How to apply for a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) form?

Before you begin your claim you will need to make sure you fulfil the criteria below:

  • You are 16 years’ of age 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 have not received PIP before. If you are over the State Pension age and you do not already have a PIP award running, and fulfil the criteria above, please make an application for Attendance Allowance.

Terminal illness

If you have a terminal illness, this is called claiming under special rules. To make this claim telephone the claim line, as below, and ask your doctor or consultant to send the Department for Work and Pensions a medical form called a DS1500. This sets out a patient’s condition, the treatment, date of diagnosis and so on.  It is usually valid for three years. You will not have to complete a PIP form or attend an assessment, your application will be dealt with very quickly and you will be given a three year award.

NB: Before making the application I recommend that you read PIP points explained on this website, as this will give you an indication of the criteria used to make a PIP decision.

Life time awards

You may have been in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and would have been sent a letter informing you that you had a lifetime award. However, a number of years’ ago, tax payers said they wanted to pay less tax, so the benefit bill was looked at and there was a change made from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Some claimants had not been interviewed for many years, some had got better but had not told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and so, the application process was tightened up. Life time awards were stopped. 

If you were in receipt of a letter informing you that you had a benefit award for life, it is difficult to come to terms with the fact that this had been reversed, but please try not to dwell on it as it will only pull you down.

How to claim a PIP

To claim PIP, you will need to telephone the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) the person you speak to will complete a PIP1 form which is a short form. 

If you need support to do this, ask a family member, friend, support worker and so on, once you have passed security they may speak for you.  If you do not have anyone please still make the call and the adviser will ask you if you need any help.  Explain that you are struggling to make the call and they will help you.

The PIP claim line - 0800 917 2222

You will require:

  • Your National Insurance Number (NINo)

  • Your address and telephone number

  • Your bank details – your name exactly as it appears on your account, your account number and sort code

  • Your GP’s details – name, address and telephone number.  If you do not have a particular GP, explain this

  • The details of any other health professional you are using, this could be a physiotherapist, a nurse who specialises in COPD, Diabetes and so on, a consultant or a psychiatrist.

  • Dates and addresses for any time you’ve spent in a care home or hospital.

  • Dates for any time you have spent abroad for more than four weeks at a time, and the countries you visited

My details if you wish me to complete your form:

Sally Hamilton, One Stop Advocacy, The JC Healthy Living Centre, Scott Business Park, Beacon Park Road, Plymouth, PL2 2PQ

The initial application on the telephone should take approximately 15 minutes, but waiting for the call to be answered could take a long time.  The best times are earlier in the morning and in the afternoon.  Have something to read or do whilst you are waiting for the telephone to be answered, then it is not a waste of your time. 

The How Your Disability Affects You form should take up to 4 weeks to arrive, but hopefully it will be much quicker.  Make a note in your diary of when you applied as your award, if you are successful, will start from this date. 

Now that you have started your claim, it would be a good idea if you can, start keeping a diary.  Keep it very short, write in there how you are feeling, what you struggled with and so on, break it down in to morning, afternoon and evening.  This is good evidence and can be used to help you complete your form and you can send it in with your form. 

You will have put coping mechanisms in to help you get through your day and you need to take a step back and think about what you are doing compared to an able-bodied person, for example, sitting on the bed to get dressed.

One of the biggest issues that comes up  in the mobility section is ‘how far can you walk?’  No-one has a clue and I keep hearing clients say ‘oh, about 10 minutes!’  This is a very long time to be walking, fine for able-bodied people, but if the claimant is saying they have problems walking due to their disabilities, they would not be walking for this amount of time.  Please start timing yourself walking.  You can do it in steps, minutes or metres.

My corridor leading to my office is exactly 20 metres in length, so I ask my clients to walk that and time them, I also see how often they have to stop and why, then we can write it on the form.

If you would like me to complete your form with you, please telephone me at One Stop Advocacy as soon as your form arrives to book an appointment. It will take approximately 2 hours to complete and require a donation. Telephone – 07464 106903

One Stop Advocacy.