Award winning not for profit organisaiton moves into Prestwich and is welcomed by the Mayor of Bury

Friday, 17 January 2025 09:30

By David Murphy

Set up in 2019, PIP Professional CIC was originally based in Rochdale. The organisation offers legal support, online advice and assistance to claimants of PIP, ESA, UC and AA

We are a user led company - with more than 80% of our 21 strong team lives with their own disabilities. These range from neurodiversity’s to limb amputations, sight and hearing impairments, diabetes, epilepsy and functional conditions such as ME and fibromyalgia - along with many conditions.

In late 2024, we relocated to Prestwich and are connecting with other voluntary and community organisations in the Greater Manchester area, who hope to support. On the 18th of December 2024, The Worshipful the Mayor and Mayoress of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Councillor Khalid Hussain and Mrs Carol Bernstein visited PIPPS HQ and kindly cut out red ribbon at the opening event.

On the 10th January, Christian Wakeford MP and 2 local councilors also visited PIPPS HQ to discuss how we can work together to support their constituents.

Awards;
Cat Gillett – PIPPS Founder and Senior Lawyer set up the organization as, during her legal studies – she had suffered an accident, leaving her with a permanent disability. This led to her learning first-hand how little professional support was available for disabled benefits claimants. Due to the difficulties she had faced, in 2021 – she was awarded a place on the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100. A list of the most powerful disabled people in the UK. In 2024 Cat was also awarded the 2024 Disability Benefit Support Enterprise Leader of the year by Acquisition International and was a finalist at the BIZ Women Awards.

In 2024 the company was awarded Business Excellent in Legal Services at the legal 100 awards and was shortlisted at the Rochdale Diversity Awards . During 2024, our work was recognized by GMCVO and we were awarded £10,000 in funding and a £40,000 loan from the enterprise communities fund to help us to expand our support services.

We have also been lucky enough to secure a place on the Trading for Good Scheme, which is run by The School for Social Entrepreneurs for 2025.
What do we do:

PIPPS offers a completely free online advice service – via email, social media message and what’s app throughout the UK. Around 26,000 people each year access the free online advice advice and support offered.
DWP Disability Benefit Form Completion
Attendance at DWP Medical Assessments
Legal Drafting of DWP Mandatory Reconsiderations
Representation at DWP Appeals to the First and Upper Tier Tribunals (for which we have a 98% success rate)

We also run free practitioners training webinars – where we explain how other organisations such as charities, GP surgeries, law firms, community groups and voluntary organisations can best support their members or clients. We would love to hear from any other organisations who we could assist.
PIPPS is a member of social enterprise UK, professional members of the sunflower, members of the living wage foundation and are disability confident level 2 employers.

Since 2019, we have been avid supporters of Bury Pride and have a stand at all of their events. Since 2021, we have supported Glaston-bury (in aid of Bury Hospice) by sponsoring a stage each year