How to Fill Out and Submit Form CRMR1: Deadline, Fields, and Evidence

To fill out Form CRMR1, download the PDF from GOV.UK, type or write your answers into each numbered field, attach any supporting evidence, sign and date the declaration, and post the completed form to the DWP address printed on your PIP decision letter.¹ The form is the standard route for requesting a mandatory reconsideration, which is the required first step before any PIP dispute can go to a tribunal. Around 27 percent of mandatory reconsiderations cleared in the quarter ending January 2026 led to a changed award, so a carefully completed form is worth the effort.²

Check the Deadline Before You Start

You have one month from the date printed at the top of your decision letter to submit the form. That date is the starting point, not the day the letter arrived or the day you opened it.¹ The rule sits in the Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 1999, which requires the request to be received within one month of the notification date.³

Late requests are possible if you can explain why you missed the window. The DWP accepts reasons such as a hospital stay or a bereavement.⁴ Thirteen months from the original decision date is the outer limit. After that, the right to a review under these regulations lapses, and a fresh PIP claim becomes the only route.

If the deadline is close and you cannot finish the form in time, phone the DWP to register your request, then send in the completed CRMR1 and evidence afterwards. Requests can also be made by letter, but the form is structured to prompt you through everything a decision-maker needs.⁴

Where to Get the Form

Form CRMR1 is published on GOV.UK as a PDF. You can type into it on screen and then print it, or print a blank copy and complete it by hand.⁵ Either way, it needs a wet signature at the end, so a printer is essential.

Working Through the Fields

Fields 01–08: Your Personal Details

The first five fields cover your title, full name, date of birth, and National Insurance number. Your NI number is on your decision letter, payslips, or any earlier DWP correspondence.¹ Field 06 asks which benefit decision you are challenging — write “Personal Independence Payment.” Fields 07 and 08 take your address, phone number, and the best time to call. Get the number right, because the decision-maker may ring you before issuing a new decision.

Fields 09–15: Representative Details

If a family member, carer, or adviser is completing the form for you, they use fields 09 to 15 for their own name, address, relationship to you, and contact number. Leave this block blank if you are filling in the form yourself.

Field 16: Are You Within the One-Month Window?

Tick “Yes” if you are inside the month; tick “No” and explain if you are not. Vague explanations get late requests refused. Give specific dates and specific reasons — the exact days you were hospitalised, the nature of the bereavement, or whatever kept you from acting sooner.

Field 17: Why You Disagree

This is the field that decides the outcome. A line saying “I think the decision is wrong” achieves nothing. What works is identifying the exact PIP activities where you were scored too low and explaining, in concrete terms, what happens when you try to do them.

PIP is scored across ten daily living activities and two mobility activities, with descriptors ranging from 0 to 12 points.⁶ The daily living activities are preparing food, taking nutrition, managing therapy or monitoring a health condition, washing and bathing, managing toilet needs, dressing and undressing, communicating verbally, reading and understanding signs and symbols and words, engaging with other people face to face, and making budgeting decisions. The mobility activities are planning and following journeys, and moving around.⁷

Your decision letter shows the descriptor the DWP applied to each activity and the points awarded. In field 17, name the activities where you scored lower than you should have, describe what actually happens in real life, and identify the descriptor you believe fits.

Anchor your descriptions to the reliability test. The DWP has to consider whether you can do each task safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly, and within a reasonable time — meaning no more than twice as long as someone without your condition.⁷ “I can technically make a sandwich, but it takes 45 minutes, I’ve burned myself twice this month, and I can only manage it once a day” carries more weight than “I struggle with cooking.”

Fields 18–20: New Evidence

Field 18 asks whether you have new information the DWP has not seen. List each document by name and date, for example “letter from Dr Patel, 15 March 2026, regarding worsening mobility,” and enclose copies rather than originals. Field 19 confirms you have attached what you listed. Field 20 lets you explain any evidence that is still to come and when you expect it. Do not hold the form past the deadline waiting for a GP letter — send it and note the outstanding item.

Field 21 and the Declaration

Field 21 is a free-text space for anything that does not fit elsewhere. Useful things to put here include changes in your condition since the assessment, problems during the face-to-face consultation that you feel affected the accuracy of the report, and the name of a carer who can confirm your day-to-day difficulties. Print the completed form, sign the declaration at the bottom, and date it.¹

Evidence Worth Attaching

Field 17 tells your story; evidence backs it up. Useful documents include updated letters from your GP, consultant, or specialist, occupational therapy reports, community psychiatric nurse notes, and pharmacy records showing medication changes. A personal daily diary covering a representative week or two, recording what you struggled with, what help you needed, and how long tasks took, often gives the decision-maker a picture the medical notes miss.

Statements from people who see you regularly also help. A partner, family member, or carer can write a short, signed, dated letter setting out the help they provide and how often. No template is required. Reference each document in fields 17 and 18 so the decision-maker can match your points to the paperwork without hunting.

Posting the Form

Send the signed form and every piece of evidence to the address in the top right corner of your original decision letter.¹ That is the specific office handling your claim. A general DWP address risks delays while your form is redirected internally.

Use Royal Mail Signed For or Special Delivery so you have a tracked receipt. If the DWP later says the form never arrived, that receipt is your proof you met the deadline. Keep a full photocopy or scan of the completed form and everything you enclosed, because the same file is what a tribunal would eventually see.

After You Submit

A different decision-maker reviews your file from scratch once your form arrives. There is no fixed processing time — some reconsiderations are resolved in a couple of weeks, others take several months. The decision-maker may phone with follow-up questions, so keep your notes and a copy of the form nearby.

PIP payments do not normally continue during the reconsideration period. The review ends with a Mandatory Reconsideration Notice setting out whether your award was changed, upheld, or partially adjusted, with the points now given for each activity and the reasoning.¹

If that notice does not give you the award you were expecting, the next step is an independent appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, submitted online through GOV.UK or by post using form SSCS1, with your National Insurance number and the Mandatory Reconsideration Notice to hand.⁸ Hold on to your CRMR1 copy, the evidence you sent, the posting receipt, and the Mandatory Reconsideration Notice, because the tribunal works from the same file.

1
GOV.UK. PIP Mandatory Reconsideration Form CRMR1
2
GOV.UK. Personal Independence Payment Official Statistics to January 2026
3
Legislation.gov.uk. The Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 1999
4
GOV.UK. Challenge a Benefit Decision (Mandatory Reconsideration) – How to Ask
5
GOV.UK. Challenge a Decision Made by the Department for Work and Pensions
6
GOV.UK. PIP Assessment Guide Part 2 – The Assessment Criteria
7
GOV.UK. Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
8
GOV.UK. Appeal a Benefit Decision – Submit Your Appeal