The best way to give your claim every chance of success is to get help from a good adviser. You may not be able to, for a variety of reasons:
We have three different ways we can help you with your claim.
1. No win no fee!
We help with most claims on this basis. We complete the claim form with your input, send it to Department of Work and Pensions and then handle all administration. So there is no stress, no complications and no immediate cost to you.
If we don't win your case - and that only applies to one in five of our cases - then we don't take a fee. If we win - like four in five of our cases - then our fee is calculated as a percentage of any arrears of benefit you receive and nothing more. We do not ask for anything from your ongoing weekly or monthly benefit payments.
2. One off fee!
This is only offered where there are no arrears of benefit. Our normal charge is £100 per form. For this you get:
We appreciate that not everyone will have £100 to spare the day the form drops through their letterbox. So we now offer the option to spread the payment over 5 months at £20 a month by standing order. A mandate must be received before we begin work on your claim.
3. Pay as you go
Again, we tend to offer this option where there are no arrears of benefit but not usually for the completion of claim forms. We charge on a "pay as you go" basis. We ask you to deposit enough to cover 1 hour's work with us (£20). Once this is used up you can either deposit more money with us or call it a day. We charge sensibly in that if a letter takes 5 minutes to write we charge for 5 minutes not 10 or 20. So you can't run up a big bill. We will tell you what we have done e.g. spent 10 minutes researching case law so you know how the money has been spent. You have control and can call it a day whenever you want to.
The latest personal independence payment figures released by the DWP show a fall in success rates across the board. The percentage of new claimants who get an award of any sort currently stands at 42%, while 70% of disability living allowance to PIP reassessment claimants get an award.
The
success rates for BenefitAnswers are:
DLA
to
PIP
100%
Attendance
Allowance
100%
PIP
claim
77%
ESA
to Support
group
67%
Our overall success rate is 78% and 75% of new claims result in an award of benefit.
(figures correct as at 31.7.16)
Let
BenefitAnswers help with your claim!
A service such as ours is available free from bodies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau. So, why would you choose us?
Well, quite apart from the fact that we are very good at what we do, due to cuts the CAB and other similar bodies are completely swamped and simply don't have the resources to cope with demand. Consider what Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of the CAB, recently said about the situation:
"Cuts to legal aid have created an advice gap, stranding people with nowhere to turn. At precisely the time when people's need for specialist advice on issues such as housing and welfare increased, provision for this support has been slashed."
In a nutshell, surely it is better to pay and be better off rather than not get any help at all?
We look at how your medical conditions affect you. We know what is relevant, what to ask you and how best to explain to the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) what it's like for you day-to-day.
Better still we will retain a copy of the form we complete for you so on each occasion we will be able to update your circumstances without introducing any contradictions that might arouse suspicion with DWP decision makers. For those receiving contribution based ESA is it essential to remain in the support group to avoid the ESA ending after 365 days and therefore even more essential to get the form right the first time and every time!
From June 2016 there was a change to the PIP Award Review process. Claimants with an existing award will be sent a new shortened version of the 'How your disability affects you form' (AR1). PIP say that it "will be quicker and easier for claimants to tell us what has changed about their health condition or disability since their last assessment. DWP Decision Makers (DMs) will look at the information the customer provides on the form, along with any new supporting evidence and information from the previous assessment to decide whether they can make a decision without referring the case to the assessment provider." So again it is vital that your PIP claim form is completed accurately and is consistent with what you have said before. We will be able to refer to the copies of your claim forms that we have completed for you to try to avoid the need for a further face to face assessment.
"I used your sample for ESA for CFS and was awarded it for 2 Years." E.M.
Claiming benefits usually involves completing a lengthy claim form. The answers you give go a long way to deciding if you get the benefit but there may be a face to face assessment before the decision is made. It is vital to get the form right and worded in the correct way. A Tribunal Judge recently wrote in his explanation for a decision: "In the claim pack Mr B did not reply to the question asking him how far he can normally walk." Need we say more?
Click here to view the available sample forms
I just wanted to take some time out and thank all of you for your help, support and understanding in winning both my cases for DLA and ESA. I don't know where I would have been without you!
Jennifer
