DLA to PIP for 16 year old with autism

Hi Louise

I have relatives with autism that have been in this position. As you already know it's often very stressful claiming for benefits - particularly a new one.

Read through the PIP guide. It runs through every question. Be as detailed as you can about your daughter's difficulties - but ensuring you stick to the PIP criteria. PIP is different from DLA - so don't assume they already know about your daughter - tell it as if it is the first time.

When it comes to down to answering the questions - think about breaking the activity down into smaller components where you can identify problems that your daughter would have.

So for Preparing Food; you can break it down into preparing the food and cooking it, you can break preparing the food down into; selecting the right food, checking that it is still good to use, washing it, peeling and cutting as necessary.

Then think of the problems that your daughter would have and map them onto the activities, so physical problems might mean that she has problems with peeling and cutting, mental health problems might mean that she doesn't actually get the food out in the first place, cognitive problems might mean that she could not select appropriate food or check that it is still in date.

For each combination explain why she is affected, how and whether help from an aid of a person would allow her to complete the activity, there is a formula in the guide for each activity of the things to include.

Lastly, when you are thinking about each activity, consider whether the problems she has would impact on your ability to do another activity. So physical problems with preparing food may also mean she has problems with washing and dressing, mental health problems may also impact on these activities and cognitive problems may mean that she needs help with money.

Include lots of evidence and highlight your evidence within your form or in the additional pages.
Make it clear problems are lifelong (some assessors seem to think they are not!

Add a note requesting a home visit if you think this would be easier - but you will need a letter from a GP or any other medical practitioner to back you up on this.

Come back to the forum and ask any questions you have on the way.
BIS

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