PIP Review

Hi all,

I had an account before but the email it was set up with I no longer have access to (I was ButterRainbow lol), and before I start my panicked rambling I just want to thank you again for your wonderful help and guides, as had it not have been for that, my there's no way MR back in 2016 would have been successful. Anyways, a few weeks ago I received the new PIP review form which is due back this week.

I downloaded the guide and have been ploughing through trying to answer each question, but I am concerned I am doing it wrong for this form and find it confusing the way they ask for the 'hows' and 'whens'. I'll try not to babble too much with my questions lol.

1. When answering the questions, I have treated them as if this is my first claim even where there has been no change because, in all honesty, I fear just putting no change and nothing else will result in an assessment or worse. But because there's no room on the form I've typed everything on separate pieces of paper, and I was going to put something like 'no change, see p.X attached.' Is this ok to do?

2. Since I moved from DLA to PIP in 2016 I have formally been diagnosed with bipolar 2 alongside most of my original diagnosis', it was acknowledged that I should have been diagnosed a long time ago but that's another story. The symptoms I experience are the same, it's just the label that has changed. I am concerned about this now as I thought it was the way you are affected and not a diagnosis/label in itself that is of relevance for a PIP award, and now I'm doubting myself. Have I understood this properly?

3. The 'Going Out' activity I've got myself in a bit of a panic about because since around the end of 2017 - early 2018 my MH has progressively started to deteriorate to the point it is at now 're going out. For the approximate start date question in the form, is it ok to explain that it has been a progressive thing? Because I don't know when and it's been a case of a problem that has grown arms and legs as time has gone on, opposed to like a specific event that caused it.
4. Also with going out activity, is it ok if I discuss it and give examples for over the course of the year opposed to weekly/monthly. When I tried to do weekly/monthly it was too complicated as often with my bipolar I do not know when something like the hypomania will happen or how long for. Through therapy I have been able to work out rough percentages of how much/long over the course of a year my periods of depression, feeling 'level' but still crippled with anxiety and hypomania affect me.

- currently I have an example for each of the depression, my average/level periods and what can happen during hypomania. And within these I included how my other conditions of complex trauma and GAD can exacerbate them. Am I likely to piss the reader off by giving too many examples? I've kept the sentences short and have only given one example for each mood, but because my conditions are so variable I wanted to paint as accurate a picture as possible.
- I've explained that having someone support me helps the most, but I don't always have that and so I've also tried to explain what can happen/how I try and manage things when I am alone (rituals/skills I'm learning in therapy etc). There are certain things that always happen when I am out and there are ones that are a risk but I have no warning if/when they'll happen so I can't prepare. Like even in my hometown which I know like the back of my hand, I can get lost during hypomania or severe anxiety and I need time to recover. Does risk count?

I am so sorry for such a long post, I tried to keep it short

Hi Gordon,

Thank you so much for your reply, I cannot apologise enough for taking so long to reply. I have been recovering from surgery since 8th Jan which was the day after I submitted my PIP review, so to say I was exhausted is an understatement!

I followed the guides to as much as a tee as I understood them. My anxiety has been beating me up about things I may not have explained properly, missed out and with the mobility question I've been really worried because once I wrote, posted and then thought about it I kept thinking about the fact that the way I had written it in some parts may come across (or I think it looks like) that two descriptors may cross over. Mainly the following a familiar and unfamiliar journey, I focussed on the familiar journey most because I experienced trauma in my home town as a child and almost never enter my home town centre. And if I do it is only at specific times when I am unlikely to run into someone I may know (I live in a tiny town where most people know someone who knows you). I tried to paint the whole picture and was honest in that as rare as it is for me to go into my hometown, should I have a panic attack or sensory overload on the occasions I don't end up wandering aimlessly unable to place where I am (although part of my brain recognises it) I go to a café I know well to try and calm down/get my bearings. Although because of my depression I spend most of the time in my home, I wanted to show a worse, okay and better days; a part of that is that it's not that I cannot go out due to something like agoraphobia. But I am often ill for weeks with chronic anxiety when I have appointments such as an assessment - I explained this too. I have lost a lot of weight with worry and living in fear of the dreaded appointment envelope coming through the door. None of this was in my first PIP form.

Anyways, the cross over between descriptors I have made myself ill with worry is because I told them the risk of sensory overload can happen anywhere irrespective if I know the location or not. It's based on noise i.e. in a crowed place with lots of chatter, hustling and bustling of people, even smells can cause it. I then shut down completely. I have had this difficulty with noises and anxiety since childhood. But it was not until 2 weeks ago was I diagnosed with sensory processing disorder (after my PIP form went in). All I explained in the form was the difficulties I have.

In the communications question, because until 2 weeks ago I had never even heard of such a condition I didn't give any diagnosis for it except trauma and anxiety (which is interrelated with the sensory issues), mainly I explained in my review form that whilst I am usually ok in one to one setting but if there's other people around I cannot hear and distinguish the voice of the person I'm talking to from the chatter/noise of other people around me. I never put any of this in my PIP2 when I transitioned from DLA to PIP because I've lived with and tried to adapt to these difficulties my entire life as best I canI didn't know if I may be relevant until I read the guide this time around.

I only found this site during my MR stage and I was too scared to challenge too many descriptors so I didn't include it. I didn't challenge the 4 points for mobility either because this was 2016 and before the DWP mobility for mental health changes I didn't want to rock the boat. Plus, I didn't think I had a chance in hell anyways.

Sorry, I am rambling lol. I followed your guides for the review for every question relevant to me but I have been terrified because there is so much more and new details in the review than the 1st pip form - I had received 'help' from a welfare centre and they told me not to put in XYZ because they weren't relevant, yet on MR it was a non 'relevant' question (taking nutrition) in which I won my MR with 4 points which awarded me the enhanced daily living - I can been on high care and low mobility DLA. And I have been terrified because I have seen that most people who put changes on their review are pulled in for a F2F assessment. I out the mobility and communicating as changes because they weren't in my original form and I received 4 and 0 points respectively.

But today I received the dreaded white IAS envelope. It says: 'for information purposes only', 'one of our health professionals has looked at the information you sent to DWP. we are writing to let you know that we've asked for further information from people involved in your care'... 'We've done this to make sure the assessment report we send to the DWP about your case is fair and accurate'. 'Once we've got the further information.....the HP may be able to finish your assessment report without having to see you in person. But if we don't get this information, or still have questions, we might need to see you for a F2F'.

What does this mean? Is it potentially good?

Sorry for the very long post (again).

Hi BIS,

Thank you so much for your reply. I'm both keeping everything crossed and trying not to get my hopes up lol. In the past I have put down both my registered GP and CPN I was seeing at the time, and I always requested they contact the CPN for ESA/PIP because I don't see my GP. And they always contacted the GP for some reason. This time I only put my psychologist down because when they would contact the GP I ended up having F2F either because the GP wouldn't reply or because he knew nothing about me save a few letters from the MH team, he'd basically say I was fine to have a F2F/couldn't give details of my conditions.

I know this may be a chicken and egg type question, but do you know the typical window they give a professional to respond? I don't see my psychologist until next Monday, I worry that's too long for me to get to speak to her first.

Also, even if I end up having to have a F2F I, just want to say a massive thank you to you all and your guides because there's no way I would even be in this position where they are considering writing a report without a F2F without you all. If I had had to do the form alone or with the help of another agency (just based on my experiences with form filling help) I don't doubt for a second I would have been given a F2F and not considered for a paper based review.

And because the review process seems to be so new, again even if I have to have a F2F, I hope that maybe others reading this can be less worried about writing a change in their condition(s) on the review form and not being considered for a paper based review

I will update as soon as I hear what's happening next