No 4 point PIP descriptors results
| Submission ID: 1165575 |
| Date: 2025-04-10 19:44:40 |
| Nickname: Caleyaway |
| Age: 60 |
| Main health condition: Both physical and mental health |
| Main conditions that affect daily living: Arthritis in both hips, damaged discs in lower back, heart disease, serious anxiety and depression, type 2 diabetes, retinal occlusion in one eye |
| 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: By rights, I should have had 4 points on the social support descriptor due to my anxiety and the fact I can't engage with strangers without support from my wife or adult son, but the last assessment completely ignored my mental health and gave me 8 points based solely on my physical impairments for needing aids for cooking, dressing, washing and using the toilet. If the next assessment is fair and takes my mental health and memory/concentration issues into account, I should get 4 points for needing social support to engage with others plus the 2 points across the same 4 descriptors for needing aids and adaptions due to my physical difficulties, though knowing how assessors tend to minimise or even dismiss mental health difficulties, I am not hopeful that I would get these points |
| Tasks you struggle with on a day-to-day basis: I experience daily chronic pain and fatigue with constant low energy levels and struggling to do even the most basic tasks. I get breathless very easily with even the slightest exertion due to my heart issues and can only do light activity for short periods of time before I have to rest. I also struggle with memory and concentration so rely on my wife to do a lot of day to day things like make meals, and having to deal with strangers on the phone or face to face makes me very anxious, and my wife has to deal with all bills, correspondence, benefit issues and booking appointments/ordering my medication etc, and accompanies me to all my medical appointments in case I forget things and when I go to the eye clinic for my regular treatment to maintain my eyesight, she has to drive home as the drops/injections I get make me have blurred vision for a few hours afterwards. My wife and I look after each other, and as her mobility and balance is poorer than mine, I try to help as much as I can with physical tasks though find this difficult myself due to my own physical impairments and the breathlessness/fatigue I experience on a daily basis. |
| Expected income you will lose if the Green Paper cuts are imposed: At the moment I get PIP standard daily living and standard mobility which is just over £400 every 4 weeks, plus I get UC carers element for looking after my wife of about £200 a month. If I lose my PIP daily living, I'd lose about £300 every 4 weeks, and if my wife loses her PIP, I'd lose the carer element of UC which is another £200 a month, so would lose about £500 just on my own entitlements In addition, if my wife lost her PIP standard daily living, she'd lose about £300 every 4 weeks and if PIP becomes the qualifying benefit to get LCWRA on UC, she's also lose her LCWRA which is about £400 a month, meaning a £700 loss on her entitlements, and about a £1200 a month loss overall, which is well over half our income and would be absolutely devastating and push us into serious hardship. All we'd be left with would be the basic UC couples element plus my standard PIP mobility and my wife's enhanced PIP mobility, which will all have to go on getting a Motability car as there's no way we could afford to keep our existing car on such a low income but cannot manage without a car as we live in a rural area and are completely reliant on a car to be able to go anywhere including crucial medical appointments. |
| Expected problems if you tried moving into work, with support from a work coach: I haven't been able to work for over 10 years due to a deterioration in my health, and I really cannot see any feasible way I'd be able to work. I would need a very flexible and understanding employer who'd be willing to allow me to dictate my own hours, working from home as and when I was able and was willing to accept the fact I would need frequent time off for medical appointments, both my own and hospital appointments for my wife where she needs me to take her due to lack of parking close to the door so I can drop her off and she doesn't have to walk far. There's no way I'd be able to work at an employer's premises due to my severe anxiety as I cannot leave the house alone if I'm going somewhere that I need to interact with other people and am totally reliant on my wife or adult sons to go everywhere with me. I also have problems with memory and concentration and now I can no longer do physical work due to my physical health problems and heart issues, the only kind of work available would be something desk/computer based which would require someone who is able to concentrate for long periods of time and has a good enough memory to be able to take things in and remember things, which is just not something I can manage anymore, plus I'd need training and would struggle to concentrate/remember what I've been taught, I could never work in a role that requires dealing with other people, ie public facing roles etc as my social anxiety would make that impossible. |
| Anything else to tell us: I am deeply worried about these proposed changes and believe they could have serious consequences for peoples' health and lives. As we're an older disabled couple not far off retirement age, there's no realistic chance of us being able to get appropriate jobs so all it means is years of severe hardship while waiting to qualify for our state pensions. |
Report this submission: If you see a problem, please copy the Submission ID number above and send it to us using the contact form, along with details of your concerns.