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The DWP has told me that I must apply for PIP despite my DLA having no end date. We know we are facing a whole avalanche of trauma from the DWP. First horror is filling in the form to make claim. Does anyone know of a good set of guidance suggestions online for the best way to fill in form which might help?
Many thanks
Tharg
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Benefits and Work have indepth guide how to fill the form in for members (£20)
Your local Welfare Rights if you have one can fill the form in and represent you if it goes to tribunal
Citizens Advice also have a phone help line.
Remember, you can ask for an extension to fill out the form!
DLA is ending for people who were born after 8th April 1948 and are 16 or over.
As Kezo says, Benefits and Work is a great website. They have a free tool, you don’t even need to register to use it, where you can answer the pip questions online and it will show you what points you’ll be awarded based on your answers.
Mrs Joe went from DLA to PIP a few years back, it went through smooth. She had doctors letters going back years so no questioning, she did have to have a face to face assessment, the women who did it was very nice and said she’d put a note on saying she doesn’t ever need another face to face, she got a 10 year light touch award.
Hi
Just to add to Kezos great advice and although I am not qualified to give advice ( even so imo this isnt the place to do so) I am able through my own experience to be able to offer you a few basic tips
Just to be clear and so you know having a no end date even once on PIP makes little difference as all benefits can be and are always open to further review at any time the DWP sees fit to do so
This also applies to the strongest no end date ongoing PIP awards although in my own experience its unlikely to happen before 10yrs without good reason
This well known DLA/PIP process has been going since 2013 and although largely paused in 2020 they have now started up again with a test pool of 3000 people and then a possible full roll out to the remaining 147000 people
Firstly dont panic/do your homework/ advice as suggested by Kezo is out there/do not rush your application/support it with as much evidence as you can/no up to date evidence? Dont worry as that simply suggests there has been no change in condition since your original claim/either way perhaps a GP supporting letter to that effect may help your application/ Make notes/keep your own copy of everything/Give complete and full answers in as condensed way as possible even if you have to attach a few pages of your own/ As Kezo said above Remember, you can ask for an extension to fill out the form!
Best Wishes
@Kezo @Jojoe @jojo22 Good morning, people and thank you so much for your quick and detailed replies. All will be very helpful in the horrors we will have to face. Thanks particularly for the Benefits and Work details. I had taken out a subscription to them years ago but the horror of receiving the DWP letter wiped my memory of them!
They seem to have more than enough stuff to help.
Will try to follow your advice and try not to panic. However, will have to fight our way through the despair we are in at present: previous dealings with DWP did not go well. When first applying for DLA, we had to take them to a Tribunal chaired by high court judge with two senior NHS Consultants. Despite finding in our favour, it was a nightmare.
The DWP would not answer or return phone calls; same with snailmail letters (DWP employee to me on phone: “Oh, you won’t get a reply to a letter, we just throw them away”. They completely ignored the Tribunal findings (same DWP bloke to me “Wasted your time with Tribunal. What judges say means nothing, we just ignore them and do what we want.”
In the end we involved out MP and finally got a person, phone number and address which provided answers. The DWP eventually confirmed that the Tribunal finding would be obeyed, they apologised and even went as far as sending us a £300 credit for the trauma caused!
Sorry to bang on so long but I thought you ought to know exactly why we are so despairing about what we are facing. Last time we had to spend months fighting the DWP. They were arrogant, bullying liars and we reckon we are facing the same approach this time.
My original mobility problems have worsened to a chronic state – strongest Oxycodone painkillers, wheelchair etc. And a number of other relevant conditions have joined the mobility issues: COPD, diabetes, IBS. venous insufficiency in legs and more.
Even though this should mean I get PIP, I am sure the DWP will fiddle it. Their tick-boxer with no medical qualifications will make sure that I lose all benefits. This will be a disaster – can’t afford to buy a suitable car so won’t be able even to get to the GP surgery and hospital for my sadly regular appointments.
Please forgive the rant. Might have to come back with other questions and I really do appreciate your help, people. Thank heavens for the WMC and for all you wonderful, helpful and understanding friends.
From my own experience
If I was you I would now use/treat your past DWP experiences in a positive way
Its been proven by you and others that you were truthful and you have shown what lengths you were prepared to go to get that point across
Going forward
The DWP will be fully aware that you were prepared to fight for your legal claim and that they tried it on in the hope that you wouldn’t contest
They were unable to challenge when push came to shove
Having been forced to win your award in such a way it then becomes much much harder for anyone further down the line to dismiss what you say
That said DLA differs from PIP but even so I feel confident from what you say that a well written/supported PIP application could win the day
EDIT ………… After thought
Just to add to the above you mentioned worsening and new conditions since your last award
I found keeping a symptom diary quite useful
@jojo Many thanks for your support. As I said before, I am so grateful to those on the WMC for help. It is probably the only place where our problems are properly understood. Elsewhere we are just a bunch of “sponging cripp’s” (The Daily Mail says so, so it must be true)!
I hear what you’re saying about our previous battle(s) with the DWP and hope that you’re right. I also fear that it might go the other way and the DWP will try to get revenge for being defeated last time.
Again, many thanks for your understanding and support. I’m off now to try and find us an advance copy of the DLA to PIP application form so we can start to prepare. DWP says we will get their copy “within three weeks”. Does it really take three whole weeks to put a copy in an envelope and post it? Or could the delay be just another bullying tactic?
DWP use the cheapest postal service on Earth, so it really can take 3 weeks to turn up.
If you go into this process fully prepared, the chances of the nightmare scenario is greatly reduced. I always tie condition to limitation to task when answering these questions like this – “The spine issues and arthritis means standing beyond 5 minutes becomes very painful so I have to sit whilst preparing meals and have a suitable stool so I can do so”
In my experience (and I did win an award after a battle) DWP tends towards more of an awareness that denying points will be resisted all the way to tribunal and give more appropriate awards. It’s highly unlikely they’ll have a vindictive streak towards someone who fought for a different award.
The best advice and route to the best outcome is to fully and honestly answer these questions both on the form and if you see an assessor to present a consistent picture of how you live your life. If you have conditions that vary over time, don’t go straight to worst case but do ignore best case. Answer as your majority days and acknowledge that there are days that are worse.
Good luck.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
From Disability & Work
In August 2026, the DWP announced that 3,000 randomly selected disability living allowance (DLA) claimants in England and Wales would receive “invitations” to claim personal independence payment (PIP) from September 2026, to allow the DWP to test the reassessment process.
The affected claimants are people who are in receipt of DLA and were aged between 16 and 64 inclusive on 8 April 2013.
No new claims for DLA for adults have been allowed since PIP was introduced in 2013. The vast majority of adults already in receipt of DLA have already been reassessed for PIP. However, the process of moving adults off DLA was largely paused in 2020 due to Covid.
The result is that there are around 150,000 claimants still waiting to be reassessed.
Originally the DWP said that this final group of claimants would not be moved off DLA until 2028. However, the Independent has reported that the process is about to begin again. The fact that a trial involving reassessing 3,000 DLA claimants for PIP is now taking place does suggest that this may be the case.
When you are selected to move from DLA to PIP, you will receive a letter from the DWP. This will inform you that a PIP claim is to be started within 28 days and will give you instructions about how to do this. If you have an appointee dealing with your claim on your behalf, the letter would be addressed to them, and they can complete the process for you.
It’s important to know that if you do nothing in response to the letter, then ultimately your DLA will end. However, if you need more time to complete the process, you can ring PIP and ask for an extension.
If there is no attempt to start a PIP claim by the 28-day deadline, your DLA may be suspended and you may be given a further 28 days to start your PIP claim. If you do, your DLA should be reinstated from when it stopped.
When contacting PIP to start your claim, you (or your appointee) will need to have your national insurance number, bank details and GP details to hand. If you have been in hospital, residential care, prison or out of the country, try to have the dates available. This is because the call handler you speak to at PIP will complete a PIP1 form to start your claim.
Disability & Work main guide for claiming PIP (there are further supplementary guides if you want to sign up)
Let me know if it doesn’t work.
First of all, thanks to @kezo @Chipper and @MFillingham for your recent advice and ideas. All aare seriously appreciated and will be very helpful. And it really looks like we are going to need it…
Delay in my reply caused by having to deal with DWP’s latest stroke:
Contact with them started last Friday when my wife, Marg, phoned them as instructed in reply to their initiating letter. As stated therein, I wish to nominate another person, Marg, to deal with DWP. She told them this, asking if they wanted to speak to me. “Not necessary to speak to me” was answer. She gave them all the data they requested.
Today, another call saying there was an “identity issue” and they had to speak to me. This I did and gave all the details requested. Passed phone back to Marg who asked for more info about what was going on. Was told that “identity issue” still applied and they now would be sending a DWP person to our home to “asses her (Marg’s) suitability” to act for me. We have been married for over 30 years, for God’s sake. She even has power of attorney over me for use if and when needed.
Never heard of that happening to anyone, anytime before. All starting to sound like the same threatening, wind-up behaviour we experienced with these thugs last time. Will need to add “malicious” to “bullying” and “liars” .
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You need to better inform them that she is your advocate and has your permission to speak on your behalf.
My wife does that for me and after confirming she’s speaking on my behalf they then let her deal with it.
It sounds like the DWP are going to make your wife your appointee, so she can speak on your behalf and be responsible for your benefit/s.
I’m my daughters appointee, it makes life a little easier contacting them and as an appointee, she can have more of a say on your behalf at a face to face, phone or video assessment. Its no bad thing.
When they visit you, it will be verse to have a bad day, if you get what I mean, just incase it forms part of the assessment.
https://www.gov.uk/become-appointee-for-someone-claiming-benefits
Hi Tharg as you have already found out none of this is easy or even fair at times. However transitioning from DLA to PIP is mandatory so you will unfortunately have to go through it again.
My wife trained in PIP via courses as she was irate when they tried to put me in the workgroup. They lied and had numerous errors in my assessment.
She suggests this book is a good starting point to help you through the application process.
https://cpag.org.uk/shop/general-book/personal-independence-payment-what-need-know-4th-ed
Sorry if I’ve misunderstood your situation but I do feel for anyone having to go through this process.
The DWP like to assess whether an appointee arrangement is suitable and to prove identity. It an informal chat though treat it as an interview), to ensure you both understand the role of an appointee and you will fill out a B56 form if I remember right, which the DWP will then review before sending a B57 confirm Marg’s appointment.
Once Marg becomes your appointee, she will be able to act on your behalf, even at an assessment.
A couple of things to note once Marg becomes your appointee. She will become responsible for your DWP benefits, letters and awards will be addressed to her, stating she is acting on your behalf.
Think of it as the DWP’s version of a Power of Attorney.
https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/becoming-an-appointee
I’ve been the appointee for my adult Autistic son for the last 22 years. Still have times when, if say I need to talk to the DWP or Universal Credit about something where they decide to play silly buggers about it.
It is very annoying and pointless, it’s not like his condition has any treatment or chance or being “cured”.
Unfortunately it’s just another example of how they treat disabled people.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
@Chipper Thank you very much for details of book. Will order it immediately. Only hope that it has a print of the full PIP claim form which we want urgently to give us a chance of having time to fill it in properly.
You say “They lied and had numerous errors in my assessment.” They did this to us from our first phone call. We were told that they did not need to speak to me to establish who I was etc. Untrue. Marg said she wanted to be my “representative” to help me. They said that Marg would have to be an “appointee” and that she did not have to do anything. DWP would sort it out. Untrue. Other errors as well.
Cannot believe they would let a first-contact person be so incompetent. Seems to be part of what we are calling the DWP “Buggeration Factors” designed to heap trauma and stress on to applicants.
@kezo Again, thanks for your info about Appointee-ism. As I.ve said, above, to Chipper, Marg said she wanted simply to be my representative – i.e. be able when needed to talk to DWP. Told she “MUST be appointee. No need to do anything. DWP would fix it all themselves.” Untrue There’s a surprise!
Also, as above, am desperate to get hold of copy of actual form for application to get PIP. Have not yet dug deeply into Google but suspect it will be difficult to find. Any ideas?
@Phaedra Thanks so much for your post. I’m sure you’ll understand when I say it is deeply comforting to hear that we are not alone. Have already had the same DWP buggeration factor(s) which you mention.
It’s difficult enough coping with all the medical conditions, particularly the inability to walk in any manageable manner; DWP buggeration on top is bloody annoying and traumatic.
Thanks enormously for your support.
@Tharg You’re very welcome 🙂
You’d think after 22 years I’d be used to it! But dealing with his needs and my own PIP claim, advancing age (now 70) and various worsening health issues it’s becoming a real pain in the backside!.
My biggest worry is who will help him when I’m gone? His mum left over 21 years ago and has very little contact with our boys. His younger sister is has her own problems and is currently waiting to see a neurologist so no idea where that’s leading! and his older brother lives in Amsterdam so not exactly local!.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
I’m making a note and bookmarking this thread as I am on DLA and have been for almost 30-years. Like others, I was awarded it for ‘life’ due to the disability polio left me in when I contracted it at 6-months old but it’s only a matter of time now before the dreaded PIP form drops through my letterbox & the form-filling worry & stress begins once again.
Thanks to all who have contributed helpful advice on this thread. I’m going to need it too when the time comes. Good luck Tharg.
@Phaedra You have my sincere sympathy for what you’re having to deal with. I’ve read and contributed to this WMC site for many years and have followed many of your posts so I DO understand.
Same goes for age and trying to cope. Marg is 80 next year; I’m 76. It is difficult enough trying to cope with all my our health issues – for me, primarily very rapidly failing mobility. I’ll be full-time wheelchair soon. Walking becoming impossible. For Marg it’s a rare neurological condition, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which most medical professionals haven’t even heard of but with a bad attack involves being ambulanced to hospital. Four hospital in-patient experiences over last few years, two of which were close to fatal.
Now this whole PIP horror has taken over our lives. Have to spend hours and hours every day researching, planning, trying to find out what lies the DWP are telling us. Wanted our last few years to be as restful and civilised. Some chance!
@solent60 As above, my sympathies, mate. Completely understand the stress and worry – and that’s before the bloody form drop through the door.
Again, as I say, above to Phaedra, at our age just coping with rapidly worsening medical conditions is bad enough. Having to cope with the DWP’s lies and buggeration makes it so much worse.
@kezo Think I may have solved the PIP form problem or, at least, got as close to solving it as I can. Quite a few sites offer help and instruction on making a claim. But they sound like scams. “Send us money and all will be well“. Got enough problems without getting involved with that rubbish.
Worryingly, only entry which seems to give full, printable version of form is the DWP site. Given their behaviour so far, I am 100% sure that I cannot trust them. Wondering which bit of their copy of form is missing/misleading/incorrect.
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