How to Fill in a PIP Review Form

[KizzyKazaer]

Well done, DD     I also requested a two-week extension after the wretched heatwave effectively knocked out a few days and I was feeling anxious about the deadline.  Still picking away at the thing, 'eating the elephant one bite at a time'!

[Sunny Clouds]

I hate all this benefits form filling, so my heart goes out to others doing it.  Big hugs and fingers crossed, DD & KK.

[KizzyKazaer]

Cheers, Sunny - pleased to report that I have finished the wretched thing  and just need to use Dad's printer (my own is knacked) to photocopy it on Wednesday and then consign it to the Royal Mail:  it's like having a dark cloud lifted, not having to think about it any more.  The trouble with that sort of DWP form is it makes one dwell on things that are best not thought about in depth, if you know what I mean - and you probably do!

[Monic1511]

I know exactly what you mean Kizzy, when i was doing them for people you could see them getting depressed because I emphasised all the things they couldn’t do so I’d have to make them laugh and got a reputation for being the lassie with the twisted sense of humour.  When someone tells me they struggle to walk & I referred them to mobility scooters that go at 8 mile an hour up and down the shopping centre where I suggested they race each other.  Prompting and encouragement was translated as “ does your partner nag you” nagging becomes positive along with the eye rolls.


Good luck and I hope you get the reply you need

[ditchdwellers]

Yay Kizzy! 
What a relief to get the dreaded form out of the way. 


I received a text yesterday confirming receipt of my form so now it's just the wait!


Good luck for both of us 

[Sunny Clouds]

I hate the fact that we should think it needs luck.  You're both genuinely disabled and will have put in honest claims.

But given that the system's corrupt, so that being genuinely entitled isn't enough, I cling onto the fact that you're both articulate and have been savvy enough to check out your rights and what criteria you need to satisfy, to make it harder for decision-makers to unjustly turn you down on a pretext.

Yes, under the current PIP assessment system where you're no longer assessed simply on your genuine needs, but on your ability to convince the decision-maker that you're harder to wrongfully turn down than  others, I think you are both in with a good chance of being awarded Persistent Initiative Prizes.

[Monic1511]

The luck is in which decision maker’s desk your form ends up on.  We can all interpret things differently, when someone says to me I can’t work because I had 1 nighttime seizure 10 months ago and I’m sitting there working thinking I had 2 seizures yesterday but hey ho, I have to try and not be judgemental. I’d imagine it’s similar for decision makers especially when DWP is 1 of the few places that employs disabled adults.


The problem is they forget the additional tests of can the task be done repeatedly reliably and safely.


When I did the representation I knew what the decision makers attitude was by their names, certain ones always had the same opinion and we kept a chart of the worst decision makers and fed back to DWP that we always won the appeals done by that dm and that individual needs additional training 

[Sunny Clouds]

Something I think that the PIP categorised points system doesn't properly allow for is forms of disability arising from overlap between more than one impairment.  You could have two impairments, neither of which is worth points, but the intersectionality of which is definitely worth points. 

Also, it's bad enough that in various fields of medicine there are prejudices and stereotypes, but those will, I believe, inevitably come through in benefits assessments as well.

I could rant forever about these issues, so count yourselves lucky that I'm restraining myself! 

[ditchdwellers]

You raise some interesting points Sunny.


I wrote on my application how having multiple conditions compounds the effects of each of them so that the overall result is greater than perhaps imagined if each condition was considered in isolation to the others.


Sometimes, I don't think people understand how hard it is to manage conflicting symptoms and side effects of medications.