In SG / never applied for PIP. Worried.

I was put in the SG after appealing (about 2.5 years ago) and had no f2f the time after that (kept in SG without f2f). I was told, when I asked, that I would be due for reassessment again beginning 2017.
My fear is... I have not applied for PIP, never have. A fair few years ago my doctor suggested applying for DLA (which I think is now PIP...which I assume is to help with mobility issues) but I saw the form and couldn't face it. I suffer with stress and anxiety (not my main condition but an aspect of it, my condition is made much worse by stress/ anxiety) and have never applied for PIP (TBH, the ESA process was almost more than I could take, didn't know how I'd get through that so the thought of PIP has always been / continues to be terrifying!)

My (pretty young for her age and fit) mum helps me around her part time job (not my paid carer) and I have a very good friend who takes me out in their car, so I have always just got by. I'd rather have less money than the trauma of the PIP process! I am fortunate in having no dependents (am 40 but never married or had children).
However, with all these checks/ letters etc flying about - mentioned here - I am worried that the fact that I am on ESA/ SG (IR) but not on PIP (never having even applied) is going to look somehow suspicious or odd? Truth is, I don't want to apply. I just can't face more than the ESA stuff. Will it look bad that I haven't ever applied for PIP if checks are being made around the country?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Shell,

I'm sure you cannot be the only person in this position, no-one has to claim any benefit if they do not want to.

Hi S

Just so that you won’t feel quite so alone…………..like yourself, I didn’t try for DLA, when most of those at my Support Group, same diagnosis, are on DLA and ESA.

CAB once tried for me, however, I found myself shredding the form simply because in my mind, they’d completely overdone the exaggeration, which, is no criticism of CAB’s methods, more I felt uncomfortable puttying my name to it.

I empathise with you 100% and wish that the DWP would always use forms that could be crossed referenced for ALL POSSIBLE BENEFITS, resulting in one set of forms, medical, F2F etc.

So like yourself, to avoid more than one process, I’m probably missing out!

Best wishes

P.

Thank you both!
Glad to know I'm not alone Petrocelli. What you suggested sounds like too much of a sensible idea