help with DLA and PIP
If you want to make a claim for Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment for a child or young person, Amaze can offer you advice and sometimes practical support, depending on where you live.
Although we cannot meet families and young people face to face, we are able to contact you by phone or email. Conversations with you are likely to be shorter but more frequent as we gather all the information we need to make a strong claim. Let us know if English is not your first language, so we can think about who can best help us get started.
Wherever possible, we will offer you as much help as you need to draft typed notes that get tagged into the claim pack. Where this is not practical and you are not able to hand write the claim, we will try to do this for you.
We understand how hard it is to get extra copies of important information about your child or young person right now. If you live in Brighton & Hove, we have a protocol for safely picking up your supporting evidence and signed claim pack. We can also photocopy original documents, collate everything and post your claim by special delivery. Unfortunately, we do not have the reach to offer this copy and send service in East Sussex.
We understand that DWP is extending the length of all current DLA and PIP awards for 3 months. While this is helpful, that time will fly, so please get in touch with us as soon as possible, if a lot has changed since you last claimed and you need help with a review.
If a young person, aged at least 16 and getting DLA, has already been invited to claim PIP and you have a PIP claim pack, do ask for extra time, if you need it. Remember the bar is set higher for PIP than DLA, so it’s worth making sure you have all your evidence available before making the claim. DWP has suspended face to face assessments and is making decisions on papers.
If you have only recently had a letter inviting you to start a PIP and are ringing to start the claim, you may find it difficult to get through to speak to an advisor to do this. The message from DWP at present, is that they are suspending new PIP claims for young people getting DLA and for the time being, they will continue to make DLA payments until COVID 19 lockdown restrictions have eased.
How to access/contact us:
You can contact us by email sendiass@amazesussex.org.uk or phone (01273 772289). All calls go straight to voicemail at the moment, so please leave your contact details. We are currently replying to calls on the same day.
For information about any of our other services during the pandemic please see our Coronavirus statement
Telephone Advice
Call our SENDIASS helpline for information about where to get the claim forms, what sort of details you might need to include and how long you can expect the process to take.
Factsheets and written resources
We also have fact sheets about DLA and PIP and, if you give us a ‘pen picture’ of your child’s needs, we can send you more detailed written resources to help you tackle different pages of the claim pack. Or you can read more about DLA and PIP on this website.
Workshops
We run regular, free DLA and PIP workshops in Brighton that parents from across Sussex are welcome to attend and in the future we will be running these in East Sussex too. Check out our events listing for upcoming workshops. For DLA and PIP workshops in West Sussex visit Reaching Families’ website.
One to one support
If you feel really stuck, and you live in Brighton & Hove, we may be able to offer you individual help. We have a small team of volunteers who can make home visits and help you think through how to make a strong case. And if you find that writing stuff down is hard, that’s OK too – our volunteers are happy to fill the forms in. But please be aware that this service is only available in school term time. Ring our helpline to ask for one to one help or read more in our DLA Service Leaflet.
If you feel really stuck and you live in East Sussex, have a think about who could help you work from some of our written resources. This might be your child’s social worker, their TA at school, a friend or a keyworker. If you belong to a parent support group, perhaps one of the parents there has experience and can help.
Volunteering
Amaze always needs more volunteers. Find out how you can help other parents make successful claims.
Give us your feedback
We’d love to hear how useful you found our DLA resources or one to one support. Email lizzie@amazesussex.org.uk with any feedback about the service and do let us know the outcome.
If you are successful and would like to help us support more families who need help to claim DLA, visit our donations page.