PIP Award

[GingerCarper]

good morning all ,

I hope to find you well , regarding the PIP award , please can you advise due to my current state of health I am unable carry out my duty’s at Work alone / un aided .

Please can you advise should I consider PIP

god bless

martin

[Happyrosie]

citizens Advice Bureau give good advice and help on PIP. Personally I think it’s worth applying : you always get turned down then you appeal.

[Fanfab1]

Citizens Advice, Benefits and Work are both good sources.

benefitsandwork.co.uk

PIP if eligible is paid regardless of whether you can work or not, it’s the impact of your health issues on daily life and mobility that the focus is on.

It’s definitely worth a try certainly if your health condition is impacting your daily life and mobility.

it is a laborious and possibly long process and you will certainly get knocked back first attempt.

👍

[Heartstopper in reply to Fanfab1]

When completing the forms ALWAYS answer as to how you are on your worst days.

[fishonabike in reply to Fanfab1]

in addition to Heartstopper 's advice, only select the cando/positive option if you can do something regularly, repeatedly, reliably and /or safely every time!

always tell them what you can't to regularly, repeatedly, reliably and /or safely - yes all of them, every time! and tell them what happens if you do try - use extra paper if it does not fit in the box

[Di1967]

not many people on this site know of an organisation called fightback, they are online or you can find them on Facebook, they are legit, I and a few friends have used their service, you can ring and get free advice or use there services to fill out claims (there is a fee for this) they are very professional. They have a disability lawyer who helps them , If you have medical evidence to support your claim they will use this to help. I followed them on Facebook for a few weeks to get the feel of how they worked , hope this helps

[Cookie2020]

yes yes 👍

[Murderfan58]

Are you under state pension age . If so applied but once you have the forms you have to get them back by the date stated on the forms. It takes a week to 10 for the forms to come it's their way on cutting down on the time you have to get them back . Get photo copies of all GP , Consultants and any other health professionals you have had letters from . And book an appointment to with the Citizens advice to help you fill in the forms.

I had been fighting since 1988 to get disability benefits and turned down every time because of no diagnosis. Once I got my diagnosis for my neurological condition in April 2022. My neurologist had already sent me an appointment for the first saying he knew what was wrong with me. Because I can't write very well due to tremors in my hands my daughter spent 3 hours filling in the forms . I sent 45 letters from my GP, neurologist and cardiologist. Had a phone assessment which lasted hour and 46 mins because I timed it. I knew the woman didn't listen to me. They gave me zero points on everything. So I applied for MRN the lazy woman copied out my PIP decision letter just altered the sentences around.

They are not healthy professionals who do PIP but heartless robots. A new member of my craft group joined and told me about the Brain Charity they got me a solid pro bono and because of how low my savings where she told me to apply for universal credit. Had an interview at the job centre my lovely caseworker said it would be phone appointments and she was sending off for health forums . Which my friend from craft group spent 4 hours filling out for me .

After my PIP phone assessment I had a face to face assessment and was awarded it.

My solicitor asked me to get a copy of the PIP assessment. It was 23 pages long only page with errors was the last page where the woman signed it and put how long it took to write 38 minutes.

Took me 2 days going through it marking each thing that was wrong and writing an email to my solicitor with the corrections. She applied to go to tribunal July 2022 my tribunal was 29th August 2023. There is a judge ,doctor and either a disabled person or a who works with the disabled.. Tribunal usually takes hour but after 50 mins they had enough information . It's all recorded and the judge takes notes really it's a court as his a real judge. A support worker from. The brain charity went with me. It wasn't 10 mins and they awarded me enhanced PIP for living and enhanced PIP for mobility and back dated it until the dated I asked for the forms which was 7th March 2022. I had nearly £13,000 in back pay. PIP is paid every 4 weeks. So 13 times a year.

Its worth going for UC ad you can't work and you should get the health payment in top. Plus if you get UC you can get help with rent but not if you own your own property.

PIP isn't means tested but UC is . But don't fill the forms out yourself. Get the CA to help you. And don't give up took me from 1988 until last year to get what I am entitled to.

When you reach state pension age both UC stop but you might get pension credit on top of your state pension. The CA helped me get pension credit which is paid every 4 weeks.

Hope that helps but get help filling in the forms. If I had known about The Brain Charity when I first had the PIP forms I would have asked them to filled them in I would most probably have had it from the start.

But the tribunal panel was lovely as I was a nervous wreck and convinced because my neurological condition is rare I wouldn't get it even with my PAF and hole in the side of my heart.

[BreatheasyBe]

hi sorry to hear how things are.

Have you contacted access to work who help provide support be it an extra pair of hands for 20% of your working week or aids to help you continue in your current role.

I have replied to many posts regarding PIP on other groups such as Lungs asthma etc if you can do a search you’ll find lots of info.

Good luck

[Crazybanana]

you are entitled to pip if your health conditions affect your daily life. Please please apply. They ain’t easy I have been dealing with them for 16 years. If u need any help please message me. Good luck xxx

[Digger0]

Do you work for a company, if so they should provide suitable adaptations as per the Access to Work gov.uk/access-to-work

[L8Again]

My daughter has a complex congenital heart condition and she was awarded PIP some years ago. After a telephone review last December, her PIP was stopped: she immediately appealed. She made her appeal on the fact that her PIP award was based on her medical condition at the time. It was therefore up to the DWP to demonstrate that either the award criteria had changed OR that her underlying medical condition had improved. In respect of the latter, she said that her cardiologist would provide further evidence to counter any suggestion of an improvement based on a subjective medical assessment made via a telephone call using a basic set of questions.

She got a call last week to say that her previous medical notes had been reviewed and the PIP award had been reinstated and back-dated.

[bwiltshi]

It's worth getting advice from Citizens Advice. Your success depends on how your diagnosed conditions affect you.Your activities are split into what are called descriptors, such as food preparation, eating, dressing, bathing, toileting, mixing with people, handling money.

Depending on the help needed and difficulty encountered, you score points. With 8 points you are awarded the standard rate, 12 the higher rate.

It helps if you have good medical evidence to back up your claim.

It is important to understand, it is how you are affected by your conditions, and not just the conditions.

Eg I have got a list of heart conditions that are quite scary, but am almost entirely unaffected in my daily life or mobility. Therefore I have no entitlement. Conversely I may have a much less scary list, but be exhausted and in constant pain, giving me anxiety & depression.

Then I can't stand to make a meal, 2 points, need help in the shower 2 points, have lost confidence in meetings people etc. etc.

This is where advice is important, ie interpreting your problems to score the points.

[Displacedheart]

Please do apply, most people struggle with the forms because it's quite an eye opener. Nobody gives them selves compassion, nobody is majorly self aware because survival mode always carried you through. The first form you may not know how to articulate how your impacted, and some people cope so long with no help that they recognise there struggles as normal. And manageable. Surviving. Its quality of life and you deserve good quality of life and help and support, be rawly honest. Your entitled to help and better quality of life. Get those forms done and fight for your entitlement to sick pay

[Cat04]

Do apply but when you answer all their questions do not reply "yes" to anything. Always answer "no, not without help, pain, rests, breathlessness" etc etc. Tell them what you avoid doing because it's too painful or difficult. List any aids (special kitchen/bathroom equipment or pill sorters etc). Letters in support of the claim from anyone who gives you any help etc are useful too detailing the help you need and the frequency. Be mindful of the very tight deadlines in which to return the claim form, ask for an extension if needed.You will also need a lot of patience as it takes forever for DWP to deal with it.

I also recommend the quides at benefitsandwork.co.uk and also CAB.Good luck

[gkjowett]

There is a lot of good advice here. It IS worth applying for PIP, but you must know how to fill the form in and keep copies of everything. You need to give consistent answers on the form and in the interview, (it helps to have some one with you). Just to repeat advice from others - stress that you do not have ‘good days’ only days that are not as bad as others; make it clear if you are not safe to do a task, for example, if you get distracted or unsteady; say if a task takes you much longer than ‘normal’, or leaves you fatigued, breathless or in pain; explain if you can’t do something because it causes you panic or anxiety (‘severe emotional or psychological distress’ in DWP terminology); describe needing prompting, reminding, supervision or actual help; describe all the aids and adaptations you need - even a pill pot or ‘dosette box’ gives you 1 point towards your score!

Above all, don’t make light of your health problems - it is very British to say you’re OK when the truth is usually more complex.

benefitsandwork .co.uk is a really helpful website and as others have pointed out, your local Citizens Advice will always help.

The PIP process is designed to put you off and make you give up. Don’t let it! The DWP denies that assessors have targets to achieve but they do. You will probably get ‘null points’ the first time. Ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration (ask CA for help again) and go to Appeal if necessary - 70% of claimants who go that far win their appeal and get the PIP backdated. Best of luck!

Oh, and take the form to a Post Office and ask for ‘proof of posting’ - it’s free.

[Chickenlou]

I spent hours filling in the PIP forms for my partner a couple of years ago (fortunately we also had lots of medical reports and evidence to back up everything so I included copies of these and several additional A4 pages of notes that wouldn’t fit in the boxes!)

The phone assessment was pretty horrendous to be honest as lasted nearly 3 hours, but the assessor was polite and seemed to have a good understanding of my partners various conditions.

He was awarded one element but not the second. We thought about appealing but he had found the whole process very stressful so in the end we accepted the decision. We got a full copy of the assessors report (I called up and requested it) and she had actually listened to what he said and the report was 95% accurate.

It was definitely worth doing, but just be prepared it’s a long old process. The benefits and work website is 100% worth looking at.

[Jedi14]

There is no point in delaying your application. I'll tell you why, several people who should qualify, very quickly find rejection then have go onto the next stage/s of appeal/s.