Check the questions on your form – The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has started sending out a new version of the PIP review form. This means the advice on this page might not match the form you’ve been sent. You should answer the questions on the form you’ve got.
How do I fill out a PIP review?
What to do if the impact of your condition has changed since your last PIP assessment – When claiming PIP, you must report specific changes in your health to the DWP. For example, a change could be:
- If your condition or the relevant symptoms have improved or worsened
- If you’ve stopped or started taking any medication
If a change in your situation has impacted your life since the last assessment you need to explain the following in your PIP review:
- What happened to cause the change
- When it happened
- How it made things easier or harder for you (detailing what help, if any, you still need)
How to fill in PIP assessment form?
PIP form tips and help – In addition to specific PIP form question tips, we have listed a few general tips for filling in the PIP form:
- Always use the ‘extra information’ boxes to explain exactly how your illness affects you.
- Don’t feel you have to fit your answer into the box provided. You can use the space at the end of the form or extra sheets of paper if you need to.
- If you use extra paper, add your name and National Insurance number and staple it to the form securely.
- Try to give clear, short explanations and examples that are relevant to the activity.
- You do not have to get treatment or support to meet the criteria for PIP. If you don’t get all the support you need, think about how your life could be improved if someone could encourage, help or prompt you with the activity.
- Think about how you can do each activity.a. Safely: Can you do the activity without causing danger to yourself or someone else? b. Well enough: For example, you may be able to make a meal, but you will not be able to eat it if it is undercooked.c. More than once: Can you repeat the activity as many times as you need to? d. In a reasonable time: Does it take you longer to do the activity than it would take most people? Think about the help you could use to reliably manage an activity when you are at your worst point on a typical day. Include as much detail as possible.
- To qualify for PIP, you need to show that you need help with the activities on more than half the days in a year. Make it clear on the form how often you have problems with the activities.
- If your health changes, explain how often this happens and the effect it has on you. It may help to keep a diary.
Can I fill in PIP review form online?
When you start your claim for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sends you a form to fill in. You can choose whether you receive a paper form or a link to an online form. You usually get the paper form within two weeks of your phone call to start the claim.
How long are PIP reviews taking 2023?
As the DWP grapples with personal independence payment (PIP) reassessment delays, Carri Swann considers how to advise affected claimants. Background As of October 2022, it takes the DWP 16 weeks to decide a new PIP claim. While nowhere near the August 2021 peak of 26 weeks, 16 weeks is still a long time for new claimants to wait.1 DWP, Personal Independence Payment: official statistics to October 2022, available at gov.uk, (‘PIP Official Statistics’), para 6 The DWP is taking steps to ‘manage’ these delays, like increasing its numbers of case managers and subcontracted healthcare professionals.2 DWP email to stakeholders, 16 November 2022 It is also prioritising new claimants for assessment ahead of existing claimants whose cases have come up for review.
- Unfortunately, this measure is shifting delays from one part of the PIP system – new claims – to another – the award review process.
- Delays when you have an existing award The DWP does not publish statistics on how long a PIP reassessment takes, but CPAG’s Early Warning System has heard about claimants waiting a year or more between completing a review form and getting a new entitlement decision.
Sometimes these claimants have been sent a review form as part of a planned award review, and sometimes because they have notified the DWP of a deterioration in their health. These delays present a few different issues. In this article, two are considered.
- First, there is the fear that a fixed-term PIP award might end before a new award is made.
- Second, there is the issue that people wait too long for a much-needed PIP increase after a deterioration in their health, and when it comes, it is not always applied from the date they expect.1.
- Automatic extensions The DWP has taken steps to prevent PIP from going out of payment due to reassessment delays by introducing automatic extensions for some awards.
If, 35 days before an award is due to end, it is still ‘awaiting review’, it will be automatically extended by up to 12 months.3 Confirmed in DWP, LA Welfare Direct 9/2022, paras 28-31, available at gov.uk Automatic extensions are not new, having been used extensively at the height of the pandemic.
- However, the latest policy offers the longest extensions to date.
- It also promises written confirmation, which has not always been available in the past.
- Does the automatic extensions policy apply to all PIP awards? The policy only appears to apply when an award is subject to review,
- This is not a statutory term.
Being subject to review means that a claimant is sent an award review form (AR1) to complete before their fixed-term PIP award is due to end. The DWP then reassesses them and makes a new decision on their entitlement without them having to reclaim PIP.
- Some PIP awards of two years or less are not ‘subject to review’.4 para P2063 ADM; DWP response to FOI request FOI2021/ 13215, 2 March 2021, available at ; there is implicit confirmation that this approach continues in the PIP Official Statistics at para 4.
- A decision maker has discretion to make this kind of award if they think that (eg, because of planned treatment) the claimant will no longer qualify for PIP at the end of the award period.
The DWP sometimes calls these ‘short-term awards without review’. The DWP makes lots of short-term PIP awards: as of October 2022, 77 per cent of new awards were for two years or less.5 PIP Official Statistics, para 4 As a result, it is likely that many PIP claimants are not subject to review.
Instead of being sent an award review form, short-term award claimants get a letter some months before their PIP is due to end prompting them to make a new PIP claim. This ‘renewal claim’ is made in the same way as any other new claim and can be put in up to six months before the existing award is due to end.6 Reg 33(2) Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Claims and Payments) Regulations 2013, No.380.
As noted above, the average waiting time for a decision on new claims is 16 weeks. Although ‘review’ and ‘renewal’ are sometimes talked about interchangeably, in practice these are clearly two quite different processes. For a claimant coming towards the end of a fixed-term PIP award, it is crucial to know what they are expected to do and when.
If you are not sure whether your client is subject to review or not, you can normally find this information in their award letter or by calling the PIP helpline.7 The wording in the award letter might be: ‘We will also contact you while you are getting PIP to see if your needs have changed and to look at the amount you get.
This will be after,’ If your client’s award is subject to review, and this has not been completed 35 days before its end date, the award should be automatically extended as described above. If it is not subject to review, it appears that it will not be extended.
This could mean your client’s award ending before their renewal claim is decided, leaving a gap in payments. What is not clear is whether your client could get around this by making a supersession request (ie, reporting a change of circumstances) more than 35 days before their existing award ends. If they do so, they are classed as awaiting an unplanned rather than a planned review.
The policy and indeed the relevant law does not distinguish between the two, and it is possible that having either kind of review outstanding will mean their award is identified for extension. When you are advising someone who has a short-term award without review, you might therefore suggest they report a change of circumstances at the same time as making a renewal claim.
- A relevant change of circumstances can be that their difficulties are expected to last beyond the end date of their award, even if the level of their difficulties has not changed.8 PH v SSWP (DLA) UKUT 268 (AAC).
- While this was a DLA case, it is strongly arguable that the reasoning also applies to fixed-term awards of PIP.
This approach, although admin-heavy, might give them the best chance of being protected from a gap in payments. The best advice will always depend on the facts of the case. Can an award made by the tribunal be automatically extended? Yes, in principle.
A PIP award made by the tribunal can be superseded for a change of circumstances in the same way as other awards.9 Reg 23(1)(a) Universal Credit, Personal Independence Payment, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2013, No.381 (‘UC,PIP,JSA&ESA(D&A) Regs’) If this is the legal ground the DWP is using to make automatic extensions – and it appears to be – then it follows that an award made by the tribunal will be automatically extended, so long as it is ‘awaiting review’.
However, some advisers have reported that the DWP is not always attaching review dates to tribunal awards in the way as it does to other awards – ie, even where they are for more than two years. These awards are therefore not being automatically extended.
The DWP does not have any statutory obligation to review awards, but its approach here does not appear to be in line with its own policies.10 See footnote 4 When you are advising someone who has an award made by the tribunal, do check their DWP award letter or call the PIP helpline to ask if an award review date has been set.
The answer will determine the advice you give (see answer to ‘ Does the automatic extensions policy apply to all PIP awards? ‘ above). How can my client prove their extended PIP entitlement – eg, for a blue badge application? As of mid-December, affected claimants are automatically sent letters confirming their extended PIP entitlement.
The DWP has told stakeholders that any affected claimant who has not automatically received a letter (eg, because their award was extended before December) can call the PIP helpline and ask for one. CPAG’s Early Warning System has heard that some councils are adapting to the situation by offering longer Blue Badge extensions based on previous medical information in appropriate cases, rather than extending for 12 months or less in line with the PIP award.2.
Deterioration in health and effective date of supersession A second issue for existing PIP claimants hit by assessment delays is that they may wait a long time for much-needed PIP increases after experiencing a deterioration in their health. When they do get a new decision, the increase does not always apply from the date they expect.
From what date should PIP increase? There are several factors to consider. The required period condition PIP can usually increase no earlier than three months after your client starts satisfying the conditions for a higher rate. This is part of the ‘required period’ condition for PIP eligibility, and is statutory.
So if, for example, your client’s needs increased in December 2022, their award can increase from no earlier than March 2023. They should still report the change as soon as possible, and not wait three months to do so, as this will simply hold up the reassessment process.
The supersession rules The date of any increase will also depend on which grounds of supersession are being used by the DWP to increase your client’s award. The answer to this question determines the relevant date of the increase – but it is not always straightforward. (a) If your client actively contacted the DWP to report a change in circumstances In this situation, you client’s award should be superseded on the grounds of a change of circumstances.11 Regs 12 and 13 Social Security (Personal Independence Payment) Regulations 2013, No.377; reg 23(1)(a) and Sch 1 para 15 UC,PIP,JSA&ESA(D&A) Regs If they report the change ‘no later than one month’ after it happens (or later if the DWP agrees), then the supersession takes effect from the date of the change of circumstances.
This needs to be read together with the required period rules above – ie, so that, technically, the change would need to be reported within a month of satisfying the required period condition. In practice however, it remains good advice not to wait until then, but simply to report the change (the deterioration in health) as soon as possible.
- For example, if your client’s mobility gets worse because of an accident on 1 December 2022, and they notify the change in their needs any time between 1 December 2022 and 1 April 2023, their award should be increased from 1 March 2023.
- If they tell the DWP about the change on a date after 1 April 2023, then unless the DWP agrees to allow a late notification, the increase will only take effect from that notification date.
(b) If your client instead completed an award review form that the DWP sent them unprompted as part of a planned award review In this case, you could argue that your client notified the DWP of a change of circumstances on the date it received their completed AR1 form; that the DWP should therefore supersede their award on the grounds of a change of circumstances; and that the effective date of any increase should be worked out accordingly.12 See footnote 11.
Note that, for Sch 1 para 18 of the UC,PIP,JSA&ESA(D&A) Regs, it seems unlikely that the DWP sending you an AR1 in a planned review case could amount to ‘action with a view to supersession’. However, the success of this approach might be dependent on what your client wrote in their AR1 form. The DWP may not agree to supersede on this basis, and want instead to apply the alternative rule described below.
The alternative ground of supersession In either (a) or (b), the DWP might try to supersede your client’s award on the alternative grounds of receipt of new medical evidence from a healthcare professional.13 s10(5) Social Security Act 1998; reg 26 UC,PIP,JSA&ESA(D&A) Regs Supersessions made on this ground have a different effective date from supersessions made for a change of circumstances.
If this medical evidence ground applies, any increase in your client’s award will only apply from the date of the DWP’s new decision. When both possible grounds for a supersession apply, and the DWP uses the ground that is less generous to the claimant, that is at least potentially wrong, and its decision can be challenged.
In the reported decision in DS v SSWP (PIP) UKUT 538 (AAC), reported as AACR 19, Judge Mesher noted that the PIP supersession rules make particular provisions about changes of circumstance that are advantageous to the claimant, and stated: ‘So far as decisions that are advantageous to the claimant go, there is then no difficulty in applying a general principle that the claimant should be able to take the benefit of whatever ground gives the most advantage.’
What should I write in my PIP review?
Check the questions on your form – The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has started sending out a new version of the PIP review form. This means the advice on this page might not match the form you’ve been sent. You should answer the questions on the form you’ve got.
Has anyone won PIP for ADHD?
Success rate – The average success rate for all assessed claims for PIP is 53%. For ADD/ADHD the success rate is 49%. So, a little bit lower than average, but still almost half of all claimants with ADD/ADHD get an award.
Can I get PIP for anxiety?
You might be able to get Personal Independence Payment (PIP) if you need extra help because of an illness, disability or mental health condition. You can make a PIP claim whether or not you get help from anyone. You don’t need to have worked or paid National Insurance to qualify for PIP, and it doesn’t matter what your income is, if you have any savings or you’re working.
How long to fill in PIP review form?
Review – Your award of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) may be reviewed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) at any time, even if you have an award for a fixed amount of time. The DWP will usually start to review your claim one year before your award ends.
When the DWP reviews your claim, they send you a letter with a PIP review form. The DWP gives you 4 weeks to fill in the form and send it back. Ask the DWP for more time if you need it. You will need to phone them and tell them why you need more time. If you don’t send the form back in time, the DWP will stop your claim unless you have a good reason for sending it in late.
You will need to tell them why you sent the form late. If the DWP stop your claim because you sent the form back too late and they don’t think that you have a good reason, you can start again with a new claim or challenge their decision (or both). You don’t have to do the form on your own.
- You can ask someone else to help you.
- It can be someone you know or you can find a benefits adviser near you using our Find an Adviser tool,
- If something has changed, the DWP may need more information to let the claim continue.
- You may need to complete another claim form and attend another medical assessment.
In a review, the DWP will decide whether to:
Make your PIP award longer Change your entitlement End your PIP claim.
What illness qualifies for PIP?
You can get Personal Independence Payment ( PIP ) if all of the following apply to you:
you’re 16 or over you have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability you have difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around you expect the difficulties to last for at least 12 months from when they started
You must also be under State Pension age if you’ve not received PIP before. If you’re over State Pension age, you can apply for Attendance Allowance instead. Or if you’ve received PIP before, you can still make a new claim if you were eligible for it in the year before you reached State Pension age.
How long does it take to hear back from PIP review form?
New statistics also show that the end-to-end PIP processing time for new claims takes 16 weeks.
Has anyone had a PIP telephone assessment 2023?
The latest statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) indicate that some 661,620 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments were conducted over the phone between February 2022 and January 2023. The figure accounts for 66 per cent of all assessments and includes new claims, award reviews and change of circumstances.
- Data shared by Minister for Disabled People, Tom Pursglove MP, also shows that 69,570 (7%) of all assessments conducted over that same period were done in-person through a face-to-face consultation.
- There were also 179,390 (18.1%) paper-based assessments and 69,140 (7%) completed over a video call.
- DWP also said there were 13,270 completed assessments (1.3%) for which they do not hold data.
To help people prepare for a PIP assessment, below is everything you need to know about them – whatever the format.
What not to say on a PIP assessment?
What you should say at your PIP assessment – You will be required to talk about how your condition affects you despite detailing it in your PIP form. You should explain the following:
What you have difficulty with, or can’t do at all – for example, leaving the house, socialising, cooking. How your condition affects you from day-to-day – make sure you read the pip descriptors so you can understand what each question means and if it applies you. What a bad day is like for you – for example, ‘on a bad day, I’m so depressed I can’t concentrate on anything, and getting out of bed is a huge struggle.
These general PIP assessment tips will also help you:
Don’t let the assessor rush you. Try not to just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the questions. Always explain how doing something would make you feel afterwards and the impact it can have on you if you had to do it repeatedly in a short period.
How many people get awarded PIP?
Around three million people in the UK claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a benefit paid to those whose lives are impacted by their disabilities or long-term health conditions. The benefit – which is paid by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) – is worth between £24.25 and £156.90 per week currently, or £627 a month, and is not means tested.
PIP is made up of 2 parts – called ‘components’, which look at an applicant’s condition and how it affects their daily living and their mobility. Claimants are not charged tax on PIP and families where at least one member claims the benefit are not affected by the benefits cap. Read here which health conditions are accepted.
The benefit is usually awarded for a fixed length of time and then is reviewed to determine whether the claim is still valid. If you’re awarded PIP for a fixed time of more than 2 years, the DWP will usually review your award before it ends. If a claimant is awarded ‘an indefinite award’ this is usually reviewed every 10 years.
- Read more: Snowdonia church dating back to 14th century is on sale for £25,000 Campaigning website Benefits and Work has compiled a list of over 500 conditions arranged in order of how hard it is to get an award of PIP, using the DWP’s own Stat-Xplore database.
- However, the DWP has reiterated that PIP eligibility is based not on their condition, but on how that condition affects their daily life.
The list shows that the overall average success rate for PIP claims across all of the conditions is 52%, but this can vary greatly depending on the condition. The five conditions most likely to be awarded PIP are Creutzfeldt – Jacob disease (CJD) (100%), Down’s syndrome (99.6%), motor neurone disease (97.5%) and dementia (94.1%). At the other end of the spectrum, only 11.6% of people with oral allergy syndrome were successful (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire) At the other end of the spectrum, only 11.6% of people with oral allergy syndrome were successful, with acne, some incontinence conditions, eczema, dyslexia and food intolerance all having a success rate of less than 25%.
While awards for arthritis are above the average, claims relating to mental health vary widely, with 38.8% of anxiety disorder sufferers being awarded PIP, generalised anxiety disorder 42.7%, anxiety and depressive disorders 49.6%, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 58.2%, bipolar affective disorder 61.3% and schizophrenia 69.7%.
Other common conditions include:
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) 26.1% Coeliac disease: 27.2% Anaemia: 33.5% Gallstones: 34.3% Hearing loss 41.3% Whiplash: 42.9% Diabetes: 45.6% Asperger’s syndrome: 51% Autism: 72.3% Cancer: At least 72.3% Multiple Sclerosis (MS): 78.9%
A spokesperson from Benefits and Work told the Chronicle : “On its own this doesn’t tell the whole tale. For example, it doesn’t tell us what percentage of claimants got the enhanced rate of one or both components.” People who applied for PIP and were not awarded it can challenge the decision by requesting a mandatory reconsideration in the first instance.
- The best way to apply is to use the CRMR1 mandatory reconsideration request form on GOV.UK, or write a letter to the DWP explaining why you disagree with the decision.
- Check the date on your decision letter as you need to ask for a mandatory reconsideration within one month of that date.
- If you’ve missed the 1 month deadline, it’s still worth asking for a mandatory reconsideration, as long as it’s within 13 months of the decision.
You’ll need to explain your reasons for being late – for example if being ill or dealing with difficult personal circumstances meant you couldn’t apply in time. Use your form or letter to explain why your application is late, as well as why you disagree with their decision.
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How many people are awarded PIP?
A new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) highlights that the number of working-age people who received Personal Independence Payment (PIP) doubled between July 2021 and July 2022. In summer 2021, each month 15,000 or so working-age people started receiving PIP with that monthly figure having remained little changed for years.
Currently there are 2.8 million claimants, whose payments cost in total £15 billion per year. This sudden increase seems to be driven by a worsening of health across the population – something for which there is now accumulating evidence across a number of sources.
The new IFS report also finds that:
The increase in claims has been seen across ages and conditions. Essentially all ages have seen their claim rate roughly double, although for teenagers it has tripled. Claims for most major conditions also increased by a similar amount. Around a third of the new claims are for mental or behavioural conditions, although among claimants under 25 that figure rises to 70%. The share of claims for mental illnesses, has – like other conditions – changed remarkably little during the rapid rise. Rising applications to disability benefits has led to a backlog of around 250,000 people waiting for their claim to be assessed, So far this does not appear to have affected waiting times, though they remain long at 18 weeks on average. The success rate (the proportion of applications that are awarded PIP) has stayed roughly the same since 2016 at around 40%, This is consistent with the assessment system remaining roughly the same in terms of its “strictness”, and the ill health of applicants remaining at similar severity, with the spike in new PIP awards simply driven by more people in ill health and making claims. Consistent with that interpretation, survey data on the working-age population as a whole shows that health has been getting worse, with 9.6% (4.0 million) now reporting that their health limits their daily activities “a lot”, up from 8.5% (3.5 million) at the start of 2021, Here too there is an increase across all major types of condition.
The IFS concludes that: “From mid-2021 to mid-2022, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of people beginning a PIP claim. This does not seem to be driven by a change in the operation of the PIP system, and nor does it appear closely related to labour market factors.
“Instead, the evidence is consistent with the rise being driven by a general worsening of health across the population. “The number of people with health conditions that significantly affect their day-to-day activities – crudely the requirement for PIP eligibility – started to significantly rise at the same time as when PIP applications increased.
“Both among the unwell population at large, and among new PIP claimants specifically, we see deteriorations in health that are broad-based across conditions rather than driven by just one or two major culprits.” Ken Butler DR UK’s Welfare Rights and Policy Adviser said: “The shocking detailing by the IFS of the rapid deterioration in the UK’s health by the IFS is reinforced by new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data,
- These highlight that disabled adults are five times (35%) more likely than non-disabled adults (7%) to experience some form of depression.
- Unless the cumulative damage caused by the effects of the Covid pandemic and the years of austerity to both welfare and social care is reversed then Disabled people’s overall health and wellbeing will continue to deteriorate.
In terms of PIP, in the short term, action must be taken to ensure the 18 weeks for decisions on claims is reduced. However, what must be remembered too is that PIP award rates of just 40% does not accurately reflect the true needs of those claiming it.
What conditions automatically qualify you for PIP?
You can get Personal Independence Payment ( PIP ) if all of the following apply to you:
you’re 16 or over you have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability you have difficulty doing certain everyday tasks or getting around you expect the difficulties to last for at least 12 months from when they started
You must also be under State Pension age if you’ve not received PIP before. If you’re over State Pension age, you can apply for Attendance Allowance instead. Or if you’ve received PIP before, you can still make a new claim if you were eligible for it in the year before you reached State Pension age.