Mental health claims

PiP may be awarded based on how an individual's mental health impedes completing daily tasks. One of the misconceptions about PiP is that it is only awarded for visible conditions. This is incorrect, as it includes what is known as "hidden conditions", which includes mental health issues.

 

A mental health condition is considered a disability if it lasts or is likely to last for 12 months and restricts your normal daily activities. For instance, you may claim that your:

• Agoraphobia may be making you scared of open spaces or using public transport;
• Social Anxiety may restrict your ability to interact with people; and
• Eating Disorders such as anorexia nervosa may limit your ability to mix socially and complete daily tasks.

 

There are seven primary mental health disorders

• Mood disorders;
• Anxiety disorders;
• Personality disorders;
• Psychotic disorders;
• Eating disorders;
• Trauma-related disorders (such as post-traumatic stress disorder); and
• Substance abuse disorders.

Mental health claims are potentially more susceptible to this than most because of three reasons.

1. The form is complicated and lengthy;
2. The DWP believes that people with mental health issues are more likely to accept a decision without questioning it; or
3. They can be expensive. This is because mental health issues are usually long term and hence the claim may last many years or life.

Example – getting the highest rate of "Daily Living" for life (let us call life 30 years – 1500 weeks), plus receiving carers allowance for a partner would bring you in:

 

Benefit	Current high rate	Multiplied by 1500
Daily living	£59.70 per week	89,550
Carer’s allowance	£67.25 per week	100,875
TOTAL		£190,425

(Figures correct as of June 2021).

This sum does not include other benefits such as disabled parking, disabled railcards, reduced council tax bills etc.

 

Filling in the form without assistance – a classic “Catch 22”

The classic “Catch 22” here is obvious – how can someone who has a mental illness have the mental capacity to fill in a complex claim form, just by filling in the form shows that you are mentally able to do it, hence the “Catch 22”, the way around this is to get the form filled in by someone else. In any case, we would strongly suggest that you get as much medical evidence as you can to back up your claim and keep a photocopy or digital scan of the form and read through it several times before sending it off, this will also prove invaluable if requested to attend a medical assessment, again there would be a great risk of contradiction when questioned on elements of the form.

 

How we can help

We can arrange all the medical assessments and reports needed to complete the form for the DWP which will detail your situation. Please note that medical costs (disbursements) are outside our control and therefore may exceed our standard charge. Rest assured we would not incur any charges without your consent, please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can prepare a brief for them. We would always suggest you are seen at home so that our appointed assessor can include your local environment within their assessment (while there they can take notes which can be used as the basis to try and obtain grants for home adaptations, reports to councils to try and get your council tax band lowered and so on). To gain our assistance simply create a case by using the link at the top of this page and our staff will be delighted to assist.

 

To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by simply clicking on the link at the top of the page, you will then need to deposit a sum equal to one hour’s usage, upon receipt of these funds you will be assigned your personal caseworker who will telephone you to discuss the matter and make suggestions on how to proceed. Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our appointed medical assessor and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.