They Said No. That Is Not The End.

The stage where most people give up is the stage with the worse odds.

There are already good books about filling in the PIP claim form. This one starts where they stop: the letter saying no.

Two official figures, published by two different government departments, are almost never put side by side.

• Mandatory reconsideration changed the award in 28% of cleared cases. That is DWP looking again at its own decision. It is the stage almost everybody meets, and the stage where a great many people stop.
• At tribunal, 63% of PIP cases cleared at a hearing were overturned in the claimant's favour. That is an independent panel, and the overturn rate is more than twice as high.

If you take one thing from this book, take that. But this book will also tell you what those numbers do not mean, because a guide that shouts "63% win!" at a disabled person and lets them read it as their personal odds is doing something cruel dressed up as encouragement.

• The deadline almost everyone misreads. One month to ask for a mandatory reconsideration, counted from the date on the letter, not the day you opened it. Then one month again from the reconsideration decision.
• Where your recoverable points actually are. All thirteen activities, the 8 and 12 point thresholds, and why the activity that upset you most is often not the one worth fighting.
• The four words that decide most cases. Safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, in a reasonable time.
• How to write the request activity by activity, with wording you can adapt, and how to describe a bad day accurately when you have spent years playing your symptoms down.
• The evidence that helps, and the well-meant GP letter that usually does not.
• Why many appeals never reach a judge. In award review cases, 45% of appeals lapsed because DWP changed its own decision first.
• The hearing: who is in the room, what they ask, and the one habit that costs people their appeal.
• Free help, and how to find it. You never need to pay anybody.
• An honest chapter for anyone thinking of giving up, because sometimes stopping is the right decision and no book should bully you out of it.

This book never predicts an outcome. Every statistic is attributed to the Department for Work and Pensions or the Ministry of Justice with the period it covers, including the figures that are less encouraging.

Information, not legal, medical or financial advice. England and Wales. Scotland now has Adult Disability Payment and Northern Ireland has its own system; both are signposted. Current as at August 2026.