Thank You B&W

Hello

I wanted to Thank this site for the support of the online Guides in completing the new PIP claim. Our local Mencap office advised using B&W to access the online guides - I am so glad I took their advice.

Our son was contacted last November regarding the migration from DLA to PIP; we finally received the outcome letter this week.

Our son would never be able to understand or make sense of any of this without an advocate. He has Autism, learning disability and dyspraxia.

I had to contact the DWP to ask for two extensions for the claim being returned as we hadn't been given adequate time to complete before the return date, and also that our GP wrote a covering letter for us to include which due to the Xmas/New year nothing was getting done quickly.

We asked for a home visit due to his anxiety/distress at possibly having to visit an assessment centre, we also asked to be included in any face to face assessments due to our son needing an advocate to help him answer questions.

We received the letter this week to say he has been awarded enhanced PIP - we hoped that if anything it would stay the same but the assessor felt his original claim was not correct. The assessor did mention that they are not told the claimants original rate, and in talking I mentioned that we had felt as he has got older that he should be on a higher rate.

Without the online guides I really don't know how we would have got our heads around this - we were expecting this awful situation but I have to say the DWP and the assessor have treated us with nothing but empathy and kindness.

Our son is not ill, but has a lifelong disability - the only paperwork I could send was from his school, his care plan from the Council and the letter from the GP. The assessor said all of it was more than adequate and had given him more information of our sons disability before he visited us.

Thank You B&W - you really did make a situation that along with caring for our son, that little bit more manageable.

Kind regards, Sharon