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It's a bit off topic, as this is about social care, but it seems there is now a channel to complain about councils not providing correct social care assessments (I haven't looked into this for ages, it wasn't the case a few years ago)...

They have a legal duty to offer you a formal assessment of needs. But councils do informally try to avoid this duty by adding lots of barriers during initial contact. https://www.scie.org.uk/assessment-and-eligibility/assessment-of-needs-under-the-care-act-2014/...

I think Kitty is probably right on existing CB ESA claimants, it's all about them saving money. They don't seem to even have thought through how their proposed PIP changes will affect pensioners or pension credit. It's like the WCA reviewing they are planning 'restarting' - they are aiming it...

You should be able to use any social care reports/assessment outcomes as evidence when your PIP is next reviewed. The DWP specify they will consider this as evidence (whereas my council social care department told me they don't have to agree with my PIP scores - in reality the social care...

A long read (can be listened to) - https://www.thecanary.co/long-read/2025/04/01/dwp-cuts-me-cfs/

So they are being trained to ignore the 'repeatedly and reliably' criteria, even though that is set in legislation. I'd advise claimants to emphasise these criteria at the top of, end of, and throughout their written responses. Write the form as if you are going to appeal. Specifically state the...

Before the local councils combined to become a unitary authority here, ESA, Income Support and UC all paid a 20% contribution after it was devolved from the old national system. Then suddenly ESA got a full exemption but not UC with the health element.

In Somerset they treat the health element of Universal Credit as income, whereas they exempt someone on income related ESA fully from Council Tax. As you can see this means someone transferring from ESA to UC via managed migration suddenly has to face paying a significant proportion of their...

Yes. I believe technically anyone with a formal NHS autism diagnosis should be scoring 8 on the communication and social interaction descriptors, because even if they can communicate in an autistic fashion they are clearly not able to do that to the standard of a non-autistic person (which is...

I think the 'reliable and repeatable' criteria were added to the PIP legislation a couple of years after it was originally passed. That's why the descriptors don't really fit with it, especially the last 6 or 8 point ones which state you can never do the activity. It seems assessors still only...

I was going to have a care assessment but my council made it so hard to access (as I also have autism and communication difficulties) that I gave up in the end. But I specifically asked whether they would use my PIP award as evidence and they said they wouldn't accept it, they would make their...

It's individual, I've just been talking in generalities but yes, in my own case if I didn't have a long term award of PIP (and at the moment I'm safely in the new criteria with the 10 year light touch) I'd actually be better off if I wasn't predicted to accrue the full 35 years of NI credits (as...

I never claimed DLA, but I seem to recall (from my sister's case) that that was the criteria that got a claimant the lowest level of the care element of DLA. But obviously it wasn't sufficient for the new PIP benefit when people transferred over, unless they also could score on other criteria...

I'd be concerned about giving them any ideas on how to make PIP harder to get in the future! I think Labour has mooted about using different criteria for it after the 2026 changes take effect. Looking at how Attendance Allowance seems to use some of the Care Act criteria I wouldn't be surprised...

I think a possible way forward would be for the government to legislate to allow pensioners who are in receipt of only the mobility element of PIP (not the care element) to be eligible to apply for Attendance Allowance. At the moment it doesn't look like they can do this.

Yes, I'd be in that situation but for the fact that I claimed over 16 years of Child Benefit in my name when married (my ex was on a high income and supported me when the kids were preschool and during their primary years) and then as a single parent, so get NI credits for these years. I've only...

I said 'more recent', they may have been here for 10 or more years, but less than the 35 years required to get the full new state pension, whilst many native British people will have reached that NI contributions threshold. Pension credit is a top up to give pensioners a minimum income that is...

It appears there will also be an unplanned for contradiction if the new 4 point threshold for PIP is used for pensioners. A pensioner who is eligible for PIP under the current scoring may lose the care element of their PIP at reassessment whilst maintaining their mobility award. But currently a...

This will affect more people every year as the new state pension is set a few pounds above the threshold for eligibility for Pension Credit. So anyone with the full number of years of NI contributions/credits from benefits will need PIP to be eligible for the Pension Credit top up, which would...

Has anyone scored an 8 on any of the care descriptors of PIP or know of anyone who has? The highest I've scored is 4 points in some of the descriptors (some of these relate to my autism, ADHD and non ME related physical conditions) although the written part of the assessment report indicates I...