A recent decision by Commissioner Rowland may be useful in lower mobility cases, in countering a common DWP contention that a claimant derives mere "reassurance" from having someone with them when walking outside.
In CDLA/4438/03 he concludes that the action of talking to someone to take their mind off their fears is likely to involve supervision. Although the talking itself may be attention rather than supervision, it still requires an element of monitoring to see how the other person is reacting.
For a fuller summary of this decision in the Briefcase section of rightsnet, click on the following hyperlink:
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/cgi-bin/publisher/display.cgi?1715-0104-6214+swopshop#CDLA/4438/2003

Used this decision in Chesterfield last week and it was certainly helpful. It was useful to be able to draw a distinction between anxiety as a menatal illness or as a symptom of another condition and the word "anxiety" in its colloquial sense. This got the chairman nodding encouragingly and the result was the one we were looking for.

I intend to use it again next week.