PIP form

The descriptors are completely different and it doesn't really deal with mental illness.

I know there wasn't much for MH. I wrote loads in the hope they read it and see how I'm affected on a day to day basis e.g. need support cooking due to concentration problems (one day I'll burn the house down), can't leave the house alone due to agoraphobia, don't handle money properly, need help with meds and lots more.

Now I play the waiting game and hope to God that I score enough points.

Did you look up the scoring of the descriptors on the web ? You need 8 points for standard rate and 12 for enhanced.

On the advice of Autistic Society worker we applied for PIP for our son. We failed and I was going to leave it. His case worker is a qualified OT and she said she would fill in the forms for us. She wrote about a lot of things I hadn't thought relevant.
We too are now playing the waiting game. My sympathies to anyone who is relying on being approved.

Having sat on appeals all day. You have my sympathies

Please try not to worry, it will only make your conditions worse. I have just been awarded Enhanced PIP, without having to go for a medical and was surprised really that the letter just came but it did and I now have a new car and things are starting to look up a little bit. Well, they would be if I could get out of the door due to my health problems, I've been in all week not well again. Never mind.

They do read the forms though and may ring as they did me for some extra information. I also got a text to say they had received my form. I took ages to fill it in too, it's too much all at once. Good luck to all and please let me know how you get on, keep strong.

Galen Do you get backdated money going from DLA to PIP or is it if it is a new claim to PIP that it is backdated to the date you first claimed please?

There's an item on PIP on today's You and Yours Radio4 12:15.

Hi Get a social worker to fill in the form with you, they know the "right" answers to give, it worked for me.

I looked at the descriptors. I think I still qualify for higher care and lower mobility but who knows what someone behind a desk with decide.

The guide used by the DWP decision makers is available on the internet, this might help.

I've looked at it but, from what I've read and heard, it seems that the assessors can also be very subjective in their interpretation. Therefore, I'm very worried and of course the stress is adversely affecting my mh condition. Now I just have to play the waiting game. If they stop or reduce my money I'm not sure how we'll cope.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/it-is-not-value-for-money-to-collect-vital-pip-stats-on-20-metre-rule-says-dwp/

This is about a debate on PIP in the House of Lords last week.
Baroness Altmann sounds like a government voice now, unlike when she was just the pensions spokesperson.

"Baroness Altmann is a relatively new appointment to the DWP, and her area of expertise is pensions, so perhaps she was merely faithfully relaying information that had been supplied to her. But this pattern of government misinformation regarding disability benefits, amongst its own MPs and ministers, is highly disturbing.

The government was able to cut ESA for some future claimants by £30 per week, because enough people were misled into believing something that was simply not true. We can’t let this keep happening, we must counter misinformation with truth and reality. Baroness Grey-Thompson has tweeted, “Anyone out there who can walk less then 50m and have lost #pip please get in touch. Email [email protected] “

If you or anyone you know has lost their benefit due to being able to walk 20 metres, please let Baroness Grey-Thompson know, and copy in your MP. And if you have any problems with PIP, or any other disability benefit, inform your MP and ask them to contact the Secretary of State Stephen Crabb who has expressed a wish to understand the human impact of DWP policies."

This is from Ekklesia website. They are worried because the government does not keep statistics about how many people have been affected by the new PIP rules. Tanni Grey-Thompson's email.

[email protected]

There is no doubt that this extra stress is affecting my mh. I'm even more anxious than usual and having terribly warped thoughts.

I'm sorry if I sound whingy but it's not fair. I have a genuine illness that affects all aspects of my life yet I'm constantly having to prove it to someone unknown person sitting at a desk who I've never even met. I'm not going to get better. It's never going to go away.

I currently have low DLA care and high mobility "indefinitely", which of course means that I will have to apply for PIP at sometime in the future, or they will force me to, whichever comes sooner. Have you looked at the www.benefitsandwork.co.uk website? They have the answers to all the questions put in the best possible language for the DWP. It does cost about £15 a year, but you really do get access to all possible information, including the DWP's own bible of health conditions. Despite the fact that my health has deteriorated considerably since my DLA award two years ago and I now really need Carer for some tasks, I am loathe to inform the DWP as I am scared of losing my wheelchair, without which I could not get out of the house. The website also gives tons of information on how to go about an appeal, should it come to that. I bet the Baroness is swamped with emails from people who didn't pass the 20 yard rule; I know I couldn't, but I bet 'they' say I can when the time comes!

If someone is getting DLA, that continues after they apply for PIP until the PIP decision is made, even if that is after the official end date for the DLA.

It's a terrible thing when you're scared to tell the you've got worse in case they reduce your payments rather than increasing them.

I get high care and low mobility on DLA....I dread the think what PIP will decide. I'm beyond anxious.

blacktrianglecampaign.org/2016/05/16/announcement-the-people-v-dwp-iain-duncan-smith-and-chris-grayling-scotlands-leading-human-rights-lawyer-aamer-anwar-mandated-to-act-on-black-triangles-behalf/

There may be changes soon. Keep hoping, vampire.

www.welfareweekly.com/disabled-man-forced-to-quit-his-job-because-of-tory-benefit-cuts/

Bloody ATOS has decided they want to interview me. I've tried to explain that I won't be able to go to the place they hold the interviews and asked for a home visit. They looked at it again and said no. They said they only do home visits if your housebound or bedridden. I said that I have agoraphobia and therefore am housebound but they said that my form says I can go out if DH is with me. So I phoned again and they said they'd review it again but if I didn't hear from them then I have to go to the interview next Wednesday. I suggested they have an ambulance ready cos there is no way I will be able cope with the stress.

I'm so stressed already. I'm trying not to think about it but it's niggling at the back of my mind

The system is geared to reducing the payments no matter what it does to the claimant. I get high rate care component and lower rate mobility component with DLA. I don't think they'll give me the same with PIP. DLA looks at what you can do alone. PIP seems to look at what you can do if you have someone to help you. But you might not have that help available all the time. I'm housebound when DH isn't available to take me out. Doesn't that make me housebound? I'm terrified cos we can't afford to lose the money.

I didn't ask for this illness. I'm not a benefits scrounger but I feel as if I'm treated as one. I've paid into the system since I was 15. NI is an insurance scheme that you pay into in case you need help. I paid the insurance but now they don't want to pay out.

Have you looked at all the information on this website, vampire?

www.disabilityrightsuk.org/how-we-can-help

They might have something that can help you.

Thanks. I've looked at the site. I don't know what they'll decide. I'm so stressed about the assessment. I don't deal well with pressure and especially pressure in a strange place with strange people. And of course, it's a vicious circle. The more I stress about the appointment, the more stress about having a panic attack and the more I stress about the possibility of a panic attack the more likely it is to happen. Then I stress about what will happen if I can't answer their questions because of the panic attack. I stress about the embarrassment and humiliation of having a panic attack in public with people watching and talking about me then and afterwards. I stress because I know they will call an ambulance knowing that the one that comes to me means that someone who is in serious medical need will have to wait. What if they die?

You may think this is nonsense but this is how my mind works. It's like having a whirlpool in my head.

Remember that whatever happens, you and your DH will cope with it.
They won't get the better of you.

Did your interview happen, vampire? Are you okay?