DLA to PIP

[jgordon5]

I can't find any recent threads about having to apply for PIP, so I'm starting a new one. Basically, the DLA claim form wasn't all that good but it did assess a few other things besides your ability to sit down, stand up and walk 20 metres. How can an assessment based on a very narrow spectrum of mainly physical mobility assess chronic diseases like T1 diabetes.

I work really hard at managing diabetes. I now have an insulin pump and self fund my CGMs - I rely on my DLA to be able to buy my CGMs and pay for a therapist who keeps me relatively mobile. I am 67 and I just fall within the group that will have their DLA stopped and who have to apply for PIP.

So, I've done that and I have my assessment coming up but I wondered if anyone knows of any group that is protesting against the government's assessment regime? Failing that, any advice on how to deal with the PIP assessment. Thanks in advance.

 

[Amigo]

This group seem very active with the campaign to expose the unfairness of PIP and may have protests and campaigns arranged for 2017. Whether this Govt has any interest in listening is another matter however.

http://dpac.uk.net

My advice would be to always appeal in whatever form that takes because there's a significant degree of success in the appeal group. Also, ask Citizens Advice to assist you with completion of the application because they sometimes have welfare rights specialists attached. However, they are very over subscribed due to the demand and scale of the problem.
It's also important to stress the problems encountered rather than the name of the condition (which is actually totally academic). Diabetes in itself would rarely attract a successful PIP outcome unless there were significant physical complications as a result and probably other contributing co-morbidities. Do you have severe mobility problems as the result of neuropathy etc?


It's always worth trying to obtain the PIP (personal independence payment) which replaces DLA but it's important to stress just how mobility impaired one needs to be to qualify for the full rate (the rate at which you can have a motorbility car). There's a separate qualification criterion for people who are predominantly learned disabled or have severe mental health problems but to qualify for physical reasons, it's necessary to reach a 12 point qualification on their scale.
In context, 20 metres equates to only 26 steps.

I know others on here have been subject to this so hopefully they will share their experience.

Good luck!

 

[jgordon5]

Thanks very much, Amigo. I have mobility problems on a bad day but not all the time - even with a pump, I have a lot of hypos and I would be anxious about going to sleep without a CGM as it wakes me in the night when I go below a certain level. There have been many incidences recently, very sadly, of type 1s going to bed and just not waking up again. I work really hard at managing my diabetes but it does have quite a mental health impact. If I go very hypo sometimes the first warning I get is an acute feeling of deep depression and a feeling that I can't go on. I'll bring up all these things at the assessment, if I get the chance.

Basically it just impacts all the time on my ability to do things. I can decide to go and get some food shopping, manage to get there, have a hypo and then be unable to do the shopping and have to come home again. Same with many things. I can go for a walk and then be unable to go any further or get home until I've sat or sometimes even lain down until I'm well enough to move again. Quite embarrassing in some circumstances. 🙂

I got Age UK to come and help me with the form but it was very odd, I allowed myself to be bullied into signing the form and the woman said she would fill it in at home. I gave her all the details and supporting evidence and then asked for a copy but she said she couldn't give me a copy, so I photographed what she had put but basically I have not seen the completed form. I know that sounds pathetic from someone of my age but I allowed her to bully me and make me feel very vulnerable. I have just emailed Age UK and asked them to send me a copy of the completed form. Whether or not they will actually have one, I don't know. I hope so.

Because of NHS cuts, I haven't seen any members of the Pump Team at the hospital I go to for eight months so it's difficult to get them to support me. My GP is supportive and so is the therapist I go to for arthritis and associated difficulties. I can only do my best and hope. Thanks for the link. I'll get in touch with DPAC.

 

[Amigo]

Thanks very much, Amigo. I have mobility problems on a bad day but not all the time - even with a pump, I have a lot of hypos and I would be anxious about going to sleep without a CGM as it wakes me in the night when I go below a certain level. There have been many incidences recently, very sadly, of type 1s going to bed and just not waking up again. I work really hard at managing my diabetes but it does have quite a mental health impact. If I go very hypo sometimes the first warning I get is an acute feeling of deep depression and a feeling that I can't go on. I'll bring up all these things at the assessment, if I get the chance.

Basically it just impacts all the time on my ability to do things. I can decide to go and get some food shopping, manage to get there, have a hypo and then be unable to do the shopping and have to come home again. Same with many things. I can go for a walk and then be unable to go any further or get home until I've sat or sometimes even lain down until I'm well enough to move again. Quite embarrassing in some circumstances. 🙂

I got Age UK to come and help me with the form but it was very odd, I allowed myself to be bullied into signing the form and the woman said she would fill it in at home. I gave her all the details and supporting evidence and then asked for a copy but she said she couldn't give me a copy, so I photographed what she had put but basically I have not seen the completed form. I know that sounds pathetic from someone of my age but I allowed her to bully me and make me feel very vulnerable. I have just emailed Age UK and asked them to send me a copy of the completed form. Whether or not they will actually have one, I don't know. I hope so.

Because of NHS cuts, I haven't seen any members of the Pump Team at the hospital I go to for eight months so it's difficult to get them to support me. My GP is supportive and so is the therapist I go to for arthritis and associated difficulties. I can only do my best and hope. Thanks for the link. I'll get in touch with DPAC.

I can understand that it's easy to feel vulnerable in these situations but it was totally inappropriate what this woman from Age UK did. She had no right to take the form away and fill it in without your oversight. Insist on a copy because it could be her completion of it will be inadequate. Was she sending it in for you?

I wish you well with it and certainly in face to face assessments, there is the opportunity to put your case and individual circumstances but you'll appreciate qualification is very tight now.

DPAC seem more of a pressure group than a welfare support one but you could contact them. They may be able to advise.

 

[mikeyB]

While I very much wish you well in your application, if you don't need help preparing meals and cooking meals, getting dressed or toileting, and don't need help in daily activity such a paying bills, help with your medication, then you haven't a hope of getting PIP under the new rules.

From what you say, your fear of nocturnal hypos has been eliminated by using CGM. But why are you getting so many hypos on a pump? Have you had the full works in learning carb counting, basal levels, and bolus levels.

My views are informed by my recent dealings with the DWP in getting full rate PIP for my wife, and lower rate mobility, and my own application for mobility PIP for myself, currently at the lower rate, but I will be applying for uprating to full tomorrow morning.

 

[Rosiecarmel]

I get PIP due to another physical health condition and the fact I become very unwell very quickly with a serious mental health condition. In my recent PIP renewal, I mentioned the battle I've had with my diabetes. The response I got was "there is no evidence to suggest that a diagnosis of diabetes negatively impacts on your daily living." which is true. As much of a p***take having diabetes can be, it doesn't stop me living my life like my other conditions.

People that get PIP due to diabetes usually have complications related to diabetes, not the condition itself.