OCD and Claiming Limited Work Capability/ PIP

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone here has had any experience claiming for Universal Credit Limited Work Capability and/or PIP with OCD? I am about to fill out my UC50 form for limited work capability which led here.

I'm finding it hard to see how to Fit OCD into the criteria's, it doesn't feel like much thought has been given to people with mental health issues at all with the questions. I'm hesitant to go through all the stress of the interviews and assessments if there isn't much chance of them recognizing OCD.

For some background I've had OCD for over 10 years now, When It first started it was very severe and pretty much completely debilitating, I dropped out of university and spent years just completely controlled by ocd stuck in rituals for hours. For the longest time I didn't realize I had OCD so it took me years before I even started any kind of self help or therapy. Over the last 6 years I've made a lot of progress through self help books on OCD and have got my symptoms to a more manageable level.

They still greatly affect my life though and I think "limited work Capability" is exactly the phrase for it. I'm self employed and do work a lot of hours but those hours are made up of considerably slower work than someone without OCD. I will frequently get stuck in mental rituals , these used to last hours and now vary from 5-30 mins but are pretty much a constant distraction to my focus. Many situations are triggering for me and especially in my work my work I'm required to look at imagery, many of which trigger me and cause me to do compulsions that slow me down compared to someone without ocd.

Some days these are too hard to handle and I might get stuck for half an hour or so multiple times. This is very exhausting and often leaves me with not enough energy to complete the rest of my work, or often work at a much slower pace.

The idea of getting a job outside of my house has always been a no go for me, the anxiety is too high at even the idea of it and I pretty much avoid social engagement and interacting with people outside of my family or online due to how much anxiety it causes me. I find it very difficult to even be physically close to my own family members.

Whilst I can travel I am very reluctant to do so and will need a lot of pushing to go somewhere. Also if there's too many changes in a day to my routine it can throw me out. If I'm expecting a phone call or having to open the door to someone delivering a parcel, this can cause a lot of anticipatory anxiety and obsessions afterwards.

I know some of these things fit within the questions, but I think I can only score points in one or 2 questions and I don't know if I would be able to score max points, which I would need if that's the case.

I've just started therapy recently for the first time and have an offical Diagnosis from them . It's helping but there's still a long way to go before I would consider myself not limited in my work. My therapist did write me a quite thorough letter about how my OCD affects my work and socializing and I live at home with my mum who could also write a letter if that would help.

Basically wondering if it is worth me trying and if anyone here has advice for filling out the questions on OCD grounds? One of my worries also is that because the OCD is all in my head and varies in its severity, from the outside it might not be obvious to any assessor I have mental health issues .

Thanks for your time and I really appreciate any help anyone can give !

Hi Anxious,

I was placed in the limited capability for work and work-related activity because of my OCD, and severe anxiety.
My OCD affects a big part of my daily living.

I found it helped by describing my OCD ritual and how it affected me,
and then I explained the difficulties I had with each activity.

I have different rituals. Mine are counting, touch, sight, cleanliness and thoughts.
As an example, For dressing and undressing I described how my touch and counting rituals affect me and
explained how I would touch and count whilst putting on each item of clothing. I also told them I would
start all over again if my ritual wasn't completed properly. I couldn't complete the activity in a reasonable time.

Hope this helps

I notice in your 7th paragraph you say " Whilst I can travel I am very reluctant to do so". If you use phrases like this you have to say why you are reluctant and illustrate with examples. My husband's first application failed because he kept saying "he preferred" to do things in a certain way but did not explain why. His preferences were dictated by his medical condition not by making a conscious choice. When he added the extra detail he was successful. Have I explained this clearly?

Thanks everyone for your replies, I really appreciate it. It's reassuring to hear that some people with OCD are making successful claims.

It is helpful to hear what you specifically explained dinkmack. I'm slightly concerned about that though, because as you know it can be very triggering to have to go into specific details of your obsessions. I don't really want to talk about the content of my obsessions, more just how they affect me.

Most of my ocd is around thoughts and I'm planning to explain how it affects me with examples of that, but not actually giving details of contents of the thoughts.

Like certain imagery or situations are triggering to me, but are they expecting me to say why its triggering, or just that it triggers me and what that causes me to do?

That sounds very helpful PDix! I think its very clear yes. I have to make it clear that the reason for me avoiding these things is because of the way it excaccerbates my OCD rather than just making it sound like its a preferred way of doing things.

This is really helpful thanks, anymore OCD specifics would be great aswell. One of my concerns is about that certain things can fluctuate, so it might not literally be impossible for me to travel, but say 90% of the time its extremely difficult and avoided at all costs, would that still be fair to say it always affects me?

Social engagement too is something I almost never engage in outside of my own family and even then its somewhat limited. But becasue its technically possible I might be able to for short periods, does that mean I'm unable to score full points?