Pip reassessment and new diagnosis

MaryJ0225

Hello - son has epilepsy and is on daily medication for same. He applied for PIP 2 years ago and was successful - will have to reapply soon as award was for 3 years.
He's recently also been diagnosed with anxiety and is on daily medication for same and also receiving  counselling. The medication is likely to be long-term.
The GP has also assessed and referred him for both autism and ADHD but advised this could take 18th mths - 2 years.
question is:
1. Do we need to declare anxiety (diagnosed) now or can it wait until PIP  renewal? 
2. Likewise the autism and ADHD have been assessed by GP as needing referral but unlikely to have been diagnosed by time PIP due for renewal - should that be captured on PIP renewal also (even though we don't have formal diagnosis)?
To give some context - son dropped out of year 1 uni due to increase in breakthrough seizures which he thinks were triggered by anxiety. He also had quite worrying neck/head twitch on returning home which has thankfully calmed now he's back in familiar territory - but he needed a lot of support; as he'd been unable to 'mask' constantly when away and had nowhere familiar to decompress and no in-person family support. 

He's now taken a year out just to calm, settle and improve - and is looking to switch to local uni and commute from home; with room at uni available when he needs it/is ready. 

Grateful for any thoughts re: PIP and both additional diagnosis and ones that are in progress but unlikely to be completed by time renewal is due.

MaryJ0225

@woodbine thank you for your advice. Son currently gets lower rate for both DLA & mobility which we're extremely grateful for as he used it mostly for food in uni as he had had seizures previously whilst cooking which wasn't good,
Am hoping to get him into catered if he restarts uni - and if he does live out - but added cost for cooked/prepared meals so pip would certainly help.

Jimm_Scope

Hi @MaryJ0225, welcome to the Scope community I'm glad to hear your son is doing a little better now they're at home. As woodbine mentions, a diagnosis itself isn't needed, it's about how his day to day living is affected.

Is his current condition worse than 2 years ago when you first applied? That may be grounds for a chance of circumstances and triggering a review early. Though you will have to go through the process again of course, with the same appeals process. 

You can supply diagnosis documentation as medical evidence to help support the claim, you could also supply the GP notes that mention the need for referral to specialists. Generally documentation that describes how your son is affected by your conditions is better than something that just confirms what his condition is. I would double check though what the GP notes say before sending them on, if they don't match up with what you report in the form the DWP can try to use that.