Awarded PIP at tribunal - need some advice please!
Alfie81
Online Community Member Posts: 1 Listener
Hi all,
So I originally applied for PIP in July 2022. It has been an incredibly stressful and traumatic journey. Long story short, I got zero points after the original (telephone) assessment - and some advice to anyone applying for PIP, they are really, really nice during the assessment, to get you to open up...don't trust it, this goes against you, the more open and honest you are, the more they penalise you for it! If anything, I tend to overshare from nervousness and bound up tension - this did not work in my favour.
Fast forward to the mandatory reconsideration, for which I also got zero points, despite having the help from CAB to complete this, via The Big C Cancer charity.
Fast forward even further. I suddenly got a phonecall about 10 days ago, from the Tribunal court. I'll be honest, I didn't even know my court hearing was scheduled. We moved in April of this year, the Tribunal court had my previous address. I did inform PIP of my change of address, but didn't realise I needed to inform the Tribunal service separately. Luckily, it didn't work against me. The lady from the Tribunal service said I didn't need to appear to give evidence, and I had been awarded enhanced rate for both. I was so grateful and relieved I was in tears! After the call I went straight on to my online appeal tracker, and downloaded the court documents. They said, in light of my mental health issues, amongst other issues, they felt it appropriate for me not to attend and it confirmed the award. The Tribunal Service hadn't emailed me or called or sent a text to inform me of the hearing - there was just a letter that went to my old address (which, luckily, we could pick up from the new tenants - but after the fact).
Tribunal Service said they'd send me a letter with the details (although I did download the court documents anyway). I did email them to tell them of my change of address too).
I rang DWP early last week, just to see if I needed to do anything else, and what the next steps were. The lady I spoke to at DWP said the decision from the Tribunal had arrived with the case manager that day, she couldn't give me a time frame on when I'd receive my award notice, but she did say she could see the Tribunal decision of enhanced for both, and it 'shouldn't be too long'. She said there was a note on the system to ask me some questions, and if she asked me now, it would save time, as it would save them having to ring me again. She asked me if I'd been in prison or hospital, and asked me to re-confirm my bank details, and if I'd be happy with a lump sum for my backdated payment.
I don't want to pester the DWP, I'm just wondering if it's worth ringing the DWP again next week to chase things up and give a gentle nudge? I'd really like to apply for a blue badge asap as currently, shopping etc is a nightmare, but I can't do it without my award notice (the same applies to going for a motability vehicle). I realise the backdated sum is going to be significant - the Tribunal have backdated my award to when I initially applied, 7th July 2022. I'm assuming that will come to me first, I just feel like it would help me immensely to get the blue badge sorted out.
Sorry for the info bomb, I thought I'd best explain everything thoroughly! Any help on timelines etc would be much appreciated, thank you!
So I originally applied for PIP in July 2022. It has been an incredibly stressful and traumatic journey. Long story short, I got zero points after the original (telephone) assessment - and some advice to anyone applying for PIP, they are really, really nice during the assessment, to get you to open up...don't trust it, this goes against you, the more open and honest you are, the more they penalise you for it! If anything, I tend to overshare from nervousness and bound up tension - this did not work in my favour.
Fast forward to the mandatory reconsideration, for which I also got zero points, despite having the help from CAB to complete this, via The Big C Cancer charity.
Fast forward even further. I suddenly got a phonecall about 10 days ago, from the Tribunal court. I'll be honest, I didn't even know my court hearing was scheduled. We moved in April of this year, the Tribunal court had my previous address. I did inform PIP of my change of address, but didn't realise I needed to inform the Tribunal service separately. Luckily, it didn't work against me. The lady from the Tribunal service said I didn't need to appear to give evidence, and I had been awarded enhanced rate for both. I was so grateful and relieved I was in tears! After the call I went straight on to my online appeal tracker, and downloaded the court documents. They said, in light of my mental health issues, amongst other issues, they felt it appropriate for me not to attend and it confirmed the award. The Tribunal Service hadn't emailed me or called or sent a text to inform me of the hearing - there was just a letter that went to my old address (which, luckily, we could pick up from the new tenants - but after the fact).
Tribunal Service said they'd send me a letter with the details (although I did download the court documents anyway). I did email them to tell them of my change of address too).
I rang DWP early last week, just to see if I needed to do anything else, and what the next steps were. The lady I spoke to at DWP said the decision from the Tribunal had arrived with the case manager that day, she couldn't give me a time frame on when I'd receive my award notice, but she did say she could see the Tribunal decision of enhanced for both, and it 'shouldn't be too long'. She said there was a note on the system to ask me some questions, and if she asked me now, it would save time, as it would save them having to ring me again. She asked me if I'd been in prison or hospital, and asked me to re-confirm my bank details, and if I'd be happy with a lump sum for my backdated payment.
I don't want to pester the DWP, I'm just wondering if it's worth ringing the DWP again next week to chase things up and give a gentle nudge? I'd really like to apply for a blue badge asap as currently, shopping etc is a nightmare, but I can't do it without my award notice (the same applies to going for a motability vehicle). I realise the backdated sum is going to be significant - the Tribunal have backdated my award to when I initially applied, 7th July 2022. I'm assuming that will come to me first, I just feel like it would help me immensely to get the blue badge sorted out.
Sorry for the info bomb, I thought I'd best explain everything thoroughly! Any help on timelines etc would be much appreciated, thank you!
0
Comments
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Great news. It can take anything up to about 8 weeks to put an award into payment and to pay what is owed after a Tribunal win. Usually it takes less than this but all you can do now is wait.Whether your mobility award will automatically entitle you to a blue badge will depend on where you scored the points for. If it was for following and planning a journey with 12 points then this doesn’t automatically qualify you. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/blue-badge-can-i-get-one/can-i-get-a-blue-badge0
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