Applying for PIP with NEW "Has anything changed?" award review form confusion

Jamie_L

I have been lucky enough to be awarded PIP for the last 4 years and DLA for several years before that, my reason for claiming is I suffer from disorganised schizophrenia, anxiety and depression, along with hypothyroidism. Once again I face the most nerve-wreaking period for anyone claiming a disability benefit, the time has come for my PIP to be reviewed.

Having gone through this process a few time before, I thought I'd be better prepared this time but that has been thrown out the window as I received a completely new form to complete. Instead of the previous "How your illness effects you" I now have "Has anything changed". With the "new" form only seems to be asking "if anything has changed and approximately when", then, "tell us how you manage now and any aids used", before, "changes to the help you need".

So here's where my confusion is, over the last few years my condition hasn't really changed, maybe gotten slightly worse. I still have difficulties on a day to day basis and at times require help with some basic needs. I have starting seeing a psychiatrist and my medication has been increased since the last PIP evaluation, I will include this on the form but most of the questions the answer will be that there hasn't been any change but it feels very strange writing that on the assessment  form, I kind of feel like the forms questions are double negatives and that if my condition hasn't deteriorated then my entitlement could end. I know it's not really but as I said this is an incredibly stressful time.

The way I'm thinking of approaching the form is to say "Though my condition hasn't changed, I still need help with A from B to preform this task" and where necessary include the new information about my doctor and medication.

So after all that my questions are does anyone have experience with this form?

Is there any advice you could give me on how to complete it?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice it's greatly appreciated

   

thespiceman

Hello @Jamie_L   Pleased to meet you.

I am one of the team of Community Champions.

We guide, advise and help, support members.

Please if I can ask you to read this carefully.  This is a lot of information and advice to help you.

I would always suggest contacting the following.  These are mental health charities.

They offer floating support, guidance, advice , information, support with your mental health.

Most important of all will help you fill in the form, will actually fill this in for you.

With you in attendance, offer to be with you at any assessments, any thing else benefits, tribunals.

Speak on your behalf, also add might send a report in the form about your and your personal circumstances.

The charities are 

https://www.richmondfellowship.org.uk.

https://www.mind.org.uk.

https://www.rethink.org.

You can self refer on their websites or speak to your GP.

Unfortunately might not be in all areas.

I used all three. I have mental health with a disability and addiction history.

Please contact if I can help with anything, need to ask any questions.

I will tag my friend @poppy123456 the lady has exceptional expertise knowledge on benefits.

One of our Community Champions Team.

The lady hopefully be in touch to you advise you further.

Please take care.

@thespiceman

poppy123456

Thanks for the tag @thespiceman

Hi and welcome,

The review forms changed quite sometime ago but regardless of that when filling out any form like this you should always treat it as a new claim and never just put "no change". You should put as much information as possible about how your conditions affect you and add a couple of real life examples of what happened the last time you attempted that activity for each descriptor that applies to you.

Send relevant evidence with the form to support your claim because they rarely contact anyone for this. You can ring to request extra time if you need it.

Expect a face to face assessment because most people have them.

If you're unable to fill out the forms yourself then this link will help you find what advice agency is local to you. https://advicelocal.uk/

Good luck.

DuffersMum

My husband received the same form for his recent review, he just put down what had changed and added at the end that he was still suffering from the same problems as advised in his last claim.  His report seems to indicate he will go from standard to enhanced care and keep his enhanced mobility.

Chloe_Scope

Hi @Jamie_L and a warm welcome to the community! Is there anything else we can do to help?

Jamie_L

Massive thanks to @thespiceman, @poppy123456 and @DuffersMum, that's incredibly helpful information.

I hadn't heard of those charities @thespiceman but will look into them, having someone with me during a face to face assessment would be comforting, especially as my ESA is due to be reviewed at some point this year as well.

poppy, your post reminded me that the very first time I applied for DLA I was helped by the local benefits advice agency with completing the form, I'm going to contact them today and see if they'd be able to help.

@DuffersMum, thanks for the advice and reminder that there can be positive outcomes as well as bad when it comes to these things. Hope the extra helps you and your husband.

Apologies it's taken so long to reply, just having difficulty focusing, but wish i'd checked earlier because you've all given me a little push in the right direction, which is exactly what I needed, thank you.  

thespiceman

Hello @Jamie_L    Thank you for kind words.

Please may I implore you to contact the mental health charities they will help you fill in the forms as I added in my previous posts.

I have been claiming benefits for a long long time and never ever contacted DWP  and never will.

Always contacted the following mental health charities or CAB.

CAB do form filling in good to use.

Reason why is they do talk to you give the support .

Another reason the support workers know what to put into the form , the correct wording the correct information.

After all you want a positive outcome, help with your issues be able to cope and have the courage, strength you need to carry on.

This is what they do.

Please take care.

@thespiceman

mikehughescq

If not much has changed then one tactic is to enclose your previous claim pack plus accompanying evidence (within reason) and just put “please see the attached” in the extra information boxes on the review form. You then write one sheet which explains what has changed and explain that you don’t have the energy to complete the whole thing from scratch so you’ve enclosed the evidence from your original claim and are happy to go on record saying nothing in that (apart from the things you are pointing out in the extra sheet) has changed.