Questions about PIP/ESA and conditions

Hi Anxious Anonymous

I know how important it is to you to get this right, but we can't tell you what the opinion of the Health Professional or Decision Maker will be about what your condition may have been in the past and its relevance to the current time.

Each claimant is the expert in the impact of their medical condition/s and they alone know when they are 'better' or 'have seen significant improvements,' and it's up to the individual to inform the DWP. However, if a claimant is still not functioning, then there is nothing to report.

I would not worry about whether you have been in a euthymic state - as 95% of the people who are likely to come across your papers are unlikely to understand your condition or that particular symptom. If you're not better - I repeat what I said above - there's nothing to report. Even if a Psychiatrist or GP disagrees with you - they are only offering their opinion and it's one you can disagree with.

BIS

Hi Anxious Anonymous

The DWP do sometimes rely on secondary care being in place, but I have got awards for people where the care hasn't been in place, either because they have been discharged from the service, or because the service is not available or because they are too ill to access care. Unfortunately, so much depends on luck and what the person reading or assessing thinks of the evidence before them against the specific criteria. Mistakes are made, misunderstandings happen, biases and downright ignorance are sometimes on display and it's hard for people to fight against that.

In my view, the word of a private psychiatrist is less likely to be accepted than the word of an NHS one, on the assumption that the private one could be swayed to give a more favourable opinion on the part of the patient because money is involved. I'm not trying to malign the reputation of private psychiatrists - only saying how I think the DWP views them when it comes to benefit issues.

BIS

BIS

AA

Only you can make the decision to include the letters or not.

The issue that assessors and DMs have with "private" letters, I'll stress that I do not agree with it, is that as you are paying for them you can influence the content which would not happen with an NHS letter.

Gordon