PIP prospective period

Does anyone have experience of challenging a decision on PIP being refused because the prospective period will not be met.  my cl has had some fracture sin her vertebrae , which have been treated but she is at high risk of them happening again, and has sent DWP medical evidence which confirms the high risk.
DWP has refused an award even though 8 points were awarded for daily living, as the DWP say my l is likely to be ok before the 9 month prospective period has elapsed.

In my experience, by the time the appeal is heard the prospective period has already been met, making it a non-issue 😊

This happens from time to time with cancer patients, where there is the prospect of complete recovery after a relatively short course of treatment.

In a recent case we had the specialist write confirming that the patient was likely to be in need of extra care (it was DLA rather than PIP) for the requisite period - which was six rather than nine months because it was DLA. If you have already provided similar evidence, I don’t see what else you can do other than follow the MR/appeal process.

thanks James and Va, yes we have the MR outcome which is where we are at, so if the client can show she had the needs when the hearing takes place which could be several months that may do the trick, I guess I had better appeal now to cover all bases. if she is all better in 9 months that’s a good outcome and if not she may get some PIP

Were they compression fractures? If so they pretty much always have long term effects; healing doesn’t affect those. My fracture risk score was definitely taken into account when I (successfully) claimed PIP although not until it had reached appeal stage.

Hi Rosie, they are simple fractures, she got them turning over in bed apparently, my worry is that as they are said to have been resolved by treatment that PIP may now be out of the frame, of course she could develop more fractures, its an unknown quantity , she seem to fracture easily

Diogenes - 26 January 2023 11:31 AM

Hi Rosie, they are simple fractures, she got them turning over in bed apparently, my worry is that as they are said to have been resolved by treatment that PIP may now be out of the frame, of course she could develop more fractures, its an unknown quantity , she seem to fracture easily

That sounds very like osteoporosis although vertebral fractures are usually described as compression or wedge or sometimes fragility fractures. Has she had a bone density scan? I don’t know if there are other conditions which cause fractures in this way though so it could be something different.

Rosie, yes she had bone d scan spine 2.2 it was 1.2 in 2013,  neck and femur are normal overall she has lost 4% BMD since 2013, not getting any treatment for bones at present but hospital are looking into it

Is her height still the same from the scan in 2013 until now as that is a regular feature of osteoporosis?

Diogenes - 26 January 2023 01:17 PM

Rosie, yes she had bone d scan spine 2.2 it was 1.2 in 2013,  neck and femur are normal overall she has lost 4% BMD since 2013, not getting any treatment for bones at present but hospital are looking into it

I wonder if there are other factors here as fracturing just from turning over in bed indicates both very low bone density and high fragiity. In any case, as always with PIP, it’s the effect of the condition - fractures generally have some long term effects. The Royal Osteoporosis Society https://theros.org.uk/ have useful information.

I’m a bit puzzled by the PIP decision taking so much account of the time taken for the fractures to heal - it certainly wasn’t mentioned when I claimed though I don’t know how much of that was down to knowing how to complete the PIP2 and write an appeal submission.

Rosie W - 27 January 2023 09:49 AM

I’m a bit puzzled by the PIP decision taking so much account of the time taken for the fractures to heal - it certainly wasn’t mentioned when I claimed though I don’t know how much of that was down to knowing how to complete the PIP2 and write an appeal submission.

DWP decision making bepuzzles??

Someone posted their training materials recently, wasn’t ‘creative decision making’ one of the modules?

Anyway, I don’t think the ins and outs of the condition are particularly relevant, as you say it’s more about the impact of the conditions.
One thing I would look at would be ‘risk’ - if she is at constant risk of breaking bones during various activities (which seems likely if she manages to break bones in bed) - she might not be able to perform activities safely. Showering and mobilising would be the typical ones, though I don’t know if that would be sufficient to pursue an award on that basis alone in this case?