Desperate for help & advice with PIP

Juliekelly

Good morning. I’m wondering if someone could help.

My partner has severe mental health issues and has been on PIP for many years. His condition is very well evidenced.
This was due to be reviewed last week.
On the day of the review, he received a call to say he didn’t need to attend.

Later that day, he had an appointment with his Mental Health practitioner who told him that PIP had already been in touch and he had spoken with them. Since then he hasn’t had a PIP payment go into the bank but definitely hasn’t been told his PIP had stopped..
I’m not sure if he received any review questionnaire as he gets very confused and couldn’t say.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? He relies on his PIP to pay people to help him with cooking and shopping etc. We really don’t know what to think.

Thanks

Julie

OverlyAnxious

Hi Julie,

You can phone PIP on his behalf to ask whether his award has been stopped at the review. The phone lines are busy so you may have to wait on hold a while.

It could just be an error but you won't know without either calling or receiving a letter.

Albus_Scope

Hey @Juliekelly and welcome to the community. 😊

As OverlyAnxious has said, you can call on your partners behalf to ask, but the best time to call is when the lines are just opening in the morning.

Though if he was told he didn't need the assessment, it may mean they thought they had enough information to do a "paper assessment" which can be a good thing. But I'd have thought your partner would have received a text, or letter to say there'd been an outcome.

Juliekelly

Thank you very much for your comments. We don’t live together so I’m not sure if he had a form to complete because he doesn’t know either. His mental health is such that he misplaces things or doesn’t realise the importance of stuff. His PIP is used to pay those who help him with cooking, cleaning, and shopping etc. so as you can imagine, it’s quite a difficult situation. I will contact them to find out what’s going on because it was them who cancelled his appointment. But they haven’t said what happens next. I really appreciate your feedback thank you so much.

Albus_Scope

No problem @Juliekelly just to give you a bit of a roadmap. If they have denied him PIP for whatever reason, he'll be able to ask for a mandatory reconsideration (MR) which should be done in writing. Then if that is denied, it would go to a tribunal. Basically it's not the end of the road at all! But hopefully it's just a glitch and he'll receive his payment soon.

If he's struggling to keep track of everything, it's worth noting he is allowed to have someone act as his appointee.

Juliekelly

Thank you very much youve all been very helpful indeed