benefits

Unicorn

Am I eligible for any benefits at all, PIP turned down, age 54, part time student, recently diagnosed with dyspraxia and irlen syndrome, awaiting referral for ASD, under cardiac investigations

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Unicorn

We will need to know a lot more about your situation to say what you may or may not be entitled to. For example, we would need to know about your existing income, how your conditions affect you (i.e. what is made more difficult?), whether you live with others, whether you have housing costs and if so what.

If you would like to get back to us we will help you further. If you would like to speak to someone confidentially you might like to call the Scope helpline on 0808 800 3333.

David

Chris_Scope

Hi @unicorn, you might also like to try using Scope's interactive benefits calculator.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Unicorn, as my colleague David says we can't tell you what benefits you can claim without more information. Even though you've told us about your conditions, that can't tell us whether the PIP decision is right unfortunately. PIP is a points based benefit, where points are awarded depending on the level of difficulty you have with activities in daily life, or mobility. You could try taking the PIP self-test here: that could help you decide whether to challenge the decision. 

As a part-time student, you might be entitled to Housing Benefit, but it would depend on other income, and of course whether you have to pay rent. Another possibility is Employment and Support Allowance - this is another points-based benefit, but this time, it's to do with work-related activities. There's a good overview here.

I hope this gives you a starting point, and I recommend trying the calculator too, as Chris suggests.