PIP renewal and State Retirement Age

Apologies for not letting you know but my husband was awarded the higher rate of the daily living component and retained the higher rate of mobility for an ongoing period, following a paper based assessment. It was backdated to the 5th of September as you predicted. Thanks once again for all of your help and member guides, which definitely contributed to this excellent result.
This morning he has received a letter about the changes to PIP law with regard to needing either prompting or support to mix with people. It suggests he seek advice deciding whether to contact them if he thinks these changes may affect him. It states that if he has needed prompting or support since 2016, he may be eligible. I believe that he has needed my prompting and support throughout that time. When he was assessed in 2014, he was not awarded any points under this category so with only 7 points he didn’t qualify for the daily living component. Since the change of circumstances, he has been given 2 points for prompting and a total of 16 points for daily living.
Please do you know if there is any risk to his ongoing award by asking if he is entitled to anything under the new law. If we call them, please do you know what we will be asked? If you think it may be better to write rather than ring, please do you know what information we need to include in our letter?
Once again, thanks for your invaluable support. I only wish I had been aware of the site when we began this seemingly endless journey.
Kind regards, Petespa

Thanks for your prompt reply. My husband’s initial claim was made in 2014 and he was awarded the higher rate of mobility only, for 10 years. He was due for review in January 2024. When he hadn’t received a review form, we discovered that it had been amended to an ongoing award when he reached state retirement age in 2021. As I believed that he definitely satisfied the criteria for at least the lower rate of the daily living component we reported a change of circumstances in September 2023. This resulted, following a paper based assessment, in an increase from 7 to 16 points for daily living, thus moving from no award to the higher rate. Had he received an additional 2 points when the law changed he would have been entitled to the standard rate of daily living. The letter states that he could be affected if he has needed social support at any time since 2016. I therefore feel inclined to either call, write or do both to confirm that he has needed my support when mixing throughout that time. I just wanted to check if you knew if there was any risk to his new ongoing award for higher rate of both components by doing this. Thanks again, Petespa