support group help

Kim

Whilst we have seen reports from PIP and ESA used to award ESA and PIP we have not seen them used to re-assess existing awards, in fact the then Minister stated in the House of Commons that this would happen, so I think it unlikely that you ESA will be affected.

However, if you are receiving premiums that are dependant on your DLA, which from your post you may be, then these will be stopped at the same time as your DLA is, which will be 4 weeks after the date of the PIP Decision.

I'm afraid the only way forward for you is to challenge this Decision. The first stage to to this is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide for details of the process and template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon