pip entitlement

keithjm

I have suffered with COPD  for 20 years; I am limited to walking up 1 flight of stairs and then having to stop and rest.  I can only walk slowly.  I am 75 years of age.  Have I any prospect of getting PIP

JennysDad

Hello @keithjm and a warm welcome to the community. Sorry we could not get back to you sooner.
I'm not qualified to answer benefits enquiries but we do have members and specialists who should be able to advise you. Bear with us and they should soon be in touch with you.
Keep in touch,
Warmest best wishes,
@JennysDad

keithjm

thanks;  any help or advice would be gratefully received

CockneyRebel

Hi keithjm and welcome

Sorry you cannot make a new claim for PIP after retirement age, however you might be able to claim attendence allowance

Yadnad

CockneyRebel said:

Hi keithjm and welcome

Sorry you cannot make a new claim for PIP after retirement age, however you might be able to claim attendence allowance

Who can claim

You should apply for Attendance Allowance if you have a disability or illness and need help or supervision throughout the day or at times during the night (even if you don’t currently get that help):

with your personal care - for example getting dressed, eating or drinking, getting in and out of bed, bathing or showering and going to the toilet

to stay safe

The above is taken from the CAB website and sets down the criteria for claiming Attendance Allowance.

It is quite strict and very much dependent on the level of disability that you suffer from.

Yadnad

What I mean is that the help or supervision needs are required to be present throughout the day (for the day element) and at times during the night (for the night element)

For someone to need that level of help or supervision throughout the day presupposes to me that the claimant has to be extremely disabled (as in my wife) and in all reality should be having a carer (me)  to look after him/her.

Have you seen the AA1 form (of course you have) it's another version of the PIP2 and DLA claim pack.  All 31 pages of it. a nightmare!!

Proving that these needs or required supervision actually exist apart from the claimant saying that they do, is an almost impossible task. 
I know that if I filled out the claim pack for myself it would look as dodgy as a back street car dealer - heavens knows what the DWP would think.

I know of very few people of my age actually are awarded it, It took my wife two applications and it only got through after the DWP wrote to the OT asking her to fill out a form confirming what her difficulties were - they certainly didn't believe what my wife had claimed to be the state of affairs.

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @keithjm, and a warm welcome to the community! If you're interested in claiming Attendance Allowance, you can find out more about it here.

Tardis

@Yadnad, there are over 4000 people in the Canterbury area in receipt of AA according to goverment statistics at stat-xplore.   Over 3000 in Maidstone and over 2.500 in the Ashford area.  

Yadnad

In Canterbury at the last count there were approx. 34,000 people over the age of 65.
Your figure suggests that just over 11% are claiming Attendance Allowance. In other words 89% are fit enough as to not need any help or supervision in respect of their personal needs or care.
I will go with that given the size of the city 
How it's been explained above seems to suggest that almost anybody that has any help 2 or 3 times in the morning and the same in the afternoon with personal needs (helping to put socks on, difficulty turning the bath tap on or off, towelling themselves all over, washing their hair, etc etc  should be claiming this benefit.
If that is the case the figure should be at least 33% that should be claiming given the number of people that I personally know!

I can give two immediate examples of gents that do not claim. One (83) needs two sticks to stay upright and obviously he has all manner of problems coping with daily needs - his wife helps him with almost everything, the other is a gent (73) who sees everything as double and is completely deaf. He thinks he knows where the toilet is from memory but he is not too sure which of the images is the real one!

My wife had one hell of a job getting Attendance Allowance - she is crippled with arthritis. It was only because of the OT's report that the DWP believed what she had said on the claim  form. Without that report she would have had the same refusal as she had with her first claim.
 

Tardis

To the AA claimants can be added another 1660 odd claiming DLA and almost 500 claiming PIP (this is for over 65s in Canterbury).   It can be hard to judge numbers just going on people you know.  If I were to estimate the percentage of disabled pensioners among the pensioners I know, the figure would be much, much lower than yours.  We know different people.