Can I claim PIP for Learning Disability?

Information about Learning Disability to help you claim PIP:

This guide provides insights into Learning Disability and its potential impact on daily living and mobility. It explains how Learning Disability might affect your ability to carry out everyday activities safely, effectively, accurately, and repeatedly.

People with Learning Disability have a range of individual needs and will have different experiences. No two people are the same and common difficulties facing people with Learning Difficulties that influence PIP claims include

Reading Difficulties
Challenging behaviour
Visual processing difficulties
Difficulty understanding written information
Difficulty with everyday activities
Understanding complicated information
Learning new skills
Looking after their personal hygiene
Interacting with other people
Managing and budgeting personal finances
Following instructions

Other symptoms or issues related to Learning Disabilities should also be considered during the claims process.

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Daily living descriptors

In this section we will look at each of the daily living descriptors and break down how each may be impacted due to Learning Disability. Remember this is only looking at how Learning Disability may affect you so if you have other conditions or symptoms that are not mentioned do included these when completing you PIP claim.

1. Preparing food

Learning Disabilities can impact how you prepare a simple meal in a variety of ways:

Challenges reading following recipes or remembering steps may lead to incomplete meals.
Staying safe in the kitchen environment may require prompting or supervision.
Issues with telling the time may result in food being under or over cooked.
You are unable to know whether food has been cooked correctly and is safe to eat.
You struggle to use equipment and appliances because you don’t know how to use them.
You may need to be prompted to make a meal as you don’t understand hunger cues and/or do not have a concept of time.
You may become distracted whilst preparing food and need someone to keep you on track

2. Eating and Drinking

You may experience the following when eating and drinking:

Difficulty with time perception leading to forgetting to eat/drink therefore require reminders and prompting
Poor motor skills may require someone to use adapted cutlery
You need prompting and reminding when to eat and also to ensure that you eat.
You need to be supervised when eating due to poor fine motor skills, poor hand eye coordination and/or issues with swallowing which may lead to choking.
You may be tube fed due to issue swallowing.
Due to the complexity of the learning disability, you may be unable to feed yourself and need someone else to feed you.

3. Managing your Treatments

This descriptor examines how you manage health-related treatments, and you may find:

Difficulties understanding and following medication instructions and require help to prepare it correctly.
May get confused when taking medication and you require support.
You may need to be prompted and reminded when to take your medication.
A dosette box may need to be used to remind you to take your medication.
You may struggle to swallow medication so you may need to be supervised to prevent choking etc.
You require support when you have therapies such as physiotherapy.

4. Washing and Bathing

This descriptor is about the ability to use a toilet independently and to be able clean yourself afterwards and have no continence issues:

You need help to go to the toilet because it causes you anxiety.
There may be issues for you to go to the toilet on your own because you struggle to complete the required steps.
To complete this activity successfully you need to be prompted/reminded or require supervision.
Aids need to be used because you struggle to get yourself on or off the toilet e.g. raised toilet seat, toilet frame, grab rail etc

5. Managing Toilet needs or Incontinence

In this descriptor they look at your ability to manage your own toilet or incontinence needs.

How does your Learning Disability affect this activity:

Do you struggle with bladder incontinence and use pads or incontinence pants to manage this?
You have restrictions on your mobility due to your Learning Disability and must hold on to something to get on and off the toilet. Do you have aids in the bathroom, such as a toilet frame? Someone may help you to get on and off the toilet and help clean you properly.
Due to your Learning Disability, you use picture cards as an aid to remind you of the different steps involved in managing your toilet needs.
If you need to be close to a toilet because of difficulties controlling your bladder or bowels, you may need to use a commode to help you manage.
You may need supervision to manage toilet needs because you frequently forget to wipe yourself, flush the toilet or wash your hands, so you are not completing the activity to a reasonable standard.
Your Learning Disability makes you become distracted and not notice that you need to use the toilet until you suddenly experience great urgency and need to rush to the toilet. Because of this you may need someone to prompt you to go to the toilet regularly.

6. Dressing and Undressing

This looks at whether you can dress and undress yourself and choose appropriate clothing:

Are you able to use open/close fastenings on clothes?
You may need help to dress and undress yourself.
Are you able to choose you own clothing?
Do you need prompting and reminding to change your clothes?
Do you struggle to put your clothes in the right order?
Prompting/reminding to get dressed or undressed.
You may need help from someone to help you get dressed/undressed because you struggle to get clothes on/off and don’t know which way round to wear them.
You are reminded that you need to change your clothes because they need washing.
You struggle to select clothing appropriate for the weather or occasion

7. Talking, listening and understanding

This descriptor looks at someone’s ability to verbally communicate and to be able to express and convey information and to be able to receive and understand information:

Difficulties putting words in the right order.
Do not understand jargon or long words that might be hard to understand.
Use different communication tools
May follow the lead of the person you’re communicating with
·You need support to understand complex information.
You struggle to focus on conversations because you are distracted by something else.
You need an electro larynx or hearing aid/s in order to speak/hear to an acceptable standard.
You use visual or picture clues to help you organise what you want to say before you say it out loud to others.
You may need support to understand complex verbal information because you are too distracted by your focus on other issues to listen attentively.
You may have limited vocabulary.
You may use British Sign Language (BSL) or Makaton or a digital speech device to communicate.
Conversations may need to be broken down by so that you understand what is being said and what your responses.

8. Reading understanding Signs, Symbols and Words

This relates to the ability to read and understand written or printed information:

Difficulties reading and understanding complex written or simple information .
May reverse letters or confuses words.
May need an overlay or larger text.
You may use an aid to help you to read e.g. a magnifying glass, permanent retinal implant,Braille, text in a larger font size etc.
You may struggle to read and decode words and understand their meaning and need help from someone to do this.
You may struggle to concentrate and move onto another task before finishing what you are reading.
You may struggle to understand what signs, symbols and numbers represent.
You may read more slowly because you struggle to read and

9. Engaging with Other people Face to Face

People with Learning Disabilities can struggle socially and find it difficult due to:

You may find meeting with people that you don’t know challenging and may require support.
You may struggle to follow the conversation or understand what is being said.
You may become overwhelmed and need to leave the situation which you are in to prevent melt down or challenging behaviour

10. Making Budgeting Decisions

This descriptor looks at if a person with Learning Difficulties can manage their money:

You may find it difficult to manage your money and struggle to budget.
You may find that you are vulnerable to scams or financial exploitation.
You struggle to read and understand your bank statements and you need support to do this.
You are unable to manage your own finances, and you need help from someone to manage your money.

Mobility descriptors

These evaluate how a Learning Disability may affect mobility related tasks. This is not an exhaustive list; ensure all relevant details are included in your application.

1. Planning and Following a Journeys

Learning Disabilities may make planning and following a journey challenging:

You may struggle to plan or navigate an unfamiliar journey without support from someone else.
You have may not be able to cope if the journey does not go to plan e.g. an accident, roadworks etc along your route and you have to make an unplanned diversion which leads to.
Being out in public and trying to navigate your journey may result in you being anxious and/or having a meltdown leading to challenging behaviour.
Having started your journey, you may not be able to follow directions, and you have to return home due to being overwhelmed or getting lost.

2. Moving around

Moving around does not generally affect people with Learning Disabilities:

This section can be left blank. However, if you have other health conditions and/or a disability, these may affect you moving around so you need to include any relevant information in this section.

Finally…

It is important that when you complete your PIP form, that you include how learning disabilities affects you in relation to each descriptor. Ensure that you give specific examples, under each descriptor, where you have struggled due your learning disabilities, where appropriate. It is important that you include any aids, adaptations or support/supervision that you need to help you complete each activity, where appropriate.

This information only covers Learning Disability. If you have any other health conditions and/or disability you should include how they impact you under the relevant descriptors.

Please remember that this is not a complete list and if you have other symptoms or conditions that affect this descriptor, they need to be included on your PIP claim. More information can be found at www.gov.uk