PIP mental health

Hi all,
Where do I start?
My 33 yr old daughter has long term mental ill health - over 7 years she has had varying diagnoses depending on the Psychiatrist in place - schizophrenia/bipolar/schizo affective disorder with mood disorder and psychotic episodes.
When the DLA to PIP transition came around we sent in the PIP form with 5 pages of extra information, the Community Mental Health Care and Treatment Plan, the list of her very strong meds - Lithium. Olanzapine, Diazepam,Risperidone, evidence of involvement of CBT and other NHS therapists weekly to deal with anxiety agoraphobia and panic attacks etc. and time spent ( 2 occasions) on the ward in 2014.

She was asked to attend an assessment!
After fighting for a home assessment she was awarded 4points and 5 points i.e Zero benefit
The HP stated that she did not need a background in mental health because she was a nurse and had covered mental health on her basic training. She asked my daughter's partner to leave when the mental health social worker turned up, and asked the MH SW to leave when her MH OT turned up because 'I don't play to audiences'

Her report was so off reality that we couldn't believe it. After the MH OT told the HP about her CBT. distraction and talking therapies work, which aim to overcome the agoraphobia, anxiety and panic attack to get my daughter to leave the house and walk to the top of the street, the report to DWP said ' no problem using public transport'
Same with the MH SW when he reported to the HP about her serious mental ill health/psychotic episodes/self harm/paranoia over 7 years that he has been involved with her and her inability to live in the community without support. Specifically her inability to manage a household/ bills/ correspondence/ money/personal hygiene etc
The report to DWP stated - no problem dealing with complex financial issues'

My daughter ended up back on the ward after the face to face assessment.

On enquiry I found out that the extra information, although scanned into the DWP system, was not provided to the HP.She had stated in her report that the PIP form was nearly blank so she had little information to go on.
So after profuse apologies from the DWP a mandatory reconsideration was arranged so that a different Decision Maker could look again at all the evidence. Guess what - decision remained the same!

So we appealed.
Another Decision maker contacted me and apparently he has been able to adjust the desrciptors to award Enhanced rate of care but no award for mobility. When I challenged this, as it 1 - doesn't make sense and 2- is wrong considering the evidence - he told me this - People with Mental Health either fit in to 'need prompting to go out - 4 points no award. or higher rate because they have been unable to leave the house for years. Your daughter attends appointments(with support) so is not eligible. He said that the other awarding descriptors are for people with sensory disabilities or cognitive disabilities 'which your daughter does not have'.
Having joined this site and read all the PIP info I made a submission to the court ahead of tomorrow's appeal hearing. I pointed out that the decision makers interpretation of the legislation is incorrect in dealing with Mental Ill Health.
We were told that you have a better chance of winning if you attend so that's what we put on the form. Needless to say my daughter is unable to attend. Her MH SW has phoned the court to say that attending would be detrimental to her health and asked them to make a paper based decision.
I will update when we get a decision.
Wish me luck x

Hi,

Welcome to Benefits and Work

If your forum name is also your real name, you may wish to change it to maintain some anonymity.

This can be done quite easily by following the instructions on this FAQ :

My full name is showing, how can I stop it?

---

Thanks for taking the time to relate your experiences thus far, and please do keep us updated !

bro58

Good luck! It's so awful that your daughter has been treated so poorly despite her serious mental illness.

Get in touch with the nursing and midwifery council

www.nmc.org.uk/

See what their views are on her not playing to audiences stance.

Thanks for your replies - I am over the moon to report that on a paper based review the DWP decision was overturned and my daughter was awarded enhanced rate daily living and enhanced rate mobility. I cannot thank B&W enough for giving me the knowledge of how to challenge the decision and write an appeal submission. So glad that the tribunal members viewed all the evidence impartially and justly. The info on this site really does change people's lives. Good luck to everyone else in a similar situation. x

Sian Jones wrote: Thanks for your replies - I am over the moon to report that on a paper based review the DWP decision was overturned and my daughter was awarded enhanced rate daily living and enhanced rate mobility. I cannot thank B&W enough for giving me the knowledge of how to challenge the decision and write an appeal submission. So glad that the tribunal members viewed all the evidence impartially and justly. The info on this site really does change people's lives. Good luck to everyone else in a similar situation. x

Hi SJ,

I am really pleased to hear of your Tribunal success !!

Especially at a "Paper Hearing" !

Well done, your submission must have been really good !

Thanks for the update and for your very kind words regarding B&W !

bro58