PIP review question

Hi organic

In regards to Preparing and Cooking Food

1. You need to explain how you are managing with meals now. Is someone cooking for you.? If that is the case then ask them to write a letter which supports your claim. Do you get meals delivered to you? If so again ask for confirmation from the provider.
2. You need to say why assistance and supervision are unhelpful.
3. You need to clearly state what aids you have tried and why they didn’t help. If you haven’t tried any then explain why not (could be that even large grip utensils are unmanageable)

On the subject of the GP letter, if you do send in the old letter then explain that you did approach your new GP for a more recent letter but that they had said they didn’t see the need. If you are able to afford the GP fee it might be worth approaching the surgery again and getting an up to date letter especially if there are any changes.

I hope this helps

Regards
Pete.

Hi Organic

It's always worth explaining why you have never been able to prepare a meal - it then gives a clear picture that you can't do it, rather than you don't choose to do it. Make it clear that you need assistance. You are right, you can be awarded PIP on the basis that you need help, even if you don't currently have any.

The support letter you already have from the GP will be fine. The DWP like evidence to be no older than three years old, but I know plenty of people who have successfully got PIP with no recent evidence.

BIS

Hi Organic

Assessors are asked to judge whether a claimant can do a specific activity "safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, in a reasonable time period " The reasonable time period means no more than twice as long as someone else - but how long specific activities take are open to interpretation. When I have helped people fill in their forms, I avoid giving clear times it takes them to do anything because it is easy for an assessor to misinterpret them. I mean how long should it take someone to get dressed? 10 minutes - 30 minutes? It would depend on what a person was wearing and perhaps where they were going. I normally say for claimants, that it takes much longer for them to get dressed because of their lack of manual dexterity, their need for assistance and their need to stop two or three times because of pain in order to catch their breath before they can be fully dressed. This fully shows that it would take them much longer than someone who didn't have the same condition. Yes, I always include how long it takes to recover and why it is so slow. And remember they should be able to repeat that activity - if they can't - I say so.

BIS