Weird call from PIP the other day

JoeBloggs777

Hi, I got a weird call supposedly from PIP the other day. 

The woman said they owed me money because of an underpayment, which instantly made me suspicious. I mean when do organisations ever call you to say they owe you money??? Not very often.

She said I was owed over £1,000, but I forget the exact figure she said. I asked her why I was owed this money and she couldn't give me a sensible answer.

And she also had a strong Indian accent. Considering all the scams coming out of India, that made me even more suspicious. Plus if she was British Asian she wouldn't have had such a strong accent. Or at least that was my reasoning anyway, rightly or wrongly. Although surely PIP should employ phone advisors who don't have strong accents whatever the accent may be?

She also asked me a weird question: "Is it OK if we transfer you this money?". Why wouldn't it be OK? If I'm entitled to the money, just transfer it, and text me to say you've done so. Why call me to ask if it's OK?

All in all, I couldn't make head or tail of the call. It made no sense to me at all.

I figured it was a scam to get my bank account details. I said to the woman "If this is legit and you owe me money, then transfer the money, you already have my bank account details, but I think this is a scam so I'm hanging up now."

But after hanging up, I Googled "PIP underpayment" and it turns out that PIP is refunding PIP claimants because of them being incorrectly assessed in the past.

So I called PIP back and this time got a man, who also had an Indian accent but nowhere near as strong as the woman's, and I asked if I was calling a call centre in India. He claimed to be based in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Does anyone know where the PIP call centres are based? Every time I've called in the past I got someone with a Scouse accent.

Another thing that made me suspicious was that the woman said I was owed over £1,000, but the man said I was owed over £3,000 (again I forget the exact number he said). Surely they're just reading this information off a screen, so why was I given two different amounts?

The man then said that the money had already been transferred. I said "If the money has already been transferred, why did you text me asking me to call? That makes no sense."

This man then said "I didn't text you."

I said "Of course you didn't personally text me, it was probably an automated text. When I said "you" I didn't mean you personally, I meant PIP." Who are these people that PIP employ? They're not exactly the sharpest tools in the box.

I asked him why I was owed this money and like the woman he couldn't give me a sensible reply.

All I got was silence his end, and then I hung up again.

Is this a scam or are the PIP people just utterly incompetent and useless as explaining why they're calling? Why was I asked if it's OK to transfer money I'm owed instead of just transferring the money? There's no reason I can see for them to call me about this.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar to what I've just described? 

Did you get a repayment? How long did it take to receive it?

poppy123456

When ringing any DWP department you are speaking to someone from a call centre, not from DWP itself. They are based in the UK not another country. Yes, of course you will sometimes speak to someone with a foreign accent, in the same way sometimes you will speak to someone with a British accent. 

If money is owed and it's a large amount they very often ring to ask if you can manage that amount or if you would like it in instalments. Not everyone can manage large amounts of money, even sums of £1,000 make some people panic. 

There has been law changes in following and planning a journey and Engaging with Others face to face back in 2016 and they are still looking at claims so yes it could be to do with that. You should at some point receive a letter explaining what it's about.