PIP appeal - am I doing the right things?

[voodoo]

Hello everyone. I am posting here I have read this forum for a while but never really registered. I am 20 years old 21 next month and I have asperger's syndrome.

I have received DLA since 1997 and have been living in my own place since 2011 when it was difficult at home due to my stepdad. Middle rate care, low rate mobility.

My mother gave me much support over the years, along with two friends although I do not mix socially without them.
Over the years, I have slowly improved on the mobility aspect, I can go familiar places without harm or anxiety but unfamiliar places I am still working on.

In terms of care i had family and friends support on constantly nagging me to eat, reminding me to wash :/ and also their support with budgeting and helping mix with others as i will not* without them. I go as far as using self service checkouts to avoid this contact.

My mother passed away in 2013 and this set me back a long way. Was living in a flat with a leaky roof and mold but we moved just before my negative pip decision to somewhere nice closer to my aunt who I have always been close to.

So the PIP form comes as I am in a PIP area in june this year. We fill it out describing my difficulties and send it off complete with letters from my family and friends and my pediatricians report from a couple of years ago.
We had a face to face assessment and my aunt went with me. I was calm that day having been assured it would be okay and we told her my difficulties and she seemed nice.

We went away feeling that well i should get it no problem.

Decision comes... ZERO points. In an instant, my working tax credits gone, DLA gone, unable to get a disabled persons railcard which was coming up for renewal, and my small writing business gone in a flash as the loss of income lead to me prioritizing the rent above my server hosting for my website. Plus the state it left me in had me finish work for clients and then being unable to intermingle with them any more due to the stress caused. I have gastric issues also and that didnt help. further letters of support and copies of medical records detailing Gp visits and letters mentioning social difficulties etc were sent. MR... zero points again.

This is where i really lost it. I have been receiving counselling and did contemplate suicide at some point... but then that would waste all the years my mum had raised me... So with the help of my friends I wrote a detailed description of my difficulties and how it compared to each descriptor, understand why i hadnt received points for verbal, and possibly for mobility but expected points on everything else apart from toilet needs and moving around which we marked as good. We sent this to the tribunal, along with a GP letter that was filled out for disabled student's allowance as he described my difficulties and recommended i copy it for the tribunal too which has since been approved as I am going back to college in the hopes of getting some social skills... I am petrified but it might help to slowly get back into these situations. If i have the assessment before the tribunal date the DSA assessment could help me further too. We highlighted on the medial records we sent to the DWP points of interest going back a couple of years to present day. They had a copy of my asperger's diagnosis.

The assessment report and the DM was going on the fact I was calm, although she had noted what we said, but it was all marked as no in the checkboxes. Worse still, the fact I was polite seemed to have gone against me as well and the fact I had insight into my condition, who wouldn't! Unless they had a serious cognitive problem.

I have also based on some stuff I have read here, written a formal complaint to the DWP on how this has been handled, and the difficulties it has caused me although the people on the phone were always polite and helpful but have no power to overturn decisions. My friend has his sister who has a life threatening heart condition wait for 10 months for an ESA assessment, and he went to our MP to intervene, he recommended I do the same, so I have contacted my MP as well. In my DWP complaint I have asked them to yet again take a look at it and for an apology and to review their internal practices and to carefully consider the words of my family and friends and GP so i do not have to go through the indignation of going to the tribunal which I am really nervous about. The thought gives me shivers so I opted for a paper hearing although changed it to oral when i heard of the low success rate of paper hearings. Waiting on a date....

Is there anything more i should do from here?

Thanks so much for any help...

Jacob

[Jard]

You should try to get the help of a trained adviser in how best to present the facts of your condition in respect of the 'Descriptor' criteria you need to meet in order to obtain an award.
Try your local CAB or Welfare Rights, you could also put a search into your computer stating your area and Welfare Help or Projects.

Best of luck

[pmlindyloo]

May I comment on the practical issues of your situation?

You say you have lost your working tax credits, your writing business and seem also to be saying that you are struggling financially?

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Did you know that you can apply for housing benefit based on a low income? Or have you been receiving it?

Have you considered applying for ESA? ( you would need a fit note from your doctor)

I am thinking that you could apply for ESA and then do some permitted work (up to 15 hrs a week and not earning more than £100ish a week)

Please let us know what benefits you are currently claiming and then perhaps we can at least help on the practical financial side of things.

[dibble]

Hi Jacob, sorry I cant help but just wanted to give you my best wishes for a successful claim. My son has Aspergers and I know what a difficult thing it is to have, many people associate it with Churchill or as a Mr Bean character but of course it is different for everyone and quite a complex disability. Keep going as you are going, giving as much as you can I think they expect you to give up so as long as you have fight in you keep at it.

[nukecad]

Hi voodoo,

I note from your post that you say you been approved for a disabled student's allowance and are going back to college.

This gives you another option for getting help and advice - the Disabled Students Helpline.
http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/ho...dents-helpline
Its not just for educational issues, they can advise on all aspects of welfare benefits.

Good luck with the appeal.

[voodoo]

Housing benefit I was recieving, although that stops when college starts. However my earnings while on DLA were not within the threshold to reduce my housing benefit as you get disreguards due to the disability premiums, as I am under 25 as my earnings exceeded the basic rate of JSA so it would then be docked and unfortunately at the time I had just paid off a load of debts so I am now debt free... but this left me short when the hosting bill came around. Under 25 you cant get WTC without DLA or PIP, but also due to my last years self employed incomes which were higher this years award was calculated based on the earnings i was projected to earn and my housing benefit doesn't cover all the rent, only 2/3 of it it was a compounding problem and I dont think I could apply for ESA as im enrolled in college and you must be receiving a qualifying disability benefit in full time education. Which is what I have just lost. JSA I cannot claim as I am enrolled. Student finance i got approved for but as I said I am at a £100 or so a month deficit with that.

I will contact the disabled students helpline, we are awaiting our MPs response and we submitted a formal complaint to the DWP.

I am hoping this will be sorted soon, it has driven me crazy! But i will take this all the way, and winning my appeal i will get backdated working tax credits from until when i stopped working. The complaint if i win especially I will escalate it as high as I can take it, because had this happened to someone much worse than me they could have ended up committing suicide and I could have lost this flat which i could have done without the money I had aside.



Jacob

[rich-ward]

The OP says he had been receiving DLA since 1997. When according to the age he says he is (21 next month), he would have been three years old?

On what basis was he claiming DLA for ?

[voodoo]

The OP says he had been receiving DLA since 1997. When according to the age he says he is (21 next month), he would have been three years old?

On what basis was he claiming DLA for ?

my mother claimed it for me since 1997 (i think) as i was diagnosed with autism around that time and was a very difficult child, could have been 2000 but i know she at least tried from 1997 and i still have one of my DLA award letters from 2000, HRC and HRM
which was assessed again in 2005, HRC LRM and then 2010, MRC LRM and had my pip assessment this year, 0.

Jacob