Updates

If you have a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) consultation at one of our PIP centres or one of our partners’ centres, remember to collect a form for your expenses while you are there.

For people who do need to be seen in person most consultations take place in one of the consultation centres around the country. However, if it is clear from the information that we have that travelling to a consultation centre would cause significant distress we will automatically arrange for the consultation to take place in the claimant’s home.

An aspect of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment that is sometimes misunderstood is how informal observations are taken into account. The PIP Assessment Guide, produced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), is very explicit about this (we have included the relevant extract at the end of this item).

PIP assesses your ability to perform 12 daily living and mobility activities, such as preparing food, communicating verbally, and planning and following journeys. It is not sufficient to be able to complete these activities once, or occasionally; PIP assesses your ability to undertake tasks “reliably”. Reliability has four components each of which must be satisfied in order for an activity to be undertaken ‘reliably’.