Reassessment Advice

We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

Julia21

Hi - my son's (19) PIP expires next March 2025.  Couple of questions:
1. When is he likely to receive the reassessment form? 
2. Can he just re-enter info from first application? 
3. He's recently diagnosed with epilepsy and also suffers with severe anxiety (which can be a trigger).  If he takes medication to try and control seizures will that cancel any entitlement? He still has breakthrough seizures but not as often as before.  I've heard they want you to be affected most of the week or a certain percentage of the time and not sure if he'll make the grade. He's been told recently by the doctor and dvla he can't apply to learn to drive given he's still having seizures and a risk to himself and others. 
4. When he does have breakthroughs they're far worse than before. Found him on the floor, split head etc. He also has them in his sleep which puts him at higher risk of SUDEP. 
5. He had to give up degree studies given impact on his memory and processing.  He's just not able to learn as used to - bit devastating tbh as he was very academic
6. He's struggling to find a job as he can have some good days but also some very bad ones.  It's also taking a toll on his mental health. 
7. He's also scared to move out given need for me (mum) to be on hand for support etc. 
Any advice appreciated. Thanks. 

chiarieds

Hi @Julia21 - 1. currently people are getting their PIP review forms about 8 months before their current award expires.

2. even if there hasn't been any change since his PIP claim, it's still best to complete the review form as if it was his first one, so with as much detail. Ideally there should be a couple of recent, detailed examples as to the difficulty he faces for each applicable descriptor given, i.e. when did it happen, where, what happened, did anyone see this, & were there any consequences to attempting/doing an activity?

Say if he can/can't do each applicable activity 'reliably,' i.e. safely, to an acceptable standard, repeat as often as one would reasonably expect, or if it takes him much longer than someone without his disabilities.

3. the fact he's taking medication for his epilepsy will not jeopardise his claim. With PIP it is indeed about how you are the majority of the time, but, depending on the affect his epilepsy has on him, then he's potentially at risk of having a seizure at any time, which you've illustrated with 

4. so the greater the risk he could harm himself, then the more likely the affects of this mean the 'majority of the time' (50% of his days) wouldn't apply. The risk of SUDEP, I'm unsure about as night time isn't considered with PIP, but if he has a seizure during the night, does this affect him the next day?

5. 6. & 7. have a read through claiming PIP on this website, which I hope will help illustrate where he may need help & support: https://www.mentalhealthandmoneyadvice.org/en/welfare-benefits/pip-mental-health-guide/help-with-your-pip-claim/how-to-fill-in-the-pip-form/

The review form is a lot smaller, so with less space to give details. You can always add extra pages at the end, just ensure his name & National Insurance number is on each of these pages. If continuing a question, make sure which question it's continued from is indicated. Hope some of this helps.