Experiences of claiming pip on mental health grounds.

teddysmum

nannytone wrote: »

in my case, i think of it as a quirk in my personality rather than a notifiable disability

I think millions of us have some kind of personality trait which is not the 'perfect normal'; whether, being shy, bossy, easily angered, loud etc.


There is no discrete classification, just a continuous scale , so it's difficult to decide when a trait actually becomes a disability/ailment.

Newly_retired

I agree that the forms can be daunting. Try to get an appointment at CAB for help to complete them. Take your GP/Consultant's details with you, also a copy of your prescription. This will save time. Also any medical reports, but not appointment letters.
There is also help on citizens advice website, for each section of the PIP form, with examples which may help.
We have recently found that with help from our bureau, many claimants have been successful with their initial claims, renewals, reconsiderations and appeals, to the tune of about £24000 this past year, for various benefits, mainly PIP, so it is worth making an appointment.

faerielight

I first claimed DLA 16 years ago,purely for mental health. They turned me down but I appealed and I got high care low mobility indefinitely. that was for my BPD and PTSD.I was really bad.. hearing voices,self harming badly and taking serious OD's regularly. When I appealed, I had just started working with a CPN and she wrote such a detailed letter, and that really helped. I got ill and disabled a couple of years later physically and I got my mobility upped to high. I think because it's a personality disorder it was deemed very hard to recover from, maybe that's why I got the indefinate award.

I am like a lot of you, dreading doing PIP aplications when I get called. My GP writes the bare bones of my extensive physical stuff and wrote me a letter for housing saying "I feel that .... and even wrote.. I feel like I have some post traumatic symptoms' when she knows I have a concrete diagnosis of severe PTSD. her letter made me look like a hypochondriac with nothing real wrong with,me.She missed out the M.e, widespread osteo arthritis, osteoporosis fibromyalgia, and the 2 ostomies when I had sepsis and nearly died I had and all the 5 major bowel surgeries and that the damage that was done. I felt so insulted by her letter,which was not worth submitting.
So it doesn't give me hope that I will be getting a good letter from her for PIP and that scares me. I do have a lot of hospital letters though and a keyworker for my BPD so hopefully I'll scrape through. And since I filled out the DLA form years ago, my conditions have worsened and all the bowel stuff has never gone down on a form, so I can show that I've deteriorated.
Just want to wish everyone the best of luck with your applications. I reccomend Benefits and Work site for all their guides, including a guide to mental health and PIP.

rockingbilly

faerielight wrote: »

I first claimed DLA 16 years ago,purely for mental health. They turned me down but I appealed and I got high care low mobility indefinitely. that was for my BPD and PTSD.I was really bad.. hearing voices,self harming badly and taking serious OD's regularly. When I appealed, I had just started working with a CPN and she wrote such a detailed letter, and that really helped. I got ill and disabled a couple of years later physically and I got my mobility upped to high. I think because it's a personality disorder it was deemed very hard to recover from, maybe that's why I got the indefinate award.

I am like a lot of you, dreading doing PIP aplications when I get called. My GP writes the bare bones of my extensive physical stuff and wrote me a letter for housing saying "I feel that .... and even wrote.. I feel like I have some post traumatic symptoms' when she knows I have a concrete diagnosis of severe PTSD. her letter made me look like a hypochondriac with nothing real wrong with,me.She missed out the M.e, widespread osteo arthritis, osteoporosis fibromyalgia, and the 2 ostomies when I had sepsis and nearly died I had and all the 5 major bowel surgeries and that the damage that was done. I felt so insulted by her letter,which was not worth submitting.
So it doesn't give me hope that I will be getting a good letter from her for PIP and that scares me. I do have a lot of hospital letters though and a keyworker for my BPD so hopefully I'll scrape through. And since I filled out the DLA form years ago, my conditions have worsened and all the bowel stuff has never gone down on a form, so I can show that I've deteriorated.
Just want to wish everyone the best of luck with your applications. I reccomend Benefits and Work site for all their guides, including a guide to mental health and PIP.

I had the DWP fill out the PIP2 for me. Got home and had a look at what he had put and noticed that he had missed off so much info. Reading the form it makes me look like I am a benefit scrounger with so many inconsistencies and contradictions. Anyhow I can't be bothered anymore. The form has to be back with the DWP by the 5th and it was the 30th Jan when they filled it in. So it is being sent back to them and I will be telling them that if there are problems they can blame their own staff.

nannytone_2

rockingbilly wrote: »

I had the DWP fill out the PIP2 for me. Got home and had a look at what he had put and noticed that he had missed off so much info. Reading the form it makes me look like I am a benefit scrounger with so many inconsistencies and contradictions. Anyhow I can't be bothered anymore. The form has to be back with the DWP by the 5th and it was the 30th Jan when they filled it in. So it is being sent back to them and I will be telling them that if there are problems they can blame their own staff.

asking a member of staff to complete a PIP form for you is the same as asking the checkout operator at tesco to do it!

they have no knowledge of disability benefits and the kind of information needed for a successful claim.

the people that make the decisions don't perform customer facing roles

rockingbilly

nannytone wrote: »

asking a member of staff to complete a PIP form for you is the same as asking the checkout operator at tesco to do it!

they have no knowledge of disability benefits and the kind of information needed for a successful claim.

the people that make the decisions don't perform customer facing roles

It was the DWP that telephoned me and told me to go to my local jobcentre to have the PIP2 completed What was I supposed to do? Tell them to get st***ed? I had no alternative, I had made an appointment to see a Disability Advisor on the 17th Feb, but the PIP had to be back before the 5th and I was too nervous/worried about asking for a time extension.
I have to admit that what he wrote was different to what I said - he made it sound that I was trying my luck. He even walked with me to test the distance I could walk and came up with a figure of 35 metres which he put on the form. He never asked if I was in pain or if I could do it again. By the time I got out of that building and down three flights of stairs I was knackered but he didn't see that either.

NeilCr

rockingbilly wrote: »

I had the DWP fill out the PIP2 for me. Got home and had a look at what he had put and noticed that he had missed off so much info. Reading the form it makes me look like I am a benefit scrounger with so many inconsistencies and contradictions. Anyhow I can't be bothered anymore. The form has to be back with the DWP by the 5th and it was the 30th Jan when they filled it in. So it is being sent back to them and I will be telling them that if there are problems they can blame their own staff.

Agree with nannytone. This guy will have gone through the form asked you the questions and put down your answers. He won't have probed or helped in guiding you in the correct way to complete the form as would someone from an advice centre. If there are inconsistencies/omissions that you can see why not change the form.

In the end you will have signed the form as correct so telling them the problems are with their own staff won't get you very far

You should have asked for an extension.

rockingbilly

NeilCr wrote: »

Agree with nannytone. This guy will have gone through the form asked you the questions and put down your answers. He won't have probed or helped in guiding you in the correct way to complete the form as would someone from an advice centre. If there are inconsistencies/omissions that you can see why not change the form.

In the end you will have signed the form as correct so telling them the problems are with their own staff won't get you very far

You should have asked for an extension.

I did as suggested earlier on here. The PIP help line gave me 7 days. That makes the date for the forms to be sent back as 12th February - still 5 days before I have the appointment with the advice centre. They refused the 14 application that someone on here suggested was the norm.

Tommo1980

From what I have read of your posts it seems to me that you have the knowledge and capability to fill out your own forms.

Why rely on someone else who doesn't know you? All the time and energy you have wasted over-thinking and complaining about the process, you could have put together a top notch application.

It really isn't rocket science!

Tom

NeilCr

rockingbilly wrote: »

I did as suggested earlier on here. The PIP help line gave me 7 days. That makes the date for the forms to be sent back as 12th February - still 5 days before I have the appointment with the advice centre. They refused the 14 application that someone on here suggested was the norm.

But you said 2/3 posts up that you were too nervous/worried to ask for an extension

Maybe you need to get your story straight!