New PIP review form confusing - advice welcomed.

SaitenMar

Hi all,

So I recently received my review form for PIP and the new form is frustrating to say the least. It's the AR1 form and there seems to be less room to put in details than ever before. Plus some of the questions have left me confused. For example in Activity 1 - Preparing food and cooking there's section 28 which asked 'Please tell us why and when these needs began' and I'm a little confused by what they are asking here. Do I go into detail about when I started to struggle with this activity or is it related to the previous question regarding if I needed another person to help?

I know I can write extra forms to attach to my claim later on, but at least the previous form gave you more room to write things in detail about how my health condition affects the activity. You can barely fit anything into these new forms. Whilst I can still rely on some of the help found on the web applying to this new form (many of the questions are similiar to past forms) I feel like I'm not really able to answer the questions as efficently as I'd hope to.

It's genuinely left me frustrated and confused. If anyone else as had to deal with this new form I'd appreciate any advice they might have. Thanks.

born_again

Standard form we all have to deal with I'm afraid.
As to space. Type your answers up on a computer if you can print out. Make life much easier & allows you to keep a copy of your answers, as you are looking at around 12 month wait for it to be worked.

Muttleythefrog

Follow advice in this very recent thread regarding form completion as it also solves your problem and has other benefits. 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6592592/can-you-do-a-pip-review-form-online

On your question about the question as to when needs began... I'm looking at the new form and dear me... it is terrible... I am not sure actually what to suggest on that.... you will be right it is one of the two options you propose. It is beyond me how this form passed quality controls or testing. "Please tell us why and when these needs began" in each activity section is very confusing given I would normally say we're talking generally about your needs for each activity... but the question follows the help you get or need suggesting it may be related to how you deal with the disablement. I suspect the former but without clear guidance (if you get none) I'd default to covering both bases.

Hopefully someone with more experience of this form and how it is treated can answer.

born_again

Just looked at our form from Dec 23 & there is no section 28. It only goes to 13 & that is for Anything Else.

Muttleythefrog

born_again said:

Just looked at our form from Dec 23 & there is no section 28. It only goes to 13 & that is for Anything Else.

Looks like the new version is Nov 2024. Very different than the review form I completed last and the guidance notes are.. well... not helpful much.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67446cf2ece939d55ce92fa1/AR1_Personal_Independence_Payment_Review_Form.pdf

SaitenMar

Muttleythefrog said:

born_again said:

Just looked at our form from Dec 23 & there is no section 28. It only goes to 13 & that is for Anything Else.

Looks like the new version is Nov 2024. Very different than the review form I completed last and the guidance notes are.. well... not helpful much.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67446cf2ece939d55ce92fa1/AR1_Personal_Independence_Payment_Review_Form.pdf

That's the form I've got and it looks like I'll need to put all the required information on extra sheets of paper because the form itself barely as any room to provide the information required. It's pretty abysmal and is clearly designed to frustrate applicants.

Muttleythefrog

SaitenMar said:

Muttleythefrog said:

born_again said:

Just looked at our form from Dec 23 & there is no section 28. It only goes to 13 & that is for Anything Else.

Looks like the new version is Nov 2024. Very different than the review form I completed last and the guidance notes are.. well... not helpful much.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67446cf2ece939d55ce92fa1/AR1_Personal_Independence_Payment_Review_Form.pdf

That's the form I've got and it looks like I'll need to put all the required information on extra sheets of paper because the form itself barely as any room to provide the information required. It's pretty abysmal and is clearly designed to frustrate applicants.

Yes.... this article/post sort of sums things up well. I can't yet see any specific advice on the 'when those needs began' issue yet and a fair few of the regulars here who claim PIP have recently had reviews including myself but not filling in this version of the form.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/beware-latest-pip-review-form

Spoonie_Turtle

Oh my goodness.  It looks like it could be to make their own jobs easier, instead of having to carefully read paragraphs to extract the relevant descriptors from them, but my goodness that's going to be dreadful to fill in.

Did they run it past any disabled experts??!  (Rhetorical, of course they won't have because that would require money to compensate the expert for their time, effort, and insight.)

born_again

WOW... What a form. 😶‍🌫️ Totally different.

5 medications... No where near enough for many.

Should make it a lot quicker for people doing assessments, as it is basically a tick box for them.

I guess needs began, will take you back to when you 1st claimed, unless things have got worse, in which case from that date.

Interesting it gives a slightly better guide on what they look at. 
EG
We can consider things like: • cutting food into pieces
We do not consider things like: • ability to cut and chew tough foods for example steak

Surely steak is food & is not a tough food. As that would be a good example for the inability to cut food into pieces.

Amathyst

I thought the previous one was bad enough, the boxes are tiny on there.

SaitenMar

Having a nightmare filling in the form. Looking at some of the past review forms they are a lot of more precise and clear on what information they want, with questions like 'Tell us if something has changed and approximately when?' or Tell us about any changes to the help you need or the help you get from another person' whilst in this new form there's no mention on where I can detail changes in my conditions. It's like they aren't interested in how my condition affects me and the activities highlighted which I thought was so essential for the PIP process.

At this rate I'll have to attach loads of extra information sheets to provide all the information needed and there's no real guides for this form, most relate to the old AR1 form which only sort of apply to some of the questions. It's driving me mad.