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Changing from DLA to PIP

just to encourage anyone going through this, just be brave and go through the paperwork and if you need help contact welfare rights or citizens advice. There is a high chance your claim will be refused but Don’t give up appeal and even take it to tribunal if neccassary I have been through this and won in the end.
Replies
Thank you for your encouraging words.
One of my arguments is that PIP is not affected by other benefits as such. However, to qualify for PIP you have to be quite ill or disabled, and the process involved is concise. It is only correct therefore that other entitlements should be far less problematic, but PIP is not even taken into account at many of these other assessments. How can one possibly be entitled to PIP and yet stripped of ESA?
My point exactly. It would save everybody (including the DWP) time money and expense if only both departments would liaise with each other. After all, both of them require more or less the same information and if it's OK with one department, then it surely must be the same for the other.
Even our Dr's & Hospital Specialists have better things to do than to keep writing out the same reports time and time again for the DWP, and heaven knows how much money is being wasted on totally unnecessary Assessments. I had THREE in the space of 4 months and all were exactly the same. My illnesses & disabilities have not changed in 4 years let alone 4 months and I'll still be no different in another 4 months or years.
They suggested that we are all assessed and means tested as individuals, but it's clearly not the case. They just look at their 'points system' and that's just about it. They have the answers in front of them, tried and tested by one department, and so another load of jargon & timewasting isn't necessary at all.
It could be worse... The DWP could be running the NHS and then all of us may as well go to The Moon!
We will also be transforming the delivery of assessment services. I have established the Health Transformation Programme to undertake the significant task of transitioning the currently separate Work Capability Assessment (WCA) for Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit (UC), and the PIP assessment services into one unified, integrated service from 2021. To support this, we are developing a single digital platform. An integrated approach will allow for a more joined-up claimant experience across these benefits, which takes account of the multiple interactions an individual may have with DWP. We hope that developing our own digital platform will also enable a greater range of assessment providers to compete to help us deliver this important service in the future.
To enable an integrated service, we are extending the contract for the Health and Disability Assessment Service (HDAS), which includes the delivery of the WCA, and aligning it to the duration of the extended PIP contracts. This will allow for a safe and stable service now, and as we transition to the new integrated service.
This strategic transformation will also open up new opportunities to improve our functional assessments in the future. For example, we will test whether it is beneficial to claimants requiring face-to-face assessments to offer a single assessment for UC and PIP to capture all the information required for both claims in one appointment, reducing the need for claimants of both benefits to attend multiple appointments.
I personally think that the appeal system itself and the decisions being made before those appeals are the cause of this current mess. It is obvious that with many cases of DLA to PIP changeovers, there has not been any changes nor are their likely to be any changes in a persons circumstances, and yet blatantly wrong decisions are being made by those who have no qualified experience in making decisions, otherwise they would not get things so badly wrong for so many people.
The devastating consequences that many are having to endure is inexcusable in my opinion, and all the time that this current system continues to fail, peoples lives are being affected through no fault of their own. This is not just about occasional human error, it has become systematic and institionalised throughout the DWP, for all manner of benefits and our entitlement to them. Many cases of course have no problems at all, but this doesn't excuse the catalogue of errors and misjudgements being continuously made for months on end.
I couldn't agree more. The DWP have not only had a detrimental affect on those that they are meant to serve, they have turned everything into a costly difficulty for themselves in the process. The word "lies" is an understatement when it comes to most of these so-called 'assessors.' They are at the best, incompetent and should never be allowed to make decisions other than changing their careers. Any organization is only as good as it's worse person, and there are many disgraceful people working on behalf of the DWP and their offices.
Even more disturbing and worrying, is that nobody of authority or within our government gives a jack. Many thousands of very sick and/or disabled people cannot all be wrong, and neither can our hospital specialists, consultants and GP's who in some cases have known us for year after year or since birth.
The DWP seem to think that by denying all people will save money, and that only the able will fight for justice, but we are not able, are we. The fight that they've dealt us is almost an endless battle and there are many who simply give up and cannot cope with the stress and the pain of it all, on top of everything else that we have to cope with. It's a total disgrace.
Sure, we only ever hear about the bad cases, but look how many there are! And from this site alone it is more than just obvious there are more bad cases, very bad cases, then right ones.