What are people's experiences of switching from DLA to PIP?

jenniej

Ty Julie and chloe

Chloe_Scope

No problem @jenniej!

worried33

Interestingly I think if DLA was still here, I think I wouldnt have been entitled to anything on my daily living side of things as the criteria was quite different.  So I think I have benefited from PIP.

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/disability-living-allowance-care-component

It seems DLA was much more focused on your care needs, whilst PIP has a more wider scope and people like me fit into it.

Am I wrong?

david235

@worried33 - It is hard to generalise whether DLA or PIP is more expansive. Certainly there are those with mental health issues who do much better under PIP Daily Living than DLA Care. To get enhanced Mobility PIP on the grounds of walking ability is a tougher distance standard than higher rate Mobility DLA (20m for PIP, DLA had no stated figure but it was widely understood to be 50m) - but this is balanced somewhat by PIP being how you are on the majority of days, with safety, repeatability, time taken and the manner of your walking taken into account. There is no equivalent in PIP of lowest rate Care DLA, which could be obtained on the grounds that you needed help to prepare a cooked main meal from ingredients.

The best way of putting it is that they are different. DLA used more abstract legal tests, PIP uses more mechanistic criterion referenced tests.

worried33

Well in my case I dont have help to do anything from other people whilst at home, but I do have aids, my situation doesnt seem covered under DLA unless they classed as needing aids as getting help?

poppy123456

I was exactly the same for DLA and was refused back at the end of 2012. I never requested the MR because i wasn't well enough at the time. A few months later PIP started so i put in a claim, the backlogs were horrendous at the time and i waited almost 11 months for a face to face assessment. Decision came just 2 weeks later and was awarded standard for both. Been claiming it ever since.

My daughter was also refused about 4 years ago. She now successfully claims Enhanced for both parts and doesn't have any physical disabilities.

david235

worried33 said:

Well in my case I dont have help to do anything from other people whilst at home, but I do have aids, my situation doesnt seem covered under DLA unless they classed as needing aids as getting help?

Like PIP, those parts of DLA that were about help were about the help you needed from another person, not the help you actually had. It was possible to be awarded DLA on the basis that you needed help you did not have - much of my former DLA award was on that basis.

With both benefits you have to justify the need for help. Actually having that help goes a long way to doing that, but it is possible to justify a need for help without actually having that help.

jenniej

Hi all after a long and worrying time my brown envelop arrived this morning  to say that they have left my award as it was for the next 10 years thank you all for your support at this time I wish everyone the best 

AndMac

Been following this! What a relief for you. 
I have arthritis in my hips, and monoplegic cerebral palsy, with very severe adductor and flexor muscle spasms. 
Regarding aids, to me, they proved my need for assistance for care. I proved my need for assistance with dressing by the fact that I use a sock aid to put my socks on. The grab handle by the side of my toilet was my aid for toileting needs, the bath grab handles my bathing aids. Using a microwave rather than a stove ticked the box for help when cooking. 
I got nine points for care. I can only walk with support from a Zimmer frame, very slowly, so I got enhanced mobility. Under DLA I received nothing for care. So PIP actually benefited me, although the process certainly didn’t. I did find it very stressful, and depressing to think of all the things that I couldn’t do or could no longer do. Like having a bubble bath. I can get down, but not up.

 I wrote a daily diary showing how I needed to use aids or needed help with various tasks. It was just 24 hours, a typical day and night routine involving all the extra ways in which I needed assistance (even though I don’t actually have anybody to help me). 

I had a face-to-face home assessment which was very fair;  as I comment frequently, I was lucky. But I shouldn’t have had to have been “lucky”, I should have expected a fair assessment as a right.

Far too many assessments are inaccurate or just downright lies. (People without pets being recorded as walking their dog daily, when they can’t even actually walk, for example.)
Glad to hear of another win, and of an assessment that went the right way. 

JulieTuesday

Well done Jennie, I'm so pleased to see plus no review for 10 years is the most important thing I feel, the stress involved of having the assessment for an older person is immeasurable when you have limitations due to disability and or any mental illness. One thing the Government got right was the 'light touch' reviews for OAP's I really hope they keep them (or keep their word!).    

jenniej

Ty Julie it has really been a very stressful time I have been disabled since I was in my 30’s I can’t remember when I was last independent  some days you feel so isolated that you don’t know how you cope thank god for my daughter she is a saint once again thank you all for your support

Victoria_123

Hi guys I'm new here and scared. I'm in a wheelchair full time. I have  fibro, chronic pain condition and nerve damage, pelvic organ prolapse and testing for crohns disease, I have severe anxiety and the stress.I have my DLA-PIP transfer ive just received the letter, I'm supposed to call but I can't speak on the phone I can't speak with strange people it gives me a full blown panic attacks and severe anxiety, can my husband speak on my behalf? I'm so worried about this.

Matilda

Hi @Victoria_123

Welcome to the Forum!  I suggest you ask your husband to phone Scope Helpline for guidance.  Mon-Fri 0808 800 3333.

dunc1959

When I first applied for DLA before PIP I was turned down but I put in an appeal which like so many others I won and was awarded middle rate on both sections all very well but the appeal took almost 2 years to get to tribunal. I have switched to PIP 3 years ago and given the standard rate on both parts. I have 3 split bulging discs in my spine high bp and suffer from depression because of the pain. I am on a very high does of Gabapentin and also a weekly Morphine Patch just recently had another assessment and still the same, the assessments make me very anxious it says in my medical records my condition is degenerative but like many other get dragged up there every 3 years.
  

66Mustang

As there aren’t many positive stories on the forum I feel I should add mine, so people don’t think it’s all bad, albeit that it was from three years ago. 

I had a good experience moving from DLA to PIP. For DLA I was on the mid rate for care and the standard rate for mobility, and when I applied for PIP it was upped to the enhanced rate for daily living and I remained on the standard rate for mobility. What’s more, I didn’t need a face to face assessment or a home visit, they accepted the evidence I sent in as sufficient to make the claim. 

Three years on, I needed a reassessment for PIP, and I am not having such a good experience, but I wanted to share my experience of the transition from DLA to PIP so people realise it is not always negative. 

Valerie57

my husband was on middle rate care and high rate mobility DLA like many of you we found it to be quite a daunting experience..He has had is face to face interview. the lady who assessed him was very nice and we even had a laugh with her..We were watching the letter box for that brown envelope.It took 6 weeks to come.Well it was good news he was awarded high rate daily living and high rate mobilty, and he wont be  assessed again for another 10 years which in its self is a bonus.The only advice I would give is just be yourself the assessor is only human like us.  god luck to all who claim PIP

dunc1959

The going onto PIP was quite a good experience as was my recent assessment through these assessments are always daunting I used a charity called the DABD in Dagenham where we live and they have been very good this time the lady even came to our house and helped me with the forms. It was actually when it was DLA that I had problems but it all got sorted all be it nearly 2 years later.