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PIP assessment home visit

Kris210564

Hi there, I have the PIP assessor coming to my home on Monday 24th October, can you tell me why a home visit and not a request to a centre. I had a DLA assessment 3 months ago and had to go to a centre.

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Comments

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Kris

A home visit is only usually arranged if you request it and you are usually asked to get medical evidence from your own doctor confirming that it is likely to be necessary. Have you tried contacting the assessors to find out more? It will either be Atos which you can email using PIP-customerservice@atos.net or Capita which you can contact from this link.

David

hypermobilecat

my son had a home visit, he did not request it. just waiting now

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Kris and hypermobilecat,

As my colleague David says, usually home visits are only if the claimant requests it. I wonder if there was something on the claim forms which makes the assessment firm think that perhaps there are access issues with the centre they would otherwise use? Or it may be that they are doing this in order to get through their backlog, as delays have been an issue with PIP in the past.

I know it's all over now, but may be worth complaining if you didn't want a home visit - it depends how you felt about it. You can use the contact details David supplies above.

I hope you both get the result you want, in any case.

Will

hypermobilecat

hello again, thank you for reply and advice ,just realised something else. My son wanted to see if he could change the date of the assessment , as it did say on the letter you can change it but only once. He was told that this was the only one available, so he had to accept it. He had hospital appointment at the same time, but luckily was able to change hospital appointment

nanof6

this home visit must be to try and get rid of a backlog, because on the pip form it says can you attend an appointment center ,can you use steps, ect, as i can rember

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Hypermobilecat

There is no rule that says you can only change your assessment date once. Instead, decision makers have to consider whether you have good reason for failing to attend. If you have a hospital appointment they will probably consider whether the hospital appointment could reasonably be rearranged. If not then i would expect them to rearrange the PIP assessment date and if they didn't i think you would probably have good reason for not attending.

Here is a link to the relevant section of the DWP guidance on this. There are many examples that might help you understand the official DWP position on this.

Even if you fail to attend an assessment and a negative decision is made, the decision is subject to mandatory reconsideration and appeal and could be changed.

David

jrichard1

I put as I live in Wales and my partner works I needed a centre in Wales ,obviously no centres around so coming to my home.

Kris210564

16 weeks since I sent in my mandatory reconsideration letter, still heard nothing.
I have rung and been told it is still in the queue. I was only reduced by £30 a week but it has still had a big effect, I still have to pay bedroom tax, although my wife needs the other bedroom as she can't sleep with me as my restless leg syndrome and tossing and turning due to pain keeps her awake. She still has to get up on the occasions I have "accidents" to clean me and the bed. My cancer has grown in my kidney and I have a meeting next week to sort out treatment, which is probably going to be removal of my only kidney and having to go on dialysis for the rest of my life.
The worry of this plus the lung cancer diagnosis (which has not grown thankfully) to contend with is causing me extra sleepless nights and me being a pain in everyone's **** as I am not coping so well with things.
Along with these things I have angina, COPD, heart bypass surgery, bowel surgery, aortic stent surgery, weekly doctors appointments for INR test, Bi-monthly appointments to Kidney clinic, Tri-monthly appointments to Lung clinic and various other CT scans and check ups, all which cost money to get to and bring with them their own individual worries, means I am not coping as well as I should be. i manage to put on a brave face to most people but my nearest and dearest suffer all the consequences of my messed up head.
I would like to know if any one can tell me how long they have waited for a decision and then how long it takes to appeal if the mandatory reconsideration fails.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Kris210564,

People wait all sorts of different times for a mandatory reconsideration (MR) decision, anything from a couple of weeks to a few months! I wish I could give you more of an indication but it really isn't possible. Others on the forum may be able to help. Once you get your MR decision and you appeal if necessary, again it all depends on the backlog at your local tribunal service venue. It can be several months.

Having said that 16 weeks is a long time, and you can complain, using the normal DWP complaints procedure.

You mention the bedroom tax. I think you should ask the local authority to look at your HB again. If you get any rate of personal independence payment daily living component, and the council is satisfied that because of your disability it isn't reasonable for you and your wife to share a bedroom, they can remove the reduction in HB that currently applies in respect of that extra room. Do ask them about this - the law was only changed fairly recently following a test case. Another option, if they don't agree that the bedroom tax shouldn't apply (and if they so no I would recommend getting advice about the refusal), would be to ask for discretionary housing payments to make up some or all of the difference.

Will

Kris210564

Thank you for the advice,Will.

Essle07

We are apply for pup,and are requesting a home visit due to my husband's mobility problems how do we do this

Yadnad

Essle07 said:

We are apply for pup,and are requesting a home visit due to my husband's mobility problems how do we do this

Mobility problem aside.
Does your husband go to see his GP or does the GP do home visits? That is one of the questions they ask for a home visit application.

Firefly123

We get a home vist without requesting it they called me and asked if that would be easier. Just waiting to see how it went.