Forum Home → Discussion → Disability benefits → Thread
Information discounted at MR stage
Hi.
I helped someone with a PIP MR, and am now preparing an appeal.
He uses pads to aid him with incontinence. He did not disclose this at his medical, but we mentioned it in the reconsideration letter. In the MR the decision maker staes ’ Whilst you state that you suffer with urinary and faecal incontinence this was not reported at assessment so cannot be considered.’
Any opinions on the validity of this statement?
Thanks
It’s not correct.
An application for mandatory reconsideration is a request for ‘any grounds’ revision under reg 5 D&A Regs. As the revision is on ‘any grounds’, that is capable of including points which were not put forward at an earlier stage.
But really, it is not something I would be too focused on. The case is going off to the Tribunal now and the goal is to demonstrate an entitlement based on the evidence presented to them.
A related but distinct issue is that there could be circumstances where the claimant bringing up needs late on in the process could go to the client’s credibility, for example if it could be suggested that the needs had been made up after the fact to bolster the case. I don’t think this is much of a concern in relation to pads as there are obvious reasons why a claimant might be reluctant to bring this issue up.