Benefit adviser said I won’t be accepted are they right?
pleasebekind
Online Community Member Posts: 3 Listener
Sorry if this doesn’t make sense I keep crying so not talking properly.
I spoke to a benefit adviser and they said I won’t get pip because I have no evidence or help from doctor. Has the law changed? She said there is not point applying because I can’t evidence anything.
I spoke to a benefit adviser and they said I won’t get pip because I have no evidence or help from doctor. Has the law changed? She said there is not point applying because I can’t evidence anything.
But I was on PIP and DLA before for many years and never gave any information apart from my form.
I was on PIP for mainly my mental health and it ended last year in February. I didn’t do the forms when they came because my friend used to help me but she passed away in 2019 before Christmas and I still was not thinking right as she was my only friend.
I was on PIP for mainly my mental health and it ended last year in February. I didn’t do the forms when they came because my friend used to help me but she passed away in 2019 before Christmas and I still was not thinking right as she was my only friend.
I been on pip and before that DLA and always on high rate. I am finding it hard because my housing benefit and esa went down because I stopped getting pip so now I am thinking straight I want to try pip again.
I emailed to a benefit help place but they won’t help me as they said I don’t have a chance to get awarded so would take away help from someone who needs it more.
Is it right that you can not get awarded any more with out things from your doctor? I don’t think I even have a doctor.
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Comments
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I’m very sorry to hear about your plight and for the loss of your dear friend.I don’t know if the advisor is right, but she certainly hasn’t helped you with that answer!
The following advice is from my own experience only, not a professional response.
I am not an expert on benefits claims, but a cynical recipient of all the tricks and barriers to receiving the benefits to which, on paper, I am entitled. I have asked for, and received help from many quarters in order to achieve relief for the time being, but these awards always have an end date, unfortunately and I know that I shall continue to need the help of others to receive my entitlements as they expire. I have learned that navigating this system alone leads to failed claims, even when valid.
I would advise you to contact MIND, who may be able to offer you some practical solutions.
Also, if you were on PIP/DLA before now and your “disability” has not improved then you should be entitled to claim, in theory. Are you not in contact with a medical professional for your issues? Even from what the so-called advisor says, one can glean that being in touch with a medical professional who can attest to your mental state would certainly be a step in the right direction. Then, getting them to supply the full information required to the DWP, when the DWP ask for not enough evidence so that they can decline one’s claim and further delay it and demoralise one further so that one gives up prematurely is another story!
Claiming benefits to which one is entitled in theory, when one is disadvantaged enough to need them is fraught with hurdles baked into the system where the Government only wants their cronies rather than the actual disadvantaged among us to extract tax pounds. (IMHO)So, even with help from a GP, a psychologist/psychiatrist, MIND, benefits advisors it is still a hard struggle to achieve what should be a dignified existence in these times. But without help, it is almost impossible.
Please see a GP and get referred to whomever you need to in order to establish the credibility of your claim regarding your health. Find a different benefits advisor who will point you towards the next steps along the way to forward your claim; help you to fill out the Byzantine forms, and ask for the supporting medical information to be supplied by whoever you need to do that for you.
Good luck.0 -
Sorry, but this benefits advisor sounds like a bit of a numpty and that's being kind...
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Hi and welcome
I'm sorry but I dont agree with the benefit advisor
Many people can get PIP without sending evidence
You may need help filling in the form for your best chance and there is lots if advice on here in PIP section
The best evidence is your own detailed account of how your condition affects your daily life and mobility giving real examples
You do normally put your ho and doecisludt details on your application so they can be contacted and if needed DWP will send them form yo complete
By not having a gp I presume you dont take any medication or see any medical teams which can sometimes go against your claim but I'm not saying it means you cant apply
Have good look on here in the benefits section especially at the descriptors1 -
Lots of useful information here too Personal Independence Payment - Citizens Advice
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Hi @pleasebekind - & welcome to this friendly & supportive community. I'm sorry that you received such poor 'advice.' Medical evidence is not needed when claiming PIP. If I remember correctly, it has been mentioned on this forum, that about half successful PIP claims have no medical evidence whatsoever.On a personal note, I had very little medical evidence, just a letter from my GP (which he offered to do), which I thought may be helpful as he could see some of my physical problems, & poor mobility. Did that help, I don't know?As mentioned above, it's how your disability affects you; your own individual replies on your PIP claim form that carry more weight. Again, as above, a supportive letter from someone who knows you well may also help your claim.Check with Advicelocal as woodbine suggests, to see if there's someone from Welfare rights who may be better able to help you. Please see: https://advicelocal.uk/If you have any questions at any time, please do ask, as there's usually someone here who can help/advise.
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Hi @pleasebekind I didn't send any medical evidence at all with my claim and have been awarded PIP.
To be fair evidence from a Dr wont carry much weight anyway unless it is directly related to how your disability affects you in your everyday life which most Dr's won't be privvy to anyway.
Do what has been advised above and contact one of the agencies suggested and they will put you in touch with someone who can help you with your claim.
Whoever you spoke to before has given you bad advice - you do not need the help of your doctor to successfully claim PIP3 -
I’m not sure how to reply to individual people so please accept my apology if I am doing this wrong.I don’t know if I’m allowed to say but the person I had help from is from citizen advice is that the wrong place? Please tell me if I can’t say the company here.
I have BPD, Tourettes, social anxiety disorder and agoraphobia. I also have a disfigurement and scarring which I know isn’t a disability but it does impact me.I haven’t left my home in maybe 15 years and my dear friend is the only person I’ve seen in that time but I can’t see her any more now she’s gone.I did use to have doctors and a therapist and counsellor and CPN would come to the house a few times a week but it was making things harder so I stopped seeing them. My friend was the only person in a long time, she used to come and cook for me and remind me to wash and find me clean clothes.
I think it sounds like I won’t be able to claim as I have no one to write a letter for me, I don’t see doctors any more and I was only diagnosed a long long time ago. I do sometimes refer myself for counselling but then it comes to them calling to do an assessment and I get scared so I don’t answer and they discharge me again.I’m not really good at confrontation so I didn’t want to ask her any more questions when it was clear she didn’t think I can be accepted and that she couldn’t help me.I don’t know what to do now I don’t want to keep bothering people to help me. Can I do the forms without help and just try to write it myself, or do you need to have help?0 -
@pleasebekind
Of course you can do the forms yourself I did mine in my own .
We only advise getting help to give you the best chance
You need to ring PIP to start the application and they will send out forms. You dont have to send a letter from someone these are all just recommendations to help also the assessments are being done over the phone so you might feel this is better than f2f
To reply to someone all you do is put @ before their username like I have done at top of this reply but that will just appear on the post you are replying to
You can personal message someone once you have made 25 posts
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Do you know if the person you saw at Citizens Advice was a specialist Benefits advisor or one of the general advisers. The general advisers are volunteers and although they are trained they have to cover every possible query so their experience is variable.0
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Thank you all you are so nice it has made me cry again.Is it possible to get the forms without me calling? It will take me a long time to build up to calling and then I may feel different and it will be too late to claim if I’m not in my right mind, because sometimes I go into denial or just different.@Username_removed do I ask citizens advice for a different person or look somewhere else? I don’t want them to think I am rude and I would have to email the person who emailed me and ask for someone else, that would be very rude and uncomfortable I think. I’m not sure I can do that. Is it okay to ask again for advice from a different place or am I better to stay with one?@calcotti I didn’t know there was a difference, maybe that is there I messed everything up. I looked and their message says volunteer at the end after their name so is that not the right one?0
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Claim by post
You can get a form to send information by post (although this can delay the decision on your claim). Write a letter to ask for the form.
Personal Independence Payment New Claims
Post Handling Site B
Wolverhampton
WV99 1AH2 -
@pleasebekind see above re your query about other ways to apply
Also you may want to think about the assessment as they are usually phone assessments
You can request paper based but these are rare and need a strong case put forward if that is all the information they have to base their decision0 -
You didn’t mess anything up. You sought advice from where you could get it. Citizens Advice do an excellent job but is largely staffed by volunteers and they don’t always get it right. As Mike points out even dedicated benefits advisers will have different levels of experience,pleasebekind said:@calcotti I didn’t know there was a difference, maybe that is there I messed everything up. I looked and their message says volunteer at the end after their name so is that not the right one?
(Mike - I agree ‘every possible query’ was badly phrased and consequently misleading, I should have said a wide range of queries.)0 -
Hello @pleasebekind and welcome to our online community.
I'm so glad our members have been able to offer advice and comfort. I'm going to send you an email to see if there's anything more we can do to help with your current situation, so please look out for something landing in your inbox
Best wishes and I hope you have a great Friday.0 -
@pleasebekind Unfortunately I'm having trouble sending you an email as it keeps getting bounced back. I'll leave the main points below and please email us at community@scope.org.uk if you want to talk more privatelyI’m really sorry to hear about the loss of your friend - it must have been a big loss and I hope you are keeping okay. Do you think you’d benefit from additional support with your grief? MIND have a great webpage full of resources to help with bereavement and it might offer you some comfort. While we’d recommend getting in touch with your GP if things ever feel too much.
You mentioned that you don’t have contact with anyone and I wondered if we could help by beginning a referral for a social care needs assessment for you. There’s absolutely no pressure to do this so please don’t worry. But if it was something you might be interested in, we’d love to help. Here’s a NHS webpage with more information about the needs assessment and if you were happy for us to proceed we’d just need a few details such as your full name, address, date of birth and a contact number. We completely understand if you’d prefer not to, however, please do let us know if you are coping okay getting food etc.2 -
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