PIP decision, appeal or something else?

Salubrius

Hi,

Months ago I sent in a claim for PIP and when the face to face appointment arrived it was first thing in the morning despite requesting afternoon due to chronic insomnia (I also suffer from depression and anxiety). I rang them to rearrange and they gave me an appointment for two weeks later. I caught Aussie flu and it was impossible for me to attend. My husband rang them and explained. 

I then received a letter saying my claim was denied due to not attending the face to face, so I rang up explaining again why I was unable to attend and they said they would review the decision. 

Today I received a letter saying upon review they've been unable to change the original decision. 

What do I do now? Can they really refuse to even arrange another face to face appointment and void my claim just because like many people I was bedridden with Aussie flu?

Any help with what to do now is appreciated!

lindadenise

You can only cancel once they told me when i had to change my appointment. I was told i would not be able to change it again and to make sure i attended.

CockneyRebel

There are two courses of action you can take

You can ask for a mandatory reconsideration stating your reasons. This will likely be refused again but you can then appeal to the tribunal.

If you appeal to the tribunal which will likely take months all that they can do is reopen your claim and you will then have to have a f2f. By doing this you will preserve the date of your claim and any backpayment if successful. If this is a new claim then the date you first applied will be the claim date.

You can make a completely new claim but that will mean that back payment of your original one will be lost 

CR

Salubrius

Do you know if an appeal would be successful given the circumstances, if not I'll be better off starting from scratch again I guess?

CockneyRebel

Currently 69% of appeals are successful

It really is up to you which you do. Not appealing will mean that you will lose  back pay from the date of your claim which could be a sizeable ammount bearing in mind that a hearing could be 6 months or more just to get your claim re opened

It is possible to appeal and start a new claim if you can keep track of two sets of paperwork.
The downside of doing this is that any result from your appeal will be limited up to the decision date of your new claim

It might be a good idea to get f2f advice from CAB or similar

CR
 

Salubrius

I didn't consider doing both as an option, that's great, thank you CockneyRebel. As this is getting complicated I think you are right about CAB, I'll ring them tomorrow and see if I can get an appointment.