Brits claiming the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) have been warned by an advocacy forum that a new review form appears ‘designed’ to cause them to lose the benefit or see a reduction in their payments.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) introduced the form in November with the aim of making it simpler and more concise than its previous lengthy version. However, critics have cautioned disability benefit claimants that it appears “designed to encourage claimants to give as little evidence as possible and thus risk losing or reducing their award.”
Claimants are sent and must complete the PIP Award Review form when their benefit award is reviewed at the end of their awarded term. Each person is asked to provide information about how their disability continues to affect their daily standard of living, with their continued cash support dependent on how they answer.
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DWP officials cut the length of the form from a whopping 38 pages to 25, with the aim of simplifying the PIP review process. But the questions on the form have also changed, which could catch claimants out.
While the PIP review form has been made simpler, the questions could catch claimants out -Credit:Getty
Instead of asking about how your condition has changed and how you manage it, the questions are much more similar to the initial PIP claim form. Because of this, the benefits and employment advocacy forum Benefits and Work has advised claimants to give as much detail as possible to avoid seeing their payments stopped.
Instead of writing something simple as “no change”, people are being encouraged to fill out the form with as much information as is still correct from their initial claim. However, this might not be so easy as the simplified form offers much less space to provide this evidence.
The new form, instead of using a whole side of A4 like the initial application, provides a small box for the claimant to answer each question, which could make it harder for some to state their case. The forum said: “Many readers have had to go to tribunal to get their award reinstated after losing it on review.”
DWP figures following the use of the new form show an increase in people having their PIP award reduced or ended entirely, with 19 per cent losing PIP upon review, and a further seven per cent seeing their payments reduced.
Benefit and Work added: “Our advice is never to be restricted by the boxes on a PIP review form, but instead, use as many additional sheets as is necessary to give detailed evidence about your needs.”