PIP New Claim

Hi Bettybulb

Welcome to the forum.

You might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explains where everything is; www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/guides-for-claimants/faq/forum.

PIP isn't based on specific conditions, it is based on how the symptoms you have affect your daily living and your mobility as per the specific PIP criteria.

You need to show that you are affected for the majority of the time. So are you in pain for four out of seven days and what does that pain affect you from doing? Does it affect your mobility or your ability to cook, dress yourself etc. The same applies for your depression, you need to look at each question and state what impact it has.

We have a very comprehensive PIP guide. If you look through that, it will give you some idea of how you might answer questions.

benefitsandwork.co.uk/guides-for-claimants/pip

How to describe your problems

Three things

Think about breaking the activity down into smaller components where you can identify problems that you would have.

So for Preparing Food; you can break it down into preparing the food and cooking it, you can break preparing the food down into; selecting the right food, checking that it is still good to use, washing it, peeling and cutting as necessary.

Then think of the problems that you have and map them onto the activities, so physical problems might mean that have problems with peeling and cutting, mental health problems might mean that you don't actually get the food out in the first place, cognitive problems might mean that you do not select appropriate food or check that it is still in date.

For each combination explain why you are affected, how and whether help from an aid of a person would allow you to complete the activity, there is a formula in the guide for each activity of the things to include.

Lastly, when you are thinking about each activity, consider whether the problem you have would impact on your ability to do another activity. So physical problems with preparing food may also mean you have problems with washing and dressing, mental health problems may also impact on these activities and cognitive problems may mean that you need help with money.

Gary