I’ve spoken to step change again and things are looking better now. My specialist is being a
twit tbh and won’t even bother taking my calls least not write a letter saying I won’t work again unfortunately. We now do have a plan going forward though that I’m happy with, but when I speak to the hospital next I will discuss it and see what can be done xx
Bloody pip rejected my claim as I’m not disabled enough would you believe
PIP is HARD.
I was on a lifetime DLA award (no form of assessment but I had help to complete the form by someone from the MS Society on a newly diagnosed course laid on by the hospital trust I was with at the time) but then I was finally "invited" to apply for PIP.
This time, I used a disability advisory service recommended by my MS nurse. Application was submitted. I had to have a home assessment and subsequently didn't get the award I wanted (to keep my Motability car) or that I was led to believe I could expect. And it was only awarded for three years I think it was because we all know that progressive illnesses we get better the longer time goes on....
But I can absolutely see why now, as the advisory service completed the form and it wasn't anywhere near detailed enough - this was despite interviewing me in person for two hours. And their advice to completely ignore and not provide any additional information at the mandatory reconsideration stage was also totally and completely
bleeping wrong.
Anyway, by this time, I had moved out of the area and they couldn't represent me at tribunal (probably for the best) so I spoke to a welfare organisation, where I am now, just for advice about what medical evidence to submit with my appeal which basically turned into an hour long character assassination - I was told that I should just be grateful for what I had been awarded and I stood absolutely no chance at tribunal. Honestly, he was so vile to me, he made me cry and I'm a right hard faced
witch 
so it must have been bad. And they are supposed to be there to help!
So I decided to go it alone to tribunal. I read a lot of stuff online including how each area is broken down point by point and what the DWP are looking for. I spent a whole day writing my appeal - there were four areas I felt I should have been awarded points in but either didn't get what I thought I should or didn't get anything at all. Submitted it. Didn't hear anything. And then, just before the tribunal date was set by the court, I got a letter from the DWP, totally out of the blue, that they were now awarding me enhanced rate in both mobility and daily living meaning I keep my car and am actually financially better off as I only had low rate care DLA. And awarded for nine years this time so I hopefully won't have to think about it again until then.
All this took a year. A year of stress and uncertainty. So it was really
bleeping hard but ultimately worth it.
Definitely reapply but do your research.
they had sold on five of them to a debt collector who we have been paying but apparently there was one rogue one that we were paying them direct for)- they said they made a mistake with the account we still had with them and to fix it they were removing the defaulted account from our credit reports and clearing the debt! They confirmed this to step change as well. No idea why it’s happened but it’s 3k written off, I’ll take it!
