DWP Text

HealthyUnicorn

Hello all. 

I reported a change of circumstances and have had my assessment, and currently waiting on a decision (so stressful). 

I received this text today:

”About your PIP review. The health professional has sent us their report. We will make a decision on your PIP, but it may take 6 weeks before you hear from us. You will continue to get PIP while your award is being reviewed. You only need to contact us if your circumstances change” 

Having googled what this text means, results seem to suggest people usually get this message if they are having a paper based assessment. So, now I am further confused. 

What does this message indicated? 

I intend to phone the PiP enquiry line to get a copy of the report, as I am not at all convinced the assessor is was competent enough to understand my health, and was strangely so robotic working through the questions on a screen.

Albus_Scope

Hiya @HealthyUnicorn. I can understand the confusion.  From what I've gathered from other posts on here and from personal experience, that's a fairly standard text once you've had an assessment and the assessor has sent on the report. 
  Best of luck with the decision, please try not to stress too much, I know it's easier said than done, but it's out of your hands for now.

 If you wanted to take your mind off things for a bit, drop into the coffee lounge, or the games room.

poppy123456

They send that text once the report is returned regardless of which assessment you had. 

If you had an assessment it wouldn’t have been paper based. Paper based is when you do not need any assessment because they have enough of information to write the report.

Decisions can take up to 12 weeks after that, even though you were advised 6 weeks. 

HealthyUnicorn

Albus_Scope said:

Hiya @HealthyUnicorn. I can understand the confusion.  From what I've gathered from other posts on here and from personal experience, that's a fairly standard text once you've had an assessment and the assessor has sent on the report. 
  Best of luck with the decision, please try not to stress too much, I know it's easier said than done, but it's out of your hands for now.

 If you wanted to take your mind off things for a bit, drop into the coffee lounge, or the games room.

Thank you.

HealthyUnicorn

Update:

I finally got through to the enquiry line, requested copy of report, and asked if it would be possible to feedback my experience to the decision maker before making a decision. The call handler  strongly suggested that I should wait for the report. I did share with the call handler that I had already been in touch with the assessment services provider to provide them with feedback also over how poor the assessor was.

Gosh, I hate uncertainty. 

bogsa

I had same text message after my changed of circumstances. Got a text today saying „your PiP review is ready. You should receive your letter within 2 weeks(..)”. There is nothing about if they awarded me etc. First time when I apply I got a message saying you have been awarded. But nothing now.  I have assessor report and it’s good one. I had good assessor no lies etc. Very helpful. Scoring suggestions from him would award me both on enhanced rate but I don’t know if case manager will agree with it …

HealthyUnicorn

bogsa said:

I had same text message after my changed of circumstances. Got a text today saying „your PiP review is ready. You should receive your letter within 2 weeks(..)”. There is nothing about if they awarded me etc. First time when I apply I got a message saying you have been awarded. But nothing now.  I have assessor report and it’s good one. I had good assessor no lies etc. Very helpful. Scoring suggestions from him would award me both on enhanced rate but I don’t know if case manager will agree with it …

I just received my report. If the decision maker agrees, I’ll get enhanced for mobility and standard for daily living. It doesn’t appear that they have taken my fatigue symptoms (from the hypothyroidism) into account, and have consistently written into the report that have no diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue. 

I think I will be going for an MR once the decision comes through, as based on my ESA just recently, it is should be obvious to the DWP that fatigue is a major symptom for me for some time. 

Albus_Scope

Heya @HealthyUnicorn I'm sorry that they've glazed over things a bit in your report, but I'm glad you'll be going for a MR and they've given you enough points to get some PIP in the mean time. Though ESA and PIP are separate, so they wont pass information between them, so what the ESA people know, the PIP people wont, if that makes sense? 
  I will say make sure you put in for your MR in writing (don't call) and point out which descriptors are affected by your chronic fatigue and how. MRs tend to have a low rate of success, but are the next step to follow before you can go to a tribunal, which have a 68% success rate currently. 

bogsa

HealthyUnicorn said:

bogsa said:

I had same text message after my changed of circumstances. Got a text today saying „your PiP review is ready. You should receive your letter within 2 weeks(..)”. There is nothing about if they awarded me etc. First time when I apply I got a message saying you have been awarded. But nothing now.  I have assessor report and it’s good one. I had good assessor no lies etc. Very helpful. Scoring suggestions from him would award me both on enhanced rate but I don’t know if case manager will agree with it …

I just received my report. If the decision maker agrees, I’ll get enhanced for mobility and standard for daily living. It doesn’t appear that they have taken my fatigue symptoms (from the hypothyroidism) into account, and have consistently written into the report that have no diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue. 

I think I will be going for an MR once the decision comes through, as based on my ESA just recently, it is should be obvious to the DWP that fatigue is a major symptom for me for some time. 

I had to do MR she first applied as they did not take everything into account and was lucky enough to get what I wanted. However my condition get worse and had to report change of circumstances a year after my award. Today I got a message they made decisions and I rang to them to find out I got both on enhanced rate just as assessors suggested on their report. So good Luck for you !

HealthyUnicorn

@Albus_Scope and @bogsa

Thank you for your comments. 

I am a bit bemused. Can the decision maker at the DWP not see my latest ESA report and award? 

I phoned the DWP, explaining regardless of assessor subjective views, the objective parts of my history is inaccurate. 

I know I should be grateful, and not to any thing, after all, although I wanted enhanced for daily living and standard for mobility instead of the other way around, ultimately I got the amount of money I wanted. 

But, I am so so mad that where then have scored less this is down to no diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome! As I said to the DWP person earlier, I don’t need a separate diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome since I have it as a symptom the  fatigue that is, from the hypothyroidism. Maddening! 

I also wondering, I was delayed in informing the DWP of my change of circumstances and only phoned many months after my treatment started and my ESA started. Is it possible that could consider backdated my award from before the day I phoned for change of circumstances form!

Albus_Scope

Unfortunately the different DWP departments don't appear to share notes with each other. So what's known by ESA won't be known by PIP.  And they are very "does it tick this box?" in how they deal with different things.

Unfortunately, they'll only backdate the award to the date you first applied for it. 

HealthyUnicorn

Albus_Scope said:

Unfortunately the different DWP departments don't appear to share notes with each other. So what's known by ESA won't be known by PIP.  And they are very "does it tick this box?" in how they deal with different things.

Unfortunately, they'll only backdate the award to the date you first applied for it. 

Thank you for sharing.

HealthyUnicorn

Does anyone know if the decision maker usually accepts the points or can they make their own decisions to override them? 

bogsa

HealthyUnicorn said:

Does anyone know if the decision maker usually accepts the points or can they make their own decisions to override them? 

They can make their own decision. When I first applied assessor award me enough points for daily living enhanced rate but decision maker awarded me only standard. I made MR and won. 

poppy123456

Mostly they go with it but it has been known for them to go against it but it's rare. Also remember that the assessor doesn't award any points, they make recommendations only. Only a decision maker can award points.