Personal Independence Payment

Two points are worth being clear about. PIP is paid for needing help rather than for receiving it, so somebody who struggles on alone qualifies in the same way as somebody who already has a carer coming in. And the getting around part is not only for people who cannot walk, because gov.uk says you do not need a physical disability to be paid it: working out a route and coping with a journey are scored as well.

What the money does is up to the household. At what carers on PrimeCarers charge, £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, the standard daily living rate covers around 3 hours of help a week and the enhanced rate around 5. What care at home costs sets out the wider picture, and the routes to funding care covers council money, NHS money and the rest alongside it.

Besides the age rule, gov.uk asks two more things. The person must normally have lived in England, Scotland or Wales for 2 of the last 3 years, with different rules for people who have recently come from an EU country. And the difficulty must be an established one, present for 3 months already and expected to last at least another 9, which gov.uk sums up as lasting at least 12 months from when it started.

If the person you are helping is over State Pension age, stop here and read who qualifies for Attendance Allowance and how to claim it instead. If they live in Scotland, Adult Disability Payment from Social Security Scotland is the claim to make, on the same rules and the same four rates.

Each activity has a short list of statements, from managing it unaided at the bottom to needing somebody else to do it at the top, and each statement carries a number of points. Needing an aid or an appliance scores, so a perching stool, a raised toilet seat or a shower chair counts rather than being held against the person. Needing prompting or encouragement scores, which matters where the difficulty is with memory, mood or anxiety rather than with hands and legs. Needing another person there scores highest. The statement that fits best is the one that counts, and the scores are added up across the ten activities or the two.

This is why two people with the same condition can get very different answers, and why a claim turns on the description rather than on the letters from the hospital. A consultant's letter says what the condition is. Only the person and their family can say how long getting dressed takes.

Alongside those four there is a rule about how often. A scoring statement applies where it fits on more than half the days over a year, so a condition that comes and goes is looked at across the whole period rather than on the day of the assessment. If your mother manages the stairs on two days in five and needs somebody with her on the other three, the answer for the form is that she needs somebody with her, and the form should say how many days a week are which.

1. 1

   Ring the new claims line

   0800 917 2222

   Open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. They take basic details about the person and their condition and check the age and residence rules. Relay UK users dial 18001 then 0800 917 2222. If a call is not possible, write to Freepost DWP PIP 1, which needs no stamp and no postcode, and the form is sent out.
2. 2

   The form arrives

   Within about 2 weeks

   It is called How your disability affects you, and it comes either on paper or as a link to fill in online. It has to be back within 1 month. If that will not be possible, ring the enquiry line before the month is up rather than after it.
3. 3

   Fill it in from the hardest days

   Take your time

   Answer every question with how often, how long and what goes wrong without help. Use the extra space at the end, adding pages with the person’s name and National Insurance number on each. Send copies of anything useful you already have, and keep a copy of everything you send.
4. 4

   The assessment, if there is one

   By phone, by video or in person

   Not every claim needs one. Where the DWP wants more, an independent health professional goes through the same activities with the person, usually in about 60 minutes, at a centre, at home, on the phone or on video. It is audio recorded unless you tell the provider otherwise, and somebody can sit in.
5. 5

   The decision letter

   From the DWP, not the assessor

   A DWP case manager reads the form, the evidence and the assessor’s report and decides. The letter says which parts have been awarded and at which rate, when the first payment lands and when the award ends. A first award runs from 9 months to 10 years.

The health professional at the assessment does not decide the claim. They write a report, and a DWP case manager makes the decision using that report along with the form and anything else sent in. If the decision goes the wrong way, you can ask the DWP for a copy of that report and read what was written.

Ask the council for a care needs assessment in the same week, because it answers a different question. PIP decides how much money arrives; the council decides what care the person is entitled to and whether it will pay towards it, and the two do not talk to each other. How to ask the council for an assessment and what the means test looks at covers that side, and if the council does agree to fund care, direct payments let the family choose the carer.

Get free advice before you write anything. Citizens Advice and Carers UK both advise on benefits, and an adviser will tell you plainly whether a decision is worth challenging. A reconsideration built around the points on the decision letter is a different document from a letter saying the decision feels unfair.