Need painkillers to function. Delays ability to mobilise. Can’t remember relevant case law! Please help!

Hi all,

I am working with a claimant who is totally unable to function until her pain killers kick in in the morning, Before they take affect she cannot get out of bed.

I am sure I have read case law that ruled that a similar case meant the appellant cannot complete certain ESA descriptors repeatedly due to the delay that occurs before her painkillers take affect and she is able to function.

I have imagined the above???

Hope something can help and knows what case I am talking about which I hopefully have not made up!!

Best wishes,

Tom

This is for PIP not ESA but the principle should be the same I would have thought:

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/caselaw/item/remote-risk-of-adverse-event-does-not-mean-activity-cannot-be-carried-out-s

Quote:

Highlighting that at paragraph 4.15 of the government’s response above it states, ‘if a descriptor applies at any point during a 24 hr period, it should be considered as applying on that day’, Judge Hemingway observed -

‘The claimant’s evidence is, of course, that she is unable to do very much at all due to the adverse impact upon her of a seizure and the tiredness she feels as a result of it until late morning or midday.  It seems to me it makes no sense to say a person is able to perform an activity as often as reasonably required if they cannot do so for a part of the day in which they would otherwise reasonably wish or need to do so.’ (paragraph 34).

This is great-thank you so much!