Filling in a PIP form using exam techniques

[BuntyP]

I'm in the process of filling in my Pip form and decided to use the exam techniques I taught children when I was a teacher. I photocopied the form and then highlighted the relevant words in the questions and numbered the bullet points, this helps focus your answer to be relevant to the question and to make sure you cover all of the bullet points. If you don't put an answer to a bullet point to won't get any marks for.

The best thing I did was arrange an appointment with the Citizens Advice Bureau to visit me to fill in the form and before that get my sister and a close friend to write down their thoughts on post-its that I stuck in the copy form.. This is very important because my idea of normal is totally different to a healthy person so for me a good day is a very bad day for anyone else. As I'm naturally optimistic and positive I was underestimating my daily functional issues to the point that I had sketched out some answers that my sister just laughed at, before being very kind and helpful in writing down the real picture.

It is a big form and complicated and requires lots of information which you will not be able to do in one go, far better to do it in small steps with input from friends and family so that when you see the Citizens Advice Bureau or similar everything is there. You can get an extension on the time taken to fill in the form either by ringing the number on the form or through the Citizen's Advice Bureau. This reduces a lot of the stress and means you are more likely to fill the form in accurately. Photocopy any medical evidence you can collect from consultants etc as this will speed everything up. Prepare yourself that it is going to make you feel very sad realising exactly what you can't do instead of focusing on what you can. Good luck to everybody and I can't recommend the Citizens Advice Bureau highly enough.

Thank goodness for voice recognition software on my phone as I would never be able to type this!

[Leesaloo]

Hi BuntP, you are so right what you have wrote, it is very hard to except that a day in the life of FND is so hard. I di think we convince ourselves we are not as bad as we thought but reality is our lives have changed soooo much. I too needed help to fill forms in correctly as first interview I was in seizure and couldn't answer, my partner answered for me and I got 2 points. If I went out it was in a wheelchair only to appointments which were just horrendous, seizures, pain, dribbling etc. The charity I got to help was health in mind, I'd become depressed and suicidal, through no answers, no help, just left on my own (my partner worked everyday) no money. The second interview again in seizure, in agony the lady couldn't believe I'd only been awarded 2 points. This time with the help from the charity I was awarded full points. If you've never been ill, you have no idea how to do these forms and FND makes it so much worse, trying to think, talk, it's just too much for the brain to cope with, it just shuts down. Thank god there are still charity's that help people who are ill claim for help they need to be able to even get better.