Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber)

PM v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP) (Personal independence payment – daily living activities - Activity 9: engaging with other people face to face) [2017] UKUT 154 (AAC) (7 April 2017)

In finding, following observations as to her appearing to engage satisfactorily with health professionals and with the tribunal, that she would be able to engage with others “whenever reasonably necessary”. The FTT applied the wrong test. The definition of “engage socially” informs activity 9 (SF-v-SSWP (PIP) [2016] UKUT 543 (AAC)). It includes the ability to establish relationships. The ability, therefore, to engage with people known to her (family and existing friends) or with whom she needs to engage for a specific and limited purpose (health professionals or the tribunal) is insufficient to engage the baseline (zero scoring) descriptor. Further, there is no legal basis for limiting the assessment of her ability to engage with others face to face to such engagement as is reasonably necessary. The purpose of PIP, like DLA before it, is to assist those with disabilities to live, as far as possible, the life that they would wish to live, and any mitigating behaviour adopted because of that disability must be disregarded: EG-v-SSWP (PIP) [2017] UKUT 101 (AAC).

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