Pip backpay (engaging with others) question and review outcome

Donna_donna

Hello everyone!

Firstly I wanted to update from my previous post several months ago in April regarding my pip review to say that after an extremely stressful couple of months leading up to the decision I was finally re-awarded the same points as I had previously,(high rate mobility and standard daily)for another 5 years despite significant worsening of conditions and impact of quality of life.

I was (and still am) however just incredibly glad for the whole debacle to be over and accepted the new award with gratitude and relief.

I have since noticed in my paperwork that the statement made by the DWP in making their decision is that although i need prompting and support,I am not receiving this from somebody "trained" funnily enough the person who supports me the most (a family member) does actually have qualifications and worked for several years in health and social care.

Obviously it's come to my attention that there is this back pay situation going on due to the change in criteria in 2016 and have looked into it a little bit.

But i just wanted to clarify as im a little confused about the ins and outs with anyone who might know, that my hunch is correct ,in that because my first decision after several years fighting, was made by tribunal in 2019 that the new rules wouldn't apply to my situation?

I Would really appreciate any feedback about this.

Thankyou in advance guys.

poppy123456

For your previous award you are correct and because the decision on that was made by a Tribunal then the law should have been applied correctly. This means that DWP will not look at the decision again. See link.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-changes/social-support-changes-to-pip-law-from-6-april-2016

For your current award if you had scored 4 points in this activity would it have taken your daily living award to a total of 12 points or more? If so then you can challenge that decision by requesting the Mandatory Reconsideration. (MR) or if you already been through that process you can proceed to Tribunal.

As you are outside of the 1 month timeframe then you'll need to make sure you give a reason why you didn't request it within that first month.

To be clear when it's a family member that supports you the majority of the time they do not need to be qualified for you to score those points.

Please also note that it's only possible to score points here if social support is needed for the majority of the days over a 12 month period. There's some information on this in here.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria#daily-living-activities