Newbie on here. Feeling depressed and Lost!

Hi I'm Sarah and I need some guidance with my situation. I am one of those people whom got down graded after switching from DLA to PIP, I have osteoarthritis of my spine with chronic pain daily, I contacted DWP as my disability was progressively getting worse and as I only had 1 year left before my award was to be reassessed so I thought I'd just move over to PIP.
I went through the usual assessment and they downgraded me, taking my disability car away, I appealed and went to tribunal, wow this was the most humiliating and traumatic experience ever and was a total waste of time.
This has caused me to have panic attacks, paranoia and just send me into an even worse state of depression, I am now in even more pain as my legs have started with chronic nerve pain and has made me into more of a recluse, it has rendered me immobile and I'm now struggling to deal with all this pain and look after myself. I have put my house up for sale as I can no longer look after myself and I have no support at all, so I'm moving back to where my family live so my family can care for me as I don't have a partner, I'm going through lots of tests for my condition and I feel like I can't cope. So here I am on here looking for your expertise, help support as I need to go back to the PIP and put in a new claim and I am literally having panic attacks. I'm sorry for the long post, I hope that someone can help/guide me on what I should do. Thank you Sarah

Hi Sarah and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explains where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

I am sorry you are going through this

You can reapply for PIP straight away. I suggest that you read our PIP guide first though. Hopefully it will show you how you can better explain your problems in order to score points against the PIP descriptors. However, I must warn you that PIP was deliberately made harder to get in order to reduce the benefits bill. Therefore, some people who were in receipt of DLA will get lower levels of PIP due to how the points are allocated.

PIP help for claimants

May I suggest that you bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future? This will allow you to return with further questions or comments about your PIP without having to start a new topic each time. It helps us enormously when everything relating to the same claim is kept in one topic - and I hope you will find it useful too

Hi Sarah,

I'm in almost exactly the same situation as you. Osteoarthritis. DLA to PIP. High to Standard and lost my Mobility car. I'm so angry not just for myself but also everyone like yourself who has been affected by this dehumanising process.

It's incredibly hard work to research, fill in the appropriate forms, wording them correctly etc but the guides that the good people on here provide are worth their weight in gold. If you haven't already do have a good read and, if you are able, get someone to help you.

Good luck.

Phil