Claiming PIP and being a carer

Hi Ruth,

PM v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP): [2017] UKUT 502 (AAC) may be of some use in this argument - Got it from pipinfo.

Good Luck.

Best Regards

Chris

It’s not much different from other cases - as always you have the show on the balance of it that your client’s statements are accurate. Where she contradicts with what she does for her son you can look to the wording of the descriptors.

The not cooking is where you’ll likely encounter difficulty here - the activity concerns the mechanical functions of cooking - if she cooks for her son she can cook, period.

In regards to taking nutrition: Autistic children often have restricted diets, which may not be desirable to others - so she might have to cook twice to make her own food too - might reasonably reduce her motivation to eat. Conversely, you’ll often find that parents cook and eat with their children.

The arguments about carer’s allowance and lack of social services input is just the usual copy paste DWP statements - not worth the paper they’re written on unless they can realistically tie it to her ability to perform activities. Her physical presence and reassurance alone could be enough care to claim CA. Half the time I see the bit on social services - there is in fact input from social services!

Thanks to both - it’s given me some good ideas. As you say, simply being present is all that is necessary for much of the time.

If you need to argue against the “carers allowance cut and paste” I have attached an (anonomised) extract from one of my cases you could adapt