Transferring to PIP from DLA, driving licence help

Hello friendly people, I am looking for advice please.

My daughter gets DLA for ADHD & Autism. When I applied for her first driving licence for her I must have clicked the wrong button and they sent a fully functioning provisional licence, valid from her 16th Birthday. I'll admit to thinking maybe this was a mistake and checking it thoroughly with many people who all agreed that the licence is valid. I have now been asked to provide evidence within 14 days to support the application (obviously they want PIP or Higher mobility DLA - neither of which she has). Is there a way of making this process a lot quicker? She has been using her licence for 2 weeks oblivious to the error and really doesn't want to give it back if there is a way around it!

Hello,

When the time comes for transfer to PIP, be very careful what you say to any PIP assessor about her driving licence - even if it is used only for identification purposes, they will assume that just possession of a driving licence is an indication that she can manage all the PIP activities, even those which bear no relation to the ability to drive. This happened to my autistic son on his initial transfer from DLA to PIP and during a subsequent review, even though, by then, he had given up learning to drive. He has never passed a driving test and I take this to mean that an examiner does not think he could do this safely, in a reasonable time, to a reasonable standard, as often as is necessary - these should be the criteria used when assessing PIP, but PIP assessors seem to start by asking about driving and relate all the other questions to this. Their assumption seems to be that if you have a driving licence, you can drive - and if you can drive, you can do everything else without help! When we received the assessor's report, their opinion on almost every activity began with the words, "Is learning to drive, which shows sufficient skill to manage this activity" or something similar, even though we had not said my son was learning to drive because, at the time, he had already given up doing so.

I don't think this is what you were asking the forum, but I just felt you might need this warning ahead of your daughter's transfer to PIP. Obviously, you can't lie to a PIP assessor, but don't mention anything about driving unless they ask and be prepared for a fight if your daughter still has her provisional licence.

Forgive me for interfering - I'm not suggesting she should give up her licence, just that you should be aware of the possible consequences in relation to PIP applications. Even if she has received DLA for many years (as my son did), don't assume she will automatically be awarded PIP, as the criteria are different, unfortunately. I didn't understand this at the time. Study the guides carefully, as Gary suggests, and word your answers carefully, too.

Best wishes,

Wendy Woo