impaired cognition and paranoid schizophrenia

My client was refused PIP on transfer from DLA and I am helping him to appeal the decision. (claim and MR done without specialist help) He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. The paranoia is that he thinks people are trying to kill him all the time, following him everywhere, tampering with his food etc. I think the client could get points for communication and reading as he misinterprets what people are saying and what he reads - for example if he sees the three letters of his name in a newspaper article (within another word), he thinks it is about him and ‘they’ are sending a message to him.
Client was accompanied by his specialist clinical nurse who said that, medically, the schizophrenia causes abnormal cognition or beliefs, that the words belief and cognition are interchangeable in these circumstances. To be awarded points for these descriptors I would have to show that the client has impaired cognition.  Does anyone know if abnormal cognition is the same as impaired cognition within the PIP regulations

Any knowledge about this or any caselaw would be appreciated.

Thanks

vn - 29 March 2016 05:14 PM

To be awarded points for these descriptors I would have to show that the client has impaired cognition.

Are you sure? I can’t find any requirement for this in the legislation. Perhaps its from the assessment guide which isn’t binding. I think it is just necessary for your client to show that their mental health generally brings them within the specific descriptor.

In any case, in the context of someone with a serious mental illness, there is no significant difference between the terms abnormal and impaired. An abnormal presentation which leads you to fit within one of the points scoring descriptors is necessarily impairing you, at least in that respect.

vn - 29 March 2016 05:14 PM

My client was refused PIP on transfer from DLA and I am helping him to appeal the decision. (claim and MR done without specialist help) He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. The paranoia is that he thinks people are trying to kill him all the time, following him everywhere, tampering with his food etc. I think the client could get points for communication and reading as he misinterprets what people are saying and what he reads - for example if he sees the three letters of his name in a newspaper article (within another word), he thinks it is about him and ‘they’ are sending a message to him.
Client was accompanied by his specialist clinical nurse who said that, medically, the schizophrenia causes abnormal cognition or beliefs, that the words belief and cognition are interchangeable in these circumstances. To be awarded points for these descriptors I would have to show that the client has impaired cognition.  Does anyone know if abnormal cognition is the same as impaired cognition within the PIP regulations

Any knowledge about this or any caselaw would be appreciated.

Thanks

This might help, its a slightly different illness but has rather similar effects

http://www.osscsc.gov.uk/judgmentfiles/j4506/UK 5205 2014-00.doc