What chance do we have PIP !!

Just what chance do we have going from DLA to PIP ? My partner rang social services to ask for a needs assesment for me and also a carers assesment for my partner who is my full time carer to be asked 'well what do you want US to do it sounds like you are doing nicely yourselves!!!

she took all the details down and said she didn’t think we would get any help from them and it will be more than a 3 months wait before they even come out.

Hello mrsJ,

If you prepare well, learn the rules, fill in the form in such a way that you are explaining exactly how you meet the descriptors and provide evidence to support your claim, it’s possible. You could of course see if you can get help from the CAB or another welfare rights adviser. But if that’s not possible, take your time and do the best you can.

Think about joining https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/ if you haven’t already. Their guides for members are excellent and will help you through the form.

I actually did get a care assessment from social services, which I was hoping to use in my PIP claim, but it was dreadful. Badly written, a bit confusing, didn’t really represent my situation and called my husband by the right name at first, then changed it halfway through and called him something else. I decided not to use it.

And I still got the award, enhanced for both components. (Without a face to face assessment.)

You can use letters from your MS nurse, neurologist, physiotherapist, bowel and bladder nurse, your carer (it doesn’t matter if that’s your partner, it is still evidence). I also attached a list of exactly what evidence I’d provided and what that evidence demonstrated in terms of care needs and mobility.

So yes, it’s possible, it just takes time and effort. I know that’s easy to say and hard to do, but you just stagger it. So you do a bit, then stop. The next day you do a bit more, etc. And if you write the answers to each section in a draft form first, you can then read them back and make sure you have stated exactly what care and mobility problems you have. You have a month, so use the time to make the best claim you can. Just make sure you photocopy everything and send the claim recorded delivery.

All the very best of luck.

Sue

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Hi Sue i joined the benefitsandwork forum a while back when i was going from IB to ESA i am still a member and have read through the PIP section so i know how to fill the forms in,i was just a bit taken aback by the social services saying what they did, but they have rang since and are coming out to do us both an assesment so hopfully that will generate some paperwork too to send with my forms.I also have an old letter from my dr and ms nurse to confirm when i was diagnosed so will send them too.

GET YOUR NHS PAPERWORK READY:

PIP assessors are occupational therapists and physiotherapists - so when you send in your PIP form

they expect to see OT and physio reports on you and see their reports cross referenced in your

Care/Management Plan from your MS Nurse or GP. This is the NHS evidence to back up your claims when answering

the PIP descriptors.

If ATOS or Capita see these reports they will not ask to do their own assessment of you - they will do a desktop assessment ONLY.

So get all your OT and physio reports/assessments done now. My MS Nurse asked the Community Rehab Team

to help me - so the physio and OT came to my home and discussed my difficulties and gave me aids like wheelchair ramps a bathlift and rise and recline bed and armchair etc.,.

If you have walking difficulties ask for a referral to NHS Wheelchair Services and see the OT there. If you are having falls at home it is important to get this documented. If your arms are too weak for a wheelchair they will give you a powerchair. These NHS services are there to help you.

Your MS Nurse can write a Care/Management Plan for you which covers PIP descriptors on mobility and daily living including the care/help you already get.

I can’t see where the problem is.

The problem is that i do not see a neuro anymore and i do not have an MS nurse and i very rarely go to the drs so its lack of things like that i wont be able to send.I am too ill to even bother with it all thats why we rang SS to see if they could help.I am pretty much bed bound and it looks like my lack of evidence will go against me.I am not asking for advice i was just saying what chance have you when SS say you seem to be doing ok,when infact i am not.

Well it sounds like at least social services are going to do a care assessment. Good. I really hope it’s of more use than the one I had. I think I either had a newly qualified social worker or an unqualified assistant to do mine. But then I was fortunate in having letters from all sorts to back up my claim so didn’t need the care assessment.

Hopefully that’s all you’ll need and your claim will go straight through without too much mucking about.

It is a stressful time though, it’s a horrible thing to have to claim all over again when you thought you’d got a ‘lifetime’ award of DLA. And you don’t stop worrying about it, regardless of how well you know the rules and the weight of evidence you’ve collected.

You have my sympathy, I was never more relieved than when I opened the letter awarding my PIP.

Sue

Mrs J - are you now SPMS?

Only the neurologist can tell you this and give you the NHS paperwork you need.

It will ward off repeat ESA assessments and help with PIP.

I would get a new neurologist and have annual MS reviews.

Just got awarded PIP after DLA indefinite, high rate mobility, mid rate care since 1997 and a Motability car for past 9 years. Have had RR MS since 1991 - 27 years! So, my PIP award, for 5 years, is Enhanced for daily care and Standard for Mobility which means I lose my car. But, the money’s only £10 less per 4 weeks than my DLA award was! All that fuss and trouble and DWP expense to save them £2.50 a week! I am going to get a new car on PCP, using half my PIP money, together with the £2,000 I will be given by Motability when I hand my 4 year old car back! No doubt I will have to go through it all again in 4+ years unless I sporadically eradicate my chronic disease as I head towards 32 years with it. IS THIS GOVERNMENT TOTALLY MAD???

the words spoken to your husband by social care were disgraceful!

my blood absolutely boileth!

get support from welfare rights.

my WR lady helped me fill in the form and even did the actual writing when she saw how long it took me to write.

however it was rejected.

i put in a request for mandatory reassessment and sent back the original claim.

that was denied.

i was in bits and very stressed.

the DWP said that if i wanted to take it further i could go to tribunal.

a date was set for the tribunal.

i was unable to sleep for weeks until eventually i rang the WR lady a week before the tribunal to say i just couldn’t face it.

the lady asked my permission to request a desktop assessment which of course i agreed to.

the tribunal decided that i should have higher rate for both components (exactly what my original DLA was).

whilst happy with the outcome i couldn’t help but feel perplexed as to how the same claim form and the same evidence could get so many different results!

what a mess of a system!

what a disgrace that we ahve to go through all this stress!

Bizarre. So they’ve increased your care component to high rate, and reduced mobility to standard.

Depending on how far you can actually walk (reliably, repeatedly, safely, etc) I’d say request a mandatory reconsideration if the distance is 20 metres or less, but live with it if it’s 50 metres or less. Which appears to be what you’ve settled on doing.

But, yes, the decisions do seem a little random. They’ve not looked at your DWP award and altered that btw, they’ve started all over again with the different rules.

And obviously, as you say, you’ll do it all again in a few years unless you get better!!

Sue

I’ve recently been told that I"ve progressed to SPMS (with relapses), I’ve had this confirmed in writing from the neuro.

I’m already on PIP at the Enhanced Mobility rate and standard Daily Living Component bit, so do I inform them of the progression and then probably go through all the faffing about with assessments or just stay as I am ?

I dont think my PIP was set “for life”, I think it was set at 3 years then another assessment would follow, even though I’ve only been re-assessed when I went from standard mobility to enhanced mobility.

It says on the letters from them something like, as your condition is likely to change we have decided to set your claim for a 3 year period, please contact us if there is a change in your circumstances or words to that effect ?

I do get a letter, yearly saying that my yearly case review has not altered and therefore my PIP has stayed the same.

I cant really see the point of informing that I’ve gone from RRMS to SPMS if I’ve got to go through an assessment and my PIP is just going to stay the same, or should I ??

Jactac,

So you have a written request that if your condition changes, you should advise them?

If you knowingly neglect to keep them up-to-date, does that not have legal ramifications and possibly absolves them of providing any financial support ?

Maybe it’s worth asking DWP (…or whoever issues PIP payments these days) whether this change needs to be recorded and whether your claim needs to be updated ?

(…Perhaps they can simply update their records ?)

Dom

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Stay in the driving seat: wait.

I would continue collecting NHS assessments paper work as you are now.

The SPMS will be useful for ending ESA reassessments and PIP. But you need to send

a Carer’s Assessments - ask your Adult Social Care for an assessment of your care needs or your MS Nurse.

Then when the three years are up (and they can ask you a year before that date) you will have your care needs assessment

reports ready to send. (these reports can take time to get)

In a sense, you are organising your own assessment using the NHS. If you send enough PIP descriptor relevant NHS paper work, they will do a desk top assessment only and not ask to see you at all.

I did this. Far less stressful.

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Yes it is, and completely Evil too!

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