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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Disability benefits  →  Thread

Dressing and orthotic insoles

Tameside MBC Welfare Rights
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Mental Health WR & Debt Advice Service, Tameside MBC

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Joined: 17 June 2010

Just wondered if anyone has tested the argument that specially prescribed orthotic insoles are aid to dressing for PIP Activity 6? I was thinking that these help my client to put on her shoes to an acceptable standard. Shoes are considered under this descriptor and without the insoles she couldn’t be considered as dressed to an acceptable standard as she wouldn’t be able to stand up/walk in the shoes. Any thoughts?

Brian JB
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Advisor - Wirral Welfare Rights Unit, Birkenhead

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I don’t think that they are an aid to dressing and undressing - they aid the ability to stand and move/walk. The definition of dress and undress includes putting on and taking off shoes (and socks) but unless the person required prompting to select “appropriate clothing”, and the shoes with insoles could be argued to be the “appropriate clothing” in her case, I can’t see your client could score on this

Dan_Manville
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Mental health & welfare rights service - Wolverhampton City Council

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Having been a long term orthotic user they just stay in my shoes and only come out during the summer when they need a rinse… I’d concur with Brian that they might be an aid to walking to a reasonable standard but, again, I’d imagine there’s some residual walking ability without them.

[ Edited: 23 Jan 2019 at 04:14 pm by Dan_Manville ]
Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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I can buy into an aid to walk in some very limited circumstances but not the other arguments.

I’m another long term orthotics user. The original advice was to build up use of them slowly (one day with, six without to two days with and five without and so on) but to always have spells when you don’t use them at all. It was also suggested that I buy one set and move them from pair of shoes to whatever is needed. In reality, there’s not a chance. I have one pair which get moved between whatever footwear I’m wearing that day and one pair which stay permanently in a pair of running shoes I use when doing other exercises related to my spine. There are rarely days when I don’t use them at all, although admittedly my man slipper don’t have any in 😊 The difference with is that pain which was a 2 or maybe 3 out of 10 without them is mostly a 0 out of 10 with them. However, I was never unable to walk even when my pain levels were a good 8 out of 10. Indeed the medical advice was absolutely to keep mobile and do lots of rehab physio/core strengthening. 

I can forsee someone with 8 or more maybe feeling they can’t walk but I think there were would need to be some evidence they had been advised not to. A drop in pain level of 2 or more could well be the difference between walking in pain and with less pain (or none as is mostly the case with me) but whether that scores points would be very debatable.