PIP change in the law Engaging with other people

claraelle

My husband applied for PIP in 2017 and was awarded standard daily living 11 points. He scored 2 points for the engaging with other people activity. In June this year the DWP sent a letter to my husband to say they have looked at his PIP award again due to a recent change in the law but his award was not affected.

My husband didn't read the letter due to his condtions and I probably read the first part of the letter and once at the bit where it said there was no change just put it in a drawer.

However, after some support for helping my husband complete his ADP review (his [PIP was transferred to ADP earlier this year) I became aware again of this change in the law around engaging with other people and read actually what it meant. I don't think that the DWP looked into it well enough when it came to my husband as I do think he would fall into the criteria to now score 4 points for that activity.

I found the letter from june and I have written to the DWP saying we disagree and can they look into this again please and gave them evidence of why we think that this change in law would in fact mean my husband should have recieved 4 points which would have taken his overall points from 11 to 15 meaning the higher rate.

I noticed it says if we wished to reply to the letter we would have to do that within 1 month of the letter. Will the DWP be strict to this or still look again? And if not would they take into consideration that my husband can't read the letters due to this conditions and as I have ADHD I am not always reading everything as well as I should either.

Also, I would be intersted to know if anyone else has been effected by this change in the law and their experiences?

Thank you

Clara

chiarieds

Hi @claraelle - yes, you can certainly ask for this LEAP decision to be looked at again (a Mandatory Reconsideration). Such letters do say that you have one month from the date in your letter to ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration, but in fact you can do so so long as you're within 13 months. If writing later than one month, you are supposed to give a reason why it's late. I don't know if you did this, but mentioning your husband's condition(s) should be reason enough.

All I can say is that we have had members who received a letter saying that their award would be unchanged in relation to this LEAP review, some of whom didn't think this was relevant to themselves anyway. We've also had one member that kept in touch letting us know he had been successfully awarded (tho without needing to do a Mandatory Reconsideration).

I hope you may kindly keep in touch to let us know how you get on.

claraelle

Hello chiarieds

Thank you for your reply and all the information, that's really helpful.

I didn't state in the letter I wrote to them why we were late in requesting this decision to be looked at again so I will maybe call them to confirm they have received the letter and let them know why it was late.

I will let you what happens. Thanks :)