PIP Claim for Bipolar

Lee-Ann wrote: Hi

I am in the process of making a PIP claim on the grounds of my bipolar condition. I'm having some difficulty in deciding how to answer the descriptors and what additional information to write. My condition means that the answers would be very different depending on whether I am experiencing depression or mania.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

A couple of points for you to think about;

- You must be able to complete each of the PIP activities reliably, and

- You must be able to do so on the majority of days.

Both of these are explained in more detail in the PIP Claim guide. See

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

I would consider explaining your limitations as they are when you are depressed and when you are manic, make sure you explain the amount of time that you are in these phases or any or discreet level of disability that you have.

If you have further questions then please reply to this post and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

Lee-Ann wrote: I have today received an award letter from DWP. I have been awarded standard rate for daily living (11points) and no award for mobility (4 points), the award is until July 2019. The decision was made using the evidence I sent, and no medical was required.

Would it be worth appealing this as I believe there are a couple of areas where I should have been awarded more points? If I were to appeal this, could I be asked to attend for a medical? I'm just unsure if I should be happy with what I got, despite feeling that I should have been awarded more.

I would appreciate any advice.

Lee-Ann

Only you can make the decision on whether to appeal or not.

First of all you need to understand how you scored the points you did and why you didn't score the points you expected.

You also need to be aware that there is a risk to your current award, it's probably minimal given your scores, but it still exists.

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our PIP MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the PIP area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/pip

You should contact the DWP that is dealing with your claim for a copy of the assessment report. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation than the assessors opinions unless you can show that they are unreasonable given the evidence.

Gordon