Change in Circumstances

Hi Martin02

Are you talking about PIP here? If you report a change of circumstances, it will trigger a review. If you have a successful assessment and an increased award, the money will be backdated to the date in which you informed them of the change. New diagnoses don't always increase the award - so sometimes people wait until their next review before they inform the DWP of a change. If you already have enhanced rate for both - you can choose whether to inform them or not, as it wouldn't make any difference.

BIS

Hi Martin02

Only you can decide when the time is right to inform them.

You ask whether you should wait until you are on new medication. It's impossible to tell you. The assessors have an inconsistent approach to medication.

Sometimes, assessors comment on the dose someone has been prescribed - thinking that it's not a very high dosage and, therefore, the claimant's symptoms are not that bad. Now, they're often wrong in this, but it is something that happens quite often - so the new medication may not make any difference to how they view it. If you want to wait to see if the medication helps - then that is up to you.

The DWP is also not interested in the condition per se so much as the symptoms you experience against the specific PIP criteria. In your case, you've experienced a deterioration in your health, so you want to be very clear about that—what has gotten worse, why it's worse, and how it impacts you against the criteria laid out.

You also need to be aware that they are not always keen on private health information. There's nothing you can do about this - but present the information you have and fight back if, for some spurious reason, they try and ignore it.

BIS