Hiya Mike, really sorry that you are having to go through this process, hopefully you will breeze through it with no problems though.
You’ve already had some excellent advice here, do visit Benefits & Work website, as MarkyMate said they have resources there, although you do have to pay for a years membership to access them ( about £20 ) personally, I couldn’t say what they contain as I didn’t join but I have read the forum which is also a mine of information in itself. The forum is free to read but you have to be a member to post questions.
Another very useful thing they have is a free to use PIP self assessment test, you can put your e-mail address in and send yourself a copy of your assessment which might help you when you fill the form in. https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-self-test
Yourable.com. https://www.youreable.com/forums is another place that you can try. They have a forum there which is free to use, with some very helpful people around.
The significant difference between PIP and DLA is that with PIP, your actual illness/disability is not taken account of as such, PIP is specifically about how your disability affects you. You need to say how you are on the majority of days, ( DLA was based on the majority of time ) so even if something only effects you for an hour a day, that, in theory, should be sufficient to count as being applicable for the day. ( with DLA it would have to be 13+ hours a day to be applicable )
Unlike DLA, there are only 2 levels of award for Daily Living – Standard and enhanced. For standard you need a total of 8 points in total out of 8 or 9 questions. For enhanced rate you need a minimum of 12 points.
It is possible as you’ll see from the question below, to score sufficient from one question to get standard rate., or you might need points from a few questions
For example…
1 a. Can prepare and cook a simple meal unaided. 0 points
1 b. Needs to use an aid or appliance to be able to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 2 points
1 c. Cannot cook a simple meal using a conventional cooker but is able to do so using a microwave. 2 points
1 d. Needs prompting to be able to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 2 points
1 e. Needs supervision or assistance to either prepare or cook a simple meal. 4 points.
1 f. Cannot prepare and cook food. 8 points.
For the mobility component, there are only 2 questions, one is more to do with sensory/cognitive problems, the other, the physical aspects of walking. to keep your mobility car you need 12 points from these 2 questions.
This post is getting rather long. I’ll post those questions in another post.