Yep readers, it's PIP time again. Just in case I didn't write about what happened with PIP attempt #1, well, let's just say that it went all the way through to Tribunal and failed. The lead Judge on the panel said to me, and I quote "you've got to understand who this benefit is aimed at?" As I was in bits at the time and as a claimant, you're not supposed to answer the panel back I merely replied "I plan to re-apply", but in retrospect, that's no way to treat a person. Did she really think that I was tying to craftily eke some cash out of the Government? Was I not worthy? Anyway, me being me, I wrote a letter of complaint about her attitude and fired off a letter of complaint to these people, namely the Judicial Conduct Investigations Board: https://judicialconduct.judiciary.gov.uk/, but that was back in April and despite chasing it up recently, my query hasn't even been acknowledged, let alone dealt with.
*Update* - I got pushed from pillar to post, but I finally heard back from the Head Judge or whatever he's called. The complaint is very much in the process of being resolved.
I re-applied with the assistance of the experienced chair from my local adult autism charity, and await tomorrow's fun. I squared it with the DWP to use a taxi and apply for a refund afterwards. I know that this sounds a bit over-the-top, but I don't and can no longer drive due to my failing eyesight and extreme anxiety, plus the bus goes from a London Borough into Kent and I tend to avoid travelling to that town because it has a one-way system and, oh, considering how stressed I got last time I travelled solo on public transport (please see https://faspie.blogspot.com/2018/05/trains-planes-and-automobiles.html for further deets) it's something I cannot deal with prior to a stressful event such as explaining to an ATOS assessor how bloody useless my autism makes me feel.
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