It’s useful to include evidence from health professionals on how your condition affects you. It can give the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) a clearer picture of how your condition affects you and give you a better chance of being properly assessed. Evidence could be a letter, report or care plan, and you can send it any time before the DWP makes a decision on your claim.

Keeping a PIP diary

If your condition fluctuates (you have good and bad days) it can be helpful to keep a diary. A diary is a handy way to record your bad days and how they affected you. You could use a diary as evidence as well as use it to help you fill in your ‘How your disability affects you’ form. To help you, you can use our template diary. You can also ask someone to help you write it. Download: template diary to help you keep a record of how your condition affects you 78.3 KB .

ImportantDon’t delay returning your ‘How your disability affects you’ form or attending an assessment because you’re waiting on supporting evidence. You can always tell the DWP that you’ll send the evidence at a later date. If you need to, send any supporting evidence after the ‘How your disability affects you’ form.

What to ask health professionals for

When you contact the health professional, tell them that you’re making a claim for PIP and ask them to provide a letter explaining how your condition affects you. It’s important to do this because PIP is based on how your condition affects you and not the condition itself or the medication you take. The DWP will look at how your condition limits your ability to do 12 tasks. If you want, you can ask the health professional to concentrate their comments on the tasks you need help with because of your condition and that you think are more important to your claim. The 12 tasks you’re assessed on are:

• preparing a cooked meal
• eating and drinking
• managing your treatments
• washing and bathing
• managing toilet needs or incontinence
• dressing and undressing
• communicating verbally
• reading and understanding written information
• mixing with others
• making decisions about money
• planning and following journeys
• moving around

Who to ask for evidence

You could ask for evidence from these health professionals:

• your physiotherapist
• your occupational therapist
• your social worker
• your counsellor
• your support worker
• your consultant
• your nurse
• your doctor or GP

Some health professionals won’t help with benefit applications and others may charge a fee for doing so.

Worth knowing

It’s a good idea to check what the health professional is able to do for you and if there’s a fee before you write to them. Get them to send their evidence to you and not to the DWP. This way you can check that you’re happy with it and decide whether or not you want to include it in your claim. Remember, it should show the DWP how your condition affects you and not be just confirmation of your condition or the medication you take. Contact us to check the health professional’s evidence to make sure it will help your claim. You can also get help from your local disability or mental health support agency. Find disability support agencies and mental health charities.