PIP Review and Retirement Date upcoming.

OldDog

I have just had a DWP letter telling me my next review has been extended by six months (due to Covid-19), until Nov 2023.
My last (only) review (since 1990) was in 2017.
My retirement age of 66 comes up just a few weeks later.
As I have been on highest DLA, then max points on PIP for 'getting around' for over 30 years now, does the new DWP guidance on 'light touch review for over 65's mean that I can stop worrying that they might try and review my Motability car away from me just before retirement?
As my only income is ESA in the support group, I could not afford to run a car without my PIP award so I would be marooned without transport where I live in this remote rural area, which is obviously a worry.

Lisatho11987777

@janer1967 may be able to help you or @calcotti I have just tagged them in 

OldDog

Thank you, Lisa!

janer1967

@OldDog

I am sorry I dont really know much about light touch awards only that they exist so I wouldn't want to advise 

Which is why I didnt respond before 

Lisatho11987777

@janer1967 sorry I was just thinking who to tag who might know 

janer1967

@lisathomas50 I know dont worry I dont mind being tagged but you dont need to as I see all new posts and respond if I know I can advise 

Lisatho11987777

@Tori_Scope would you be able to help with the above query 

calcotti

lisathomas50 said:

@janer1967 may be able to help you or @calcotti I have just tagged them in 

Lisa, I am not sure what tagging is but whatever may I please request that my attention is not drawn to particular posts. When iI have time and inclination I will post on discussions that catch my attention. I have no wish to be managed and have it made into a kind of job.

calcotti

Old dog, light touch is still new and I am not clear how it will be applied however if the PIP end date is before retirement age, and bearing in mind that the review will be initiated some time before the end date, you should expect that a normal review will take place. If it turns out that it is done on a light touch basis that will be a pleasant surprise.

The reason you did not have a review for so long was because DLA was not subject to review. That was a perceived problem that the PIP assessment regime was intended to address. As is so often the case I think that particular course was oversteered!

Bearing in mind how often DWP policy changes I think trying to predict what they will be doing mid 2023 is probably unwise.

I would add also that your post is phrased as if you fear the purpose of a review would be to try and reduce your award to take away your enhanced rate mobility. For all the faults with the PIP process I really don’t believe that the review starts with any purpose other than to review what is appropriate in terms of the descriptors.

Lisatho11987777

@calcotti sorry won't happen again and tagging is when your asking some one fir help 

OldDog

Dear all, 
Many thanks for your help and input.

@calcotti, I hear what you say, but I have no faith in DWP processes, or that assessments carried out on their behalf by private contractors are likely to be either fair or honest.

With a progressive and incurable illness, I have had 30 years of fighting to receive correct benefits under the law. Time and time again they make wilfully wrong judgements which have to be appealed.

The DLA to PIP transfer was just another example, whereby they took £1500 from my annual award, with the warning that if I appealed that decision, I could end up receiving an even lower award, and being assessed again every year, rather than not for another 6 years.

I call that bullying, not genuinely trying to work out appropriate levels of support.

With regard to: For all the faults with the PIP process I really don’t believe that the review starts with any purpose other than to review what is appropriate in terms of the descriptors.

In my long experience of challenging DWP decisions, often wrong in law, or unscrupulously changing witnessed responses in order to deduct points and reduce your award, the first priority of DWP is, invariably, how can they save money, not how they can help their 'customers' fairly and sensibly.