ADHD can have an impact on the ability to work and self-care. In some cases, it is possible to claim benefits to get extra help with day-to-day things.
Personal Independence Payments (PIP)
If you live in England or Wales, you might be able to get PIP if you need extra help because of an illness, disability or mental health condition, including ADHD (although success rates are just over 50% for this type of claim. You can make a PIP claim whether or not you receive help from anyone else. The payments are based on how your symptoms affect you, not on your diagnosis!
You don’t need to have worked to qualify for PIP, and your income or savings are is not important.
When claiming, it is important to get across real-life examples of how your ADHD affects you such as the below example:
“Being easily distracted and procrastinating can cause difficulties engaging with self-care. Examples could be often forgetting to eat due to hyperfocus, buying food and letting it go out of date, lack of self-care due to associated mental health issues, having to throw food away due to being burned or poorly prepared.“
Providing real-life examples of how your symptoms affect you can help the chances of a successful claim.
Here are some tips:
When applying for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or its replacement, Personal Independence Payment (PIP), with ADHD, it can be helpful to keep the following tips in mind:
- Gather supporting documentation: Collect any relevant medical reports, assessments, and evidence that document your ADHD diagnosis and its impact on your daily life. This can include information from healthcare professionals, therapists, or educational institutions.
- Be thorough in your application: Provide detailed and accurate information about how ADHD affects your ability to carry out daily activities, such as concentration, organization, memory, and impulse control. Describe any difficulties you face in various settings, including work, education, and social situations.
- Keep a record of your symptoms: Maintain a diary or journal that documents the challenges you experience due to ADHD. Note specific examples and incidents that demonstrate how your condition affects your life and your need for assistance.
- Include information from healthcare professionals: Request supporting letters or reports from your healthcare providers, including psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, or general practitioners. Their professional opinions and insights can carry weight in the assessment process.
- Focus on functional impairments: Emphasize the functional limitations you experience as a result of ADHD. Provide examples of how it affects your ability to perform tasks independently, maintain relationships, manage personal care, travel, or engage in social activities.
- Seek support: If you feel overwhelmed or unsure about the application process, contact us and we will see if we can help.
- Keep copies of your application: Make copies of your completed application form, any supporting documents, and correspondence related to your claim. This will help you track the progress of your application and provide evidence in case of any issues or disputes.
PIP is claimed for online, and you can find the government application website here.
Access to Work
Access to Work (A2W) is a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) scheme that pays for ‘reasonable adjustments’ in the workplace to help you have a fair chance of a successful job if you have a disability (ADHD is recognised in the UK as a disability under the 2010 Equalities Act if it impairs your ability to work and live normally). You can apply for A2W if you are employed or self-employed, and up to 100% of the costs of reasonable adjustments will be met by the DWP. These reasonable adjustments can include ADHD coaching, institutional training on ADHD, software for organisation, flexible working hours, disability leave, noise cancelling headphones and anything else that is ‘reasonable’ and which will help you stay at work.
The online application, which can be found here, is actually quite simple and the waiting time to be assessed is around 6 months long (at the time of writing). If you apply in the first 6 weeks of a job, anything purchased belongs to you and not your employer.