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What evidence do I need to supply for PIP?

benlis10
benlis10 Community member Posts: 13 Listener
edited April 2019 in PIP, DLA, and AA
Hi I’m currently thinking of applying for pip for the very first time 
wasn’t aware that I was entitled to pip if I was working but my OT suggested it might be worth a shot 
my main concern is supplying evidence when I apply 
reading other posts on here seems to be that you need to provide all this when sending your form in however after speaking to my go who by the way I feel will support my application says that the department works and pension usually contact them for medical evidence 
now I feel so confused ? 

Comments

  • Elizabeth1
    Elizabeth1 Community member Posts: 57 Connected
    Hi I’ve just had my pip interview. I don’t know how it all works I just filled the form out and put as much information as I could. I’m not sure if they contact the gp or anyone else I put all the contact of any medical people I see . 
  • MickConnon
    MickConnon Community member Posts: 56 Courageous
    Hi @benlis10 and @Elizabeth1, Welcome to the site. I have found things a lot easier if you have a Consultants or specialists letter to back up your conditions. @Elizabeth1 you are absolutely right that in putting down all of the professionals you see regularly as they will be consulted. I know this as I have been contacted as a professional before and have completed my wife's form on her behalf. So have been 2 sides of the application process. 
  • steve51
    steve51 Community member Posts: 7,153 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @benlis10

    Welcome to our online community.

    I am one of the “Community Champion’s”
     
    We are here to help/support you.

    There is some good info/advice on here.

    https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/personal-independence-payment

    We have also got many many members who have just started/finished their “pip journey’s”

    I can point you in their direction if required????

    @steve51
  • Fitznspatz
    Fitznspatz Community member Posts: 45 Courageous
    edited April 2019
    @benlis10, I speak from very limited experience but my observations are

    1. Your medical professionals are unlikely to be contacted to back up claims you have made.

    2. Letters from medical staff are of limited use. Typically they confirm you have had a procedure which is good because it adds veracity to your claim, but what the letter does not do is say how your condition affects day to day living. This is what the assessor wants to know. In my wife’s case, for example, one of her cancer treatments required the severance of a nerve in her neck which severely restricted her arm movement. A consequence of that is that getting dressed has become a struggle. Nowhere in the doctors’ notes will you find this mentioned. Similarly chemotherapy resulted in peripheral neuropathy so she has limited feeling in her fingertips and restricted dexterity. There’s much correspondence to show she had chemotherapy but nothing in writing on the long term effects.

    3. Read the explanatory notes very carefully. They are very helpful. For every restriction to your daily life that you mention, give one or two brief and recent examples of the state of affairs e.g. “Yesterday I was in such pain that I had to ask for a chair in the chemists to sit down and they called for a taxi to take me home.”

    4. Do you have aids such as walking sticks, grab handles, lifeline monitors etc to help you cope? Mention them all if they’re relevant. When my wife had her face to face assessment, the assessor noticed at once the grab handles and white stick in the porch. On the table waiting for him were the various living aids used to make life more manageable. He said he didn’t need to see them and took our word but the fact that they were there surely did no harm.

    5. Be honest. Do not try to claim points under every heading. Assessors are skilled at picking up inconsistencies. 

    6. Do you have an articulate friend who could help you complete the form? What might seem obvious to us can come across as mangled and disjointed - see some of the postings on this forum! Try to be as pithy as you can. As you write, all the while ask yourself ‘Why am I telling them this? How does this back up my claim?’

    7. Keep a folder of all correspondence. Note the dates when you posted things, the date and times of phone calls to the DWP etc.

    Read through postings on this forum and you get some real horror stories. But remember you are only hearing one side of the story and that people often only come to the forum with bad news to report. The view you will form of the assessors from reading so many stories on this site is that they are cold-hearted liars out to cheat you. The claimant says this is so, the assessor says no it isn’t. Well somebody is not telling the whole truth and it is not always the assessors who are the bad guys. 55% of people who claim PIP are successful. When you browse this forum you might think the success rate is 5.5%

    Good luck.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 587 Listener
    Welfare Rights helped me with my PIP review, I don't have much in the way of evidence tbh. 

    Someone's written a guide here to form filling and mentions evidence.

    https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/56365/pip-form-filling#latest

    He also mentions evidence in this thread.

    https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/226680#Comment_226680
  • Fitznspatz
    Fitznspatz Community member Posts: 45 Courageous
    One other thing I should have mentioned. I do not know if this was any use to the assessor but merely writing it down proved to be an excellent aide memoir. 

    As my wife has had multiple conditions we devised a table containing several columns:
    *condition
    *date of diagnosis
    *hospital/clinic where treated
    *name of consultant/medical professional handling the case
    *impact of the condition on daily life
    *number of the photocopied sheet supporting the claim.

    This was a succinct summary and proved to be useful when the assessor was asking questions relating to dates and also outside the PIP journey just in regular medical appointments when they want a potted medical history.
  • CockneyRebel
    CockneyRebel Community member Posts: 5,209 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @benlis10 and welcome

    You may find the following useful

    1 - Identify those activities you have any kind of issue with.

    2 - Identify whether the issue is that you can’t do the activity at all; can’t do it reliably, can’t do it repeatedly; can’t do it safely or in a reasonable time. If any one of these apply to an activity then you can’t do it at all and it’s okay to say so. However, as well as ticking the box saying you either can’t do it all need help or aids, remember to say which one(s) of the above apply.

    3 - Have a copy of the PIP points scoring system in front of you. The questions in the form don’t match the points scoring so it’s as well to be aware of this.

    4 - For every activity you think you score points you need to think of 2 or 3 recent examples of incidents when you tried to do that activity. Describe in detail the what, when, where, who witnessed, what happened next etc. Don’t skimp on detail. It’s often better to type it up in Word first rather than write in the form. If it won’t fit then add extra sheets, remembering to put your name, NINO and the question to which the answer relates on each sheet. Alternatively, reduce the font and cut and paste the Word answer into the form. Note that doing point 4 correctly is far more important than supporting medical evidence in most cases.

    5 - Use the extra information section to describe your conditions in detail; the specifics of the symptoms and especially how they interact. 

    Also, if applicable, use it to spell out that you want an ongoing award and explain why e.g. your condition is degenerative, you’ve done all the adapting you’re going to do etc. If you don’t specifically ask for an ongoing award you will almost always get a short one. 

    6 - Assuming your diagnoses are not in question and ditto the prognosis then ask yourself what gap in your evidence does medical evidence fill in terms of points scoring? If you can’t answer that then consider not sending it in. 10 reports all saying the same thing are no better than 1. Volume of evidence, especially medical evidence, doesn’t win you PIP and medical evidence is also not as helpful as your own anecdotes unless you are someone who lacks insight into their own condition e.g. someone with a learning disability or certain mental health conditions. Clarity and focus of evidence wins you PIP. 

    7 - Whilst PIP ask for the form back in 4 weeks they will grant a 2 week extension without question if you ask. However, there is no actual deadline for returning the form in the legislation so that deadline can be extended if reasonable. What could be more reasonable than having a medical condition which slows you down? Ask for an extension as a reasonable adjustment under EA 10 if applicable. 

    8 - By all means get an advice service to do this but if they don’t do most of the above then you’re better off doing it yourself. Welfare rights advisers do not have some magic form of words they use and  their knowledge of the law, guidance or case law only occasionally comes into play at the firm filling stage. No-one especially likes form filling but unless your impairment creates specific difficulties with form filling there’s no reason you can’t do it yourself. It’s all about the anecdotal evidence

    Be all you can be, make  every day count. Namaste
  • Fitznspatz
    Fitznspatz Community member Posts: 45 Courageous
    CockneyRebel, that list is so helpful I wish I had known of its existence last Autumn when I was helping my wife make her claim. 

    Only in one area does our experience diverge from what you said. We did not ask for an ongoing award - and others should follow your advice and do so  - so we were very pleased that her award is valid until 2027. Perhaps it was obvious that the peripheral neuropathy is now permanent, the severed nerve in the neck will never heal, the optic nerve is permanently damaged, the brain tumour is inoperable etc.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 587 Listener
    That was the list I linked lol :) It's really useful.
  • twonker
    twonker Posts: 617 Pioneering
    edited April 2019
    benlis10 said:
    Hi I’m currently thinking of applying for pip for the very first time 
    wasn’t aware that I was entitled to pip if I was working but my OT suggested it might be worth a shot 
    my main concern is supplying evidence when I apply 
    reading other posts on here seems to be that you need to provide all this when sending your form in however after speaking to my go who by the way I feel will support my application says that the department works and pension usually contact them for medical evidence 
    now I feel so confused ? 
    As ilovecats has said, you should only claim PIP if the impact on your life is so severe and matches any one of the PIP descriptors. The descriptors make points and you have to get a minimum of 8 points to get the standard award
    Forget about a diagnosis and the medication you take. The impact will be measured by the following:
    https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/Migrated_Documents/adviceguide/pip-9-table-of-activities-descriptors-and-points.pdf

    Remember that the evidence needed must relate to that impact and those descriptors.
     

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