PIP - Poor advice - MH - First Refusal

hi everyone

Applied for PIP and mistakenly thought it would "strengthen" my application by going through the CAB. Once I got to my CAB meeting (huge issue, haven't left the village in 4 months) the CAB lady waved the first half of the booklet and said "this doesn't apply to you, this is only for people who are totally physically incapacitated - i.e., bed-bound with machines".

I knew she was wrong (because I'd looked up this site beforehand) - but such is the nature of my MH problems that I let her finish the form (badly), seal the envelope and post it.

So here I am 3 weeks later and I've just had a letter from the DWP to say it's failed.

I phoned DWP to ask them to send another form which I intended to do myself and he said I had two options:

1) phone the original helpline and get a new form PIP claim starting today
2) Send in new/more evidence to be re-assessed

So I'm asking you experts - what's my best option here? Starting all over again, or copying the questions from the DWP PIP form and re-submitting what will actually be pages of text?

Kind Regards

Alex

hi Gordon

Thank you for the advice. I will phone tomorrow and get a new form sent out and whilst I'm waiting for that I can thoroughly digest all my new downloads.

Alex

hi Gordon

I updated the CAB about me being refused and pointed them in this direction and I got the following response:

"Hi, normal procedure if you are turned down for a benefit is to do a “mandatory reconsideration”, as they won’t look at a new form for the same benefit for 6 months. The time limit is one month from the date of the decision letter."

Can you shed any light on this? Is that true that they won't even look at my new claim? I've just had a look at your Appeals FAQ and can't see anything there about it.

Alex

Hi Alex,

If you have the energy, you might consider complaining to CAB in the hope that other people are spared such bad advice!