UC and PIP

Hi there,

I submitted my UC50 form in time for my deadline of 15th November. I'm now anxiously waiting for notification of a health assessment.

Despite agonising over the UC50 form, spending hours reading the great guides here and looking at other resources, I feel I ended up rushing through the form and I don't feel I gave it enough justice. I'm now convinced that I might not even scrape LCW (though I'm hoping). I did get my doctor to write a letter for me confirming my main health and mental health claims but it was a very brief letter that barely filled one side of an A4 page, even though it cost me £55 and must've taken him all of 5 minutes!

I believe I should've asked for an extension of the submission date and taken even more time over the form but too late now

I recently became aware, and was surprised, that a person can claim PIP as well as UC and that if PIP is awarded UC payments are not affected - even if a person is in the LCWRA group and gets the extra premium.

I assume that if a person does not get into either the LCW or LCWRA group of UC that they have no chance at all of being successful in claiming PIP?

Thanks for any advice guys.

PIP is not means tested and thus you can claim both PIP and UC at the same time. While there is some overlap in the criteria, there are still quite few differences, so you may be entitled to one, but not the other. UC/ESA for example is supposed to be assessed in the context of a 'modern workplace' - because it is an unemployment benefit. PIP is more based around care and mobility needs without any regard for the workplace.

I recently reluctantly put a claim in for PIP as my health got a bit worse a while back, but I've mostly just claimed ESA when out of work as my condition affects my ability to work far more than it affects my ability to look after myself.

It may well be worth putting a claim (and subsequent appeal) in and seeing how you get on, as there isn't anything to lose (as long as the stress of claiming itself won't make you more ill).

Hi David,

Thanks for info - I hadn't realised there is a work allowance with LCW status. If I get LCW after my WCA (whenever that might be) it might at least mean I could earn a bit of extra each month doing a few paid online surveys without losing UC.

Thanks Steve30,

That's the rub isn't it - I think I'll wait for my UC WCA and the result I get from that first before putting myself through the PIP stuff as well.

I'm dreading the UC WCA after reading so many negative and incorrect UC WCA's people have reported getting and who then have to go through the process of a MR