No 4 point PIP descriptors results
| Submission ID: 1164587 |
| Date: 2025-04-10 09:39:58 |
| Nickname: Robyn |
| Age: 44-50 |
| Main health condition: Both physical and mental health |
| Main conditions that affect daily living: Spondyloarthritis, Perineural Cysts S2-S3, Autism, c-PTSD, Functional Neurological Disorder, Bipolar Affective Disorder. |
| Rate of PIP daily living component: Standard |
| 4 point descriptor score: No |
| Possibility to score at least one 4-point daily living descriptor at the next review: Very unlikely |
| Tasks you struggle with on a day-to-day basis: Everything, from getting out of bed due to my spinal issues, to toileting (I can’t twist through my spine to wipe myself effectively), I can’t bend, or lift anything heavier than a mug of coffee. I lose balance easily & have fallen in the kitchen & bathroom. I have numbness, burning, & tingling from my saddle area to my feet which impacts walking. I struggle to speak when overwhelmed (Autistic shutdown), my memory is awful, I have difficulty following instructions & following conversations, I rarely leave the house because it’s too difficult and painful for me to do so. I haven’t seen a friend in-person in years. |
| Expected income you will lose if the Green Paper cuts are imposed: At the moment I get just under £600 a month total PIP (I get enhanced mobility). I’m not sure how much of that I might lose. Without it, I’d struggle to attend appointments at the National Hospital of Neuroology & Neurosurgery in London (100 miles from me), which is where my neurosurgeon is. Perineural cysts are very rare & only 3 surgeons in the UK operate on them. 2 in London 1 in Wales. I have to go to London, despite the effort of that wiping me out for weeks. I had an appt booked for May (the last before going on surgery list) but they just pushed it back to January 2026. PIP also means I automatically qualify for a Blue Badge which is so so helpful. If I lose my whole award, & lose that, I’ll be even more housebound than I already am & going to hospital appointments (I have many every year) will be harder. PIP allows me to have some small independence from my husband, to buy things I need to help my conditions and to live life as a disabled human. Losing it may mean I lose all that, and really what would be the point of living at all then? |
| Expected problems if you tried moving into work, with support from a work coach: I can’t sit upright due to the cysts on my spine eroding my sacral bone & deviating rhe cauda equina nerve (causing burning, numbness and tingling down my legs & feet). I get dizzy, nauseous, and faint if I’m upright too long. When overwhelmed by light/sound/people talking I become unable to speak. Sometimes I’ll have as many as 10 hospital appointments in a month. I need to nap or lie down often. Pain can make me unable to speak too. My conditions fluctuate from bad to severe & I never know what one day will be like. I’m also immunocompromised (primary immune deficiency) & any germ can lead to months of crippling illness - such as persistent chest infection - for me. I can struggle with incontinence due to the neeves in my spine being compressed. When I finally do have surgery on my spinal cysts the recovery will be months to 2 years in total, even without complications (& there’s a 40% chance it won’t help or will make things worse). I also have frequent crippling pain from endometriosis, adenomyosis and Fibroids, which can be so bad I can’t straighten up or function beyond a foetal position in bed. How is any employer going to navigate all this?! |
| Anything else to tell us: These changes to PIP will not help anyone into work. If anything, people receiving it who are already in work will likely find themselves struggling to continue. To remove PIP is a cruelty that was conceivable under the Tories but to have it happen under Labour is the worst kind of betrayal. And they don’t even seem to understand that PIP isn’t an out of work benefit(!) Shame on the lot of them. |
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