the day, he'll be asleep for several hours as they're a strong sedative type.
I can't see how he meets any of the descriptors but his condition is just so, so disabling. I can't see how he could fulfil any category of work because there's so little he can do safely and without exacerbating an attack.
We didn't send in any medical evidence so we'll add that, thank you. We have letters from various specialists supporting all of the above.
We asked for mandatory reconsideration on the journal and got a reply that said "I will book you in for an appointment with a work coach where you can discuss this further." We have been unlucky with some of the work coaches we've seen - a couple of them have been real arses. And the bright lights in the centre will bring on an attack for DP so we would really rather avoid going in unless it's absolutely essential for the MR - which it doesn't seem to be. It feels as if they've just ignored the MR request and booked him in to discuss what work-related activities he could do?!
Re the substantial harm argument, I found some really useful stuff online - it's sort of mental health related but not exclusively so. It's along the lines of "if you have to comply with work-related activities and it puts you at risk of exacerbating your condition, or if you weren't able to comply with work related activities and it means that you wouldn't meet the UC requirements then you should be put in the LCWRA group". I'll find the link where it explains it better.