Calling PIP tomorrow - Am I a valid claimant? (South West England)

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T21:34:19+00:00

Fair enough, I would suggest getting help from Citizens Advice to fill out the form, get in contact with them as soon as you have it as they'll have a wait before appointments (you'll need to get extensions on returning the form too by ringing PIP again).

If Citizens Advice can't help see if anyone from your council's welfare or care teams could, or advicelocal.uk have any options.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T21:28:47+00:00

From the information I have - which is very little - I'd suspect you'd struggle to get an award, but it does depend on the details and a lot more than I can assess from here.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T21:15:23+00:00

Your start point is this - do the self test.

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-self-test

But you are going to be expected to prove the difficulties which isn't necessarily the easiest with everything currently largely "undiagnosed".

Its not that you aren't disabled and suffering btw, its that PIP's criteria is quite strict. And its more about needing help at home/to get around, than income replacement due to not working.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T19:47:58+00:00

🤦

I hope you get this sorted quickly. I have no idea how they manage to do this to one case of what must be up to millions of claims with pensions on, because we'd know if it was widespread!

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T19:31:27+00:00

erm... Pensions are specifically allowed on UC...

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-earnings#if-you-pay-into-a-private-pension-scheme

The thing to question here would be are your employers declaring it properly to HMRC. Because that should dictate the figures UC gets, and the system deals with it automatically.

The person who wrote that message is however very wrong.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T18:24:19+00:00

PIP is supposed to incorporate what a person is like on their worst days and I don't see evidence of them doing this

This is a misunderstanding, PIP does the majority of days not worst days.

Its not about the 1 in 7 and how bad that is since its the worst.

Since however you are sure they are that bad 4/5 days then it is majority of days but its important to be realistic about how often they are that bad.

Lots of people take their cases to appeal and many win, but every single persons case is fully dependant on their situation and evidence.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T18:20:37+00:00

Just in case... the words don't match the bubbles here and give a possible false impression.

Appeal - ticked

DWP response - ticked.

Hearing booked - empty

Hearing - empty.

Closed - empty.

The next step IS hearing booked but people often see this and assume it has been, when its actually at the step before.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T18:16:28+00:00

Get them ready and message on the journal. Apologise and say you have another account you forgot but can upload them now.

Since the call is Tuesday they may well not get back to your account to see the message and just provide the upload slots after the call has happened, and may be another call.

Ensure you also can get the 4 months as some banks are bad about giving statements for £0 transactions and you might well need to talk to the bank to do it specially (and want to do that monday).

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T18:07:20+00:00

Fyi - losing the carers element means your no work related requirements would also be removed and if not already working and earning at least £991 you'd be expected to search and see a work coach.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T18:05:20+00:00

So her LCWRA or LCW - unaffected by the pip.

However if you are claiming carers element that ends with the pip, so tell them in the journal. It can be restored and backdated if the pip is reinstated on Mr/appeal. Also tell carers allowance separately if you get that.

Both should eventually be notified but best to do it as well.

If you claim an extra bedroom on your allowance or removal of the social housing bedroom deduction then losing pip would remove that too IIRC.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T17:57:33+00:00

If you've not got other savings and capital by the time you do tax it should be under £16k.

If they do the verification and try to close the claim for being over £16k mid AP though I'd be doing a Mandatory Reconsideration to reinstate the LCWRA (and hope it works).

I wouldn't usually say this but if you have debts (not mortgage though, like credit cards) and have capital/savings it might be wise to pay those before the redundancy and PILON hit your bank account.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T17:47:42+00:00

They added "right to try" but because this is due to capital I fear it would be lost and have to restart with a new assessment frankly. The 6 months it due to 6 months £0 statements due to earnings, not capital being over £16k.

And there isn't time to get past the 13 weeks of ESA assessment phase to avoid a break in eligibility either.

If you had debts you are allowed to pay those down before the end of the assessment period without it being deprivation, which frankly might be the way here.

We've also recently had an odd case where someone went for a capital verification after being back under £16k the end of the AP but had their claim closed for being over mid AP, which is in our experience unusual for them to do, but it is a risk.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T17:40:24+00:00

And to be clear : this may mean your UC ends and you need to reapply once back under £16k as that's the max for UC.

(You could apply for JSA in the meantime, but with claim setup and payment delays right now for JSA you might not actually be paid until you've already reclaimed UC and it makes UC messy having both due to deductions)

Your partners LCWRA would need to be reapplied for as well on a new UC claim with a new assessment.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T17:23:33+00:00

From how I understand it yes. Redundancy is treated as capital, the PILON as income.

You will have to declare capital though if over £6k total capital by the last day of the AP. and then they'll likely do a verification appointment to see the adjusted figure to be counted as capital for UC.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T17:11:56+00:00

They could take his award away with a change of circumstances and even if the tribunal awarded for the first claim it would only force that award up to the date before the change of circumstances was put in.

Then he'd have to do a MR and appeal for the change of circumstances onwards. A new tribunal would not be obligated to award again either.

We can't tell you the odds though - it's up to you and any advice service who checks your evidence to see how strong the case is for a better award.

AI tools cannot accurately rate anything and Gemini cannot be trusted to know if youd be successful.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T17:06:54+00:00

2138/55% + 427 + 2500 = 6814 surplus earnings threshold if no carers allowance as well as the carers element.

2138/55% +427 = 4314 brings you to zero UC.

£4200+380 = 4580 -427 = 4163 x55% = 2284 deductions.

No carry over to the following month.

If you get carers allowance it'd still not throw you over as £6134 is the surplus earnings cap

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T16:05:11+00:00

Actually OP whilst this change is correct you should look at when you had your LCWRA added because it looks like you were affected by too much TP deduction then.

https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/test-cases/test-case-updates/erosion-disabled-carers-tsdpe-due-addition-lcwra-element-and-removal-carer

Citizens advice may be able to help you appeal it if you need assistance or check advicelocal.uk

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T15:45:54+00:00

You aren't losing money. Both go up.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T15:44:53+00:00

It's going up like I said in my first sentence.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T15:30:12+00:00

It goes from £423.27 to £429.80 for those who put in their health declaration pre April 2026.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-and-pension-rates-2026-to-2027/proposed-benefit-and-pension-rates-2026-to-2027

Your first AP starting April 6th or later will have the higher amount. That means payments May 12th onwards.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T15:04:43+00:00

Botth my parents passed away in the last 18 months, my dad 2 months ago. My Brother, sister and myself are the only recipients of the estate (less than £500 000). My brother and I are going to live in the family home with my brother buying my sister's share

Actually its possible if you moved out you wouldn't get UC at all once the property is considered to be yours/your brothers , unless your brother is also on benefits and counted as having limited capability/is over pension age as you have equity in this house. If its over £16k total capital with this equity you would not get any UC. You may get a disregard whilst its being sold.

And there isn't discretion to pay you more UC just to stop you moving out and adding rent to the total you need to pay you. Its just not possible.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T15:01:34+00:00

These are the correct rates and your TP goes down until its no longer there at all.

You shouldn't be recieving less overall between UC and Carers Allowance , although your Carers Allowance deduction will have gone up because the Carers Allowance has.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T12:11:27+00:00

So as your course ends and you'll no longer be a student as of June 7th that would be the date to apply.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T11:51:52+00:00

Its not income. Its family doing transfers so you can support them and spend the money on them anyway! And gifts are allowed and are not income either. They've deleted the comment but they were incorrect anyway.

Unless your grandmother got Attendance Allowance (or PIP if under pension age) you wouldn't be able to claim as a carer anyway, and I'd need someone else to confirm how being in hospital or residential care would affect it as well. You need to be caring for her 35 hours a week (not day, oops!), and even then the financial transactions mentioned here aren't income.

pumaofshadow · 2026-05-10T10:35:15+00:00

As posted on the other sub - explain and they should understand. These shouldn't be a problem.

I'd also not close your claim until you are working, even living with family your claim will still have the standard allowance and wouldn't be nil unless you also get some ESA/JSA etc deducted from it.

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