"Have you ever been in hospital?" PIP compliance

Zebra88
Member Posts: 55 Courageous
Hi everyone
I've been going through the review process with PIP which wasn't the most enjoyable experience. I had to submit numerous customer service complaints from the start... such as 160 pages of meducal evidence beeing scanned incorrectly (only first 4 pages scanned). The assessor has lied on multiple occasions throughout and has only included two of my repeat daily medications in the form too, despite me sending copies of slips for 12 medications I take daily. Despite this I have been awarded enhanced on both indefinitely because the DWP decision maker overrided some things the assessor said as I had medical evidence to the contrary.
Anyway 2 days before I received my decision I had a letter come through with a really vague question... have you ever been in hospital? I called to ask what this was as I initially thought the decision maker was asking and I was told that my medical evidence indicates multiple hospital stays. All of my surgeries have been day case during the lifetime of my case. The only times I've been in hospital and stayed since i started claiming are 4 nights from breaking my ribs, 4 days with severe pain and another night with severe pain, all more than 6 months apart. I notified DWP the first time as I didn't know whether I should, albeit ESA and they said it was fine as no more than 28 days. It doesn't state whether or not they mean before my claim as I have had numerous reasons to stay in hospital but surely they don't mean ever as in since I was born... they want to know about each occasion... there's about 100 stays over 30 years. Assuming they just mean since I started my PIP claim 2 years ago and not the numerous outpatient appointments, am I in trouble for not telling them about the 4 days when I broke my ribs?
I've been going through the review process with PIP which wasn't the most enjoyable experience. I had to submit numerous customer service complaints from the start... such as 160 pages of meducal evidence beeing scanned incorrectly (only first 4 pages scanned). The assessor has lied on multiple occasions throughout and has only included two of my repeat daily medications in the form too, despite me sending copies of slips for 12 medications I take daily. Despite this I have been awarded enhanced on both indefinitely because the DWP decision maker overrided some things the assessor said as I had medical evidence to the contrary.
Anyway 2 days before I received my decision I had a letter come through with a really vague question... have you ever been in hospital? I called to ask what this was as I initially thought the decision maker was asking and I was told that my medical evidence indicates multiple hospital stays. All of my surgeries have been day case during the lifetime of my case. The only times I've been in hospital and stayed since i started claiming are 4 nights from breaking my ribs, 4 days with severe pain and another night with severe pain, all more than 6 months apart. I notified DWP the first time as I didn't know whether I should, albeit ESA and they said it was fine as no more than 28 days. It doesn't state whether or not they mean before my claim as I have had numerous reasons to stay in hospital but surely they don't mean ever as in since I was born... they want to know about each occasion... there's about 100 stays over 30 years. Assuming they just mean since I started my PIP claim 2 years ago and not the numerous outpatient appointments, am I in trouble for not telling them about the 4 days when I broke my ribs?
Comments
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No you won't be in trouble, you have given them the best evidence you can.
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You ony have to inform DWP if you're in hospital for a period of 28 days or more or a total of 28 days in two or more periods as an in-patient separated by 28 days or less. Based on what you stated then no you didn't need to inform them and you have nothing to worry about.
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Just logged in and realised I didn't follow up. My PIP claim was suspended at the time due to being in hospital over night which did not affect my claim but I had a duty to report it which I'm aware of now. It turns out the person who made the suspension was supposed to call me and didn't, they didn't even write to me. I gave the hospital info over the phone and due to a further error that advisor did not lift the suspension or even advise me there had been one. I only realised when I came to pay my carer and had not been paid any PIP and it took over a week to get sorted. Further payments were also affected because they had issued an ad hoc faster payment during the payment period for the next one.
Re previous note, thank you for yiur advice however I had already stated the medical evidence had supported a successful claim. It was my adult services support plans and reports from specialists from the last two years commenting on my physical disability and functional ability. Unfortunately due to having a rare condition for which there is no specialist I can see I am under approx 10 healthcare professionals at any point to symptomatically treat various parts of my body. Therefore the OT who fitted my foot orthoses cannot comment on the effects of my heart condition etc. Having worked within DWP I was always told that evidence had to be the complete document regardless of whether scanned pages were intentionally blank or had irrelevant info, as there could be potentially relevant info on missing pages. Some of my reports are up to 8 pages long as they list follow ups etc. I didn't mean 160 documents, there was just a lot of info in each one amounting to that many pages. I was worried myself that it would be too much but I was actually praised on the relevance of each piece and how I had referenced it to the descriptors by the decision maker when I spoke to them.
Anyway just thought I would update. Also I did get a laugh and an apology about the wording of the clerical letter from the next advisor I spoke to who said whoever wrote that was not paying attention or just being plain lazy in asking such a vague question! Also they should contact you to notify you of the suspension but they wrongly assumed the next person would lift it when I called with the info - under normal circumstances I would not have even been aware they suspended it unless I didn't reply.
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