Need help with PIP please!

Samy0000

Long story short I'm a psychology student and a couple of years ago I realized that my father has severe anxiety. This is due to his childhood, when he was a child his father and older brother used to literally beat him up on a daily basis and they made him pass out a number of times. Now my father has severe anxiety and is always worried if someone hurts him again, he is so scared that if you steal something from him, he will just say "sorry" and walk away but this affects his working life as well, since I was a child, he has always struggled to hold a job because his anxiety stops him from being able to act like a normal person which in turn stops him from working like he should and then gets fired. This has happened at least 20/30 times since I was a child. We have always struggled to get by but my father has been lucky because my older sister is a manager and she helped him immensely and for around 10 years he has been able to keep working at her place but the money he gets is not enough so I have been helping him and contributing a lot but now I am moving away to continue my psychology studies and he will struggle again when I move away and my mother is not able to work due to her high blood pressure and the 3 more illnesses related to it. They do not receive any types of benefits. I looked around online and found out he could be able to apply and receive PIP but I'm not too sure how it works, will he have to regularly visit and get a letter or something similar from a qualified psychologist (I'm only a student at the moment so I won't be able to write anything official) stating that he indeed suffers from anxiety and that it seriously affects his working life and his income? If he didn't have anxiety, he could easily hold a higher paid job but his anxiety won't allow him to.

Spoonie_Turtle

PIP is about how conditions affect your daily life and functioning, nothing to do with work - though it does cover interacting with others, which sounds like part of his problems with work.. The work/income-related benefit would be Universal Credit, and the assessment there (Work Capability Assessment) is focused on how conditions affect one's ability to work.

For either of them, it's a case of applying, supplying as much evidence as possible from medical professionals, then attending an assessment. The length of any benefit awarded before needing to be re-assessed varies, for PIP it's often up to three years, and for UC it can technically be as short as three months but quite honestly it's very unlikely to be that quick - many people are still fighting for an accurate outcome at that point. He would really need a diagnosis from a qualified professional to lend weight to his case for either one though. As he is working already then he may not qualify for UC, but he might - UC replaces benefits including Income Support and Housing Benefit. You can do a benefits check here: https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Dexter215

I receive enhanced care and mobility for anxiey/depression from similar circumstances. You're father is entitled to PIP if it affects him. It was a battle with the DWP for me with a mandatory reconsideration leading to appeal and unfortunately and I've seen people get something even not turning up to their assessment or no evidence provided. It's very random and so unfair. My advice would be to help him to the professionals he needs with a diagnosis and treatment plan.

Samy0000

Thanks a lot for having taken the time to answer my question. Did you have to show them proofs from a psychologist when applying for PIP or did they do all the assessments themselves after you applied?

poppy12345

Samy0000 wrote: »

Thanks a lot for having taken the time to answer my question. Did you have to show them proofs from a psychologist when applying for PIP or did they do all the assessments themselves after you applied?

It's the claimants responsibility to make sure they send evidence to support their claim. They very rarely contact anyone for any evidence.


Expect a face to face assessment because most people have them. It's rare to have a paper based assessment.

poppy12345

Dexter215 wrote: »

I receive enhanced care and mobility for anxiey/depression from similar circumstances. You're father is entitled to PIP if it affects him. It was a battle with the DWP for me with a mandatory reconsideration leading to appeal and unfortunately and I've seen people get something even not turning up to their assessment or no evidence provided. It's very random and so unfair. My advice would be to help him to the professionals he needs with a diagnosis and treatment plan.

PIP isn't awarded based on a diagnosis. It's how those conditions affect your ability to carry out daily activity based on the PIP descriptors.


You may have similar conditions to the OP but you can't compare 2 people because we are all affected differently by these conditions. What might affect one, might not affect the other.

Alice_Holt

Dexter215 wrote: »

... I've seen people get something even not turning up to their assessment...

If PIP claimants fail to attend their scheduled assessment, then their claim is cancelled.