Sent in form to be son’s appointee but just received letter to apply for PIP addressed to him

awalla00

Hello!

I did not receive a letter to apply for appointee-ship for my son so I phoned multiple times. They kept saying they had sent it to me but it never came. Finally I received one in May and filled it in the same day and sent it back.

In June I phoned to make sure it had been received and was given confirmation it was. I took the lady’s name I spoke to and wrote down the date and time.

Today (just days after his 16th birthday) a letter has arrived to him (and not me) saying he now has to phone by the end of the month to apply for PIP.

My son is Autistic and can’t handle any of this himself. He needs me to be his appointee. They are closed for the weekend but the only numbers they give me on the letter are one to phone Monday to apply and one to phone to say he doesn’t want to apply. 

Please can someone help? Who should I phone to get this sorted. He can’t do this on his own and I need to be his appointee. Any advice is much appreciated.

 

buzzer

Have you received your BF57 form confirming you are his appointee, it took over 6 weeks for my details to be added fully to the system. I had to send in a copy of my bf57 that the visiting officer gave me, Until that time he will have to authorise you speaking for him on the phone for the initial call. 
Call PIP helpline and explain situation. 0800 121 4433

awalla00

buzzer said:

Have you received your BF57 form confirming you are his appointee, it took over 6 weeks for my details to be added fully to the system. I had to send in a copy of my bf57 that the visiting officer gave me, call PIP helpline and explain situation. 0800 121 4433

Thanks for your reply. 

No I have not had any replies at all after I sent in the initial form I received by post. I had expected to be told we needed an interview to be an appointee. Instead this letter came, addressed to my son, telling him he has to apply for PIP by the end of July.

I guess I will phone them Monday. I had to phone multiple times to get the form to be an appointee in the first place. They kept saying they sent it but I never got it until May. That was one of the reasons I phoned in June to make sure they had received it back and had it on record. 

I had figured there would would be more problems but it’s depressing for it to be happening. We are meant to go on holiday at the end of July and now this is hanging over.

poppy123456

Hi,

They don't just send the forms out to you for you to become his appointee. They will send a DWP representative to your home and they fill out the forms, ask you both a few simple questions and then you sign the form, if they agree that you can become his appointee.

When you ring on Monday you need to tell them that he's received the PIP2 form which is addressed to him and he's unable to manage the claim himself. This really should not have happened until you're officially his appointee.

awalla00

poppy123456 said:

Hi,

They don't just send the forms out to you for you to become his appointee. They will send a DWP representative to your home and they fill out the forms, ask you both a few simple questions and then you sign the form, if they agree that you can become his appointee.

When you ring on Monday you need to tell them that he's received the PIP2 form which is addressed to him and he's unable to manage the claim himself. This really should not have happened until you're officially his appointee.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I was expecting an appointment regarding becoming his appointee. I had so much trouble even getting the letter I was supposed to to start that process that I phoned again In June to make sure they got my reply to that! They assured me that they had and that it was being dealt with. I wrote down the date and the name of the lady I spoke to because I have had so much trouble already. 

Getting the letter saying it’s time for him to apply for PIP today - addressed to HIM - was upsetting but not surprising after how they’ve been already. 

 

poppy123456

They don't send any letters or forms to start the process. It's just a simple phone call to DWP asking to become his appointee. You should then have received a phone call from them to make arrangements for a representative to visit your home. Once someone has visited your home, it takes a couple of weeks for the information to be added to the computer and then they send the BF57 which confirms you're his appointee.

awalla00

poppy123456 said:

They don't send any letters or forms to start the process. It's just a simple phone call to DWP asking to become his appointee. You should then have received a phone call from them to make arrangements for a representative to visit your home. Once someone has visited your home, it takes a couple of weeks for the information to be added to the computer and then they send the BF57 which confirms you're his appointee.

awalla00

awalla00 said:

poppy123456 said:

They don't send any letters or forms to start the process. It's just a simple phone call to DWP asking to become his appointee. You should then have received a phone call from them to make arrangements for a representative to visit your home. Once someone has visited your home, it takes a couple of weeks for the information to be added to the computer and then they send the BF57 which confirms you're his appointee.

As far as I knew when your child is moving from DLA to PIP they first ask you if your child will require an appointee. I filled in a form that came with a letter they sent and said my son would require an appointee and why. Also it asked me to put my bank details on it. I phoned repeatedly before that and said my son was not capable of handling this himself at 16 and how did I apply to be his appointee. They kept telling me they’d already sent this form (which I didn’t receive the first 2x). I finally received it in mid-May. I thought I would get an appointment after filling this in.

poppy123456

That's not the correct procedure. As it clearly states in this link that DWP do not send out any form for you to fill in and sign, they send a representative to your home and it's all done for you.

https://www.gov.uk/become-appointee-for-someone-claiming-benefits

awalla00

poppy123456 said:

That's not the correct procedure. As it clearly states in this link that DWP do not send out any form for you to fill in and sign, they send a representative to your home and it's all done for you.

https://www.gov.uk/become-appointee-for-someone-claiming-benefits

I understand that you need an interview. When I phoned to ask about this in March a man at the DWP told me I should have had a letter and booklet about that. It had never come. He said they’d send another one. It never came so I phoned again and said my son would need an appointee and nothing has ever come in the posy so what should I do. They said they’d send it out again.

Mid May I got a letter asking if my son needed help after he was 16 with a space to say why he couldn’t manage himself. It also had a space for my bank details. It also said there should be a booklet about being an appointee in the letter but there was NOT one in it.

The people on the phone have obviously given me the wrong advice if I was meant to phone too. The fact that I DID phone and say my son needed an appointee and they kept saying a letter would come is pretty poor. 

Now I am worried this will mess up the application process. He absolutely can’t manage it himself. 

I guess I will phone Monday. I don’t even know which number to phone, the DLA number or the PIP one.

poppy123456

Becoming an appointee is the same process whether it's transferring from DLA or a first time benefit claim. I didn't receive anything in the post before i had a visit from a representative. The whole process took about 5 weeks.

It's PIP you need to ring not DLA.

Adrian_Scope

How did you get on when you called @awalla00? 

awalla00

Adrian_Scope said:

How did you get on when you called @awalla00? 

Sorry to reply to an old posy but I didn’t see your comment at the time! 

It all went fine. They were helpful and seemed to have on record that I’d said he needed an appointee. They said a visit should have been arranged but wasn’t and they sorted it out. Then we had the visit in August I think? I did the PIP forms after that, they came with me as appointee and all correct and they were returned in October. I just recently had what seemed to be a phone assessment, the man said he was “working on behalf of the DWP”. He said after our conversation he had enough information to process it that day and there was no need for a face to face assessment of my son. Now we are just waiting to hear. Hoping it is ok.

Thank you for asking, that’s very kind of you. It’s good to have this page to read people’s experiences etc.

Adrian_Scope

Thanks for the update @awalla00. Hopefully you won't be waiting too much longer now!