Please can anyone give me any advice on filling in my PIP form?
I have fibromyalgia & have recently been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis in my Spine.
Does anyone know if it's helpful to get (if you can) a letter from your GP?
Is this really necessary? As it would cost to get this letter & not beneficial any way if you get refused PIP.
The form looks so difficult & I'm feeling anxious already just thinking about filling it in!
Hi ya I totally agree with Ajay575 I have just had to re apply since I have seemed to have deteriorated more. I have other neurological conditions as well as chronic fatigue fibromyalgia and scoliosis.
The citizens advice where kind enough to help me and as I explained I can be in bed a lot they offered a home visit.
They where very kind and on the particular day I had total Braine fog.
My advice is if you can put all your appointment letters with your consultants if you see any in a folder and divide them all e.g physio then fibromyalgia then GP it makes it much easier to find them too.
I also was able to print things from my patient access app if you have this on your phone? You have to register with your GP but then you can print a lot of things of there like recent medication/ past and present treatments but not all hospital admissions and consultants /appointments from the hospital are on there but it all helps.
Good luck and I hope this helps keep us posted.
Good morning,When I applied I found this website real helpful. It has detailed uptodate information about the whole process. Every stage of the application, interview etc is covered...
Good luck with your application,
Mgt
Hopefully this recent article, will help.google.co.uk/url?q=https://...
My advice would be to get help with the PIP form from the many organisations available including the advisor on here fibromyalgia UK (FMAUK) , or Citizens Advice, Welfare Officer at your local council, there are many online assistance avenues you could take too, Benefits & Work, and Fightback4Justice (who charge a fee for completing the forms but in my opinion this is well worthwhile as it takes away the stress). Remember PIP is not about what conditions you have but how you cope on a day to day basis, be honest and open. Tell them what you struggle with.
Get together any supporting paperwork ie. Prescriptions, Medical Letters and Paperwork. DO not send originals, photocopy everything. Keep a copy of the application form to refer to.
Ask your GP to do a letter of support. With regards to this in my case my GP did me an excellent supporting letter which covered all my illness, it cost me £20 and was worth it - in my opinion.
Good luck with it
I used TURN2US it takes you through each step I was turned down the first time with help from the citizens advice but got it the second time x
If you look at an old post about filling in PIP of mine, has a lot of details. Good luck
Hi, I used Fightback4Justice, they do charge but what a fantastic service.. They take all the stress and anxiety away. I recently had my phone Assessment and someone even joined in on the call as she was a welfare advocate.
Good luck
I had help from my local MPs staff who help with benefit claims. I also have arthritis of the spine in combination with FM. I received help from my local MPs staff who deal with benefit claims & am so glad that I did.
I went to MR with my transfer from DLA to PIP as I felt the score given for Daily Living component was too low and managed to get a letter from my GP to go in as evidence. When I got it, it was all of half a dozen lines so I wasn't too hopeful of it being of any use. The information was sent to DWP over Christmas holiday but they didn't wait for it to arrive before making the decision so MPs staff contacted and more or less told them that it was unacceptable to do that given the slowness of the mail over Christmas and New Year. When I finally got the decision, in the explanation of how they came to their decision it said that in light of the GPs letter they sent my forms to ATOS for "a professional medical opinion" (is that not what they were supposed to have already had from the assessment?) and my points for DL went from 9 to 20!
When you're filling out the forms it's useful to bear in mind you score points if you are unable to carry out an activity safely, repeatedly and within a reasonable time. The definition of these are
"safely” means in a manner unlikely to cause harm to [the claimant] or to another person, either during or after completion of the activity;
“repeatedly” means as often as the activity being assessed is reasonably required to be completed;
and
“reasonable time period” means no more than twice as long as the maximum period that a person without a physical or mental condition which limits that person’s ability to carry out the activity in question would normally take to complete that activity.
It might be useful to ask your GP for a referral to Occupational Health for an assessment of your needs at home, it is helpful when you apply for PIP to have a note of any aids you need to cope with the criteria set out for the Daily Living component. I had some rails fitted, provided with a raised toilet seat with frame and an electric bath seat.
Considering applying for PIP
Is it worth applying for PIP
Second time applying for pip 
applied for pip online application completed 
