Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

To qualify for PIP, you must meet the following basic conditions:

• If you’re making a new claim for PIP you must be 16 or over and under State Pension age (unless you’re moving across from Disability Living Allowance).
• You must have been present in Great Britain (or Northern Ireland, if you live there) for 2 out of the last 3 years before claiming.  If you’re terminally ill, you need to be present in Great Britain but the time conditions don’t apply.
• Your immigration status must not prevent you from claiming

The disability conditions

You must also meet the disability conditions to get PIP. The disability conditions look at your daily living and mobility needs. These are worked out by the PIP assessment.

You must have met the disability conditions for at least 3 months before you can get PIP. You must also be likely to continue to meet the disability conditions for 9 months in the future.

If you’re terminally ill, the 3 and 9-month rules don’t apply. The terminally ill rule asks for a medical professional to confirm that their patient might have 12 months or less to live. If this is the case, you’ll automatically receive the enhanced rate for daily living and will be assessed on your mobility needs.

The PIP assessment

The PIP assessment is a test of your ability to take part in everyday life. The criteria are based on your inability to perform different activities relating to certain daily living needs and your mobility. You’re given points depending on your difficulties. The number of points you score will determine whether or not you’re entitled to either component of PIP and, if you are, at which rate.

The Department for Work and Pensions will assess you for PIP by asking you to fill out the ‘How your disability affects you’ form. This may be followed by an assessment with a health professional on the phone or face-to-face.

The daily living activities

Your ability to carry out daily living activities is assessed by looking at 10 types of activity. These are:

• preparing food
• taking nutrition (eating and drinking)
• managing therapy or monitoring a health condition
• washing and bathing
• managing toilet needs or incontinence
• dressing and undressing
• communicating verbally
• reading and understanding signs, symbols and words
• engaging with other people face-to-face
• making budgeting decisions

The mobility activities

Your ability to carry out mobility activities is assessed by looking at 2 types of activity:

• planning and following journeys
• moving around

How to claim PIP

Find out more about applying for PIP on the government website at the link below. You can start your claim by phone or post. You can only apply for PIP online in certain areas.

Applying for Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

Someone else can make the call on your behalf, but you need to be with them when they do so, unless you’re terminally ill. During this call, you’ll need to provide details including your personal and contact details, National Insurance number and details of your bank or building society (for payment purposes). It will help if you have this information ready when you make the call. You’ll be asked for details of your GP and hospital specialist. You shouldn’t be asked how your medical condition affects you at this stage.

If you meet the basic qualifying conditions, you’ll be sent a form to fill in called ‘How your disability affects you’. You’ll have 1 month to fill in the form (you can ask for an extension if you need one). You may then have an assessment with a healthcare professional.

Filling in the ‘How your disability affects you’ form

Once you return your ‘How your disability affects you’ form, your case will be passed on to one of the companies that carry out PIP assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

They’ll allocate your assessment to a healthcare professional working for them.

This healthcare professional may contact your GP or specialist for more information before deciding if a consultation is needed.

Follow the link below to read more about the assessment with a healthcare professional.

Assessment with a healthcare professional

Mandatory reconsideration

If your claim for PIP is turned down you have 1 calendar month from the date of the decision to ask the Department for Work and Pensions to look at the decision again. This is called a ‘mandatory reconsideration‘.

You can also ask for the decision to be looked at again if you’re unhappy with the level of the benefit you’ve been awarded or the period for which it’s been awarded.

Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration)

Building a case

You can ask for a copy of the assessment and any other medical information used by the decision-maker. When you receive this evidence, you should get a better idea of why the decision was made.

In most cases, there will be a report produced by the healthcare professional at the consultation. Compare their report with what you wrote on the ‘How your disability affects you’ form. Look for differences of opinion.

Where you find such differences, try to get medical evidence showing that what you said on the form was correct. For example, you could ask for a letter from your GP, specialist or Parkinson’s nurse describing the difficulties you have in walking, which backs up what you said.

How to appeal

You must usually appeal to an independent tribunal within 1 calendar month of the date on your mandatory reconsideration notice. You can appeal against a decision using the official appeal form, the SSCS1, on the government website linked below.

Appeal a benefit decision

The appeal form will ask if you would like your appeal to be considered with or without being heard by a tribunal (an ‘oral hearing’).

The appeal will be considered by an independent appeal tribunal. These tribunals are informal – they’re not like the courts. If you have a carer, they can attend as well to give information they have about your needs.

You can contact the Parkinson’s UK helpline or a local advice centre such as Citizens Advice to see if they can give you any support and possibly provide a representative to present your case at the hearing.

Citizens Advice

Changes in your condition