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PIP review

lisa6793
lisa6793 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
Hi, my PIP is due to end in February. I was sent a review form in September which I filled out and sent back and have heard nothing back. Is this normal? I expected to hear something from them as a result of the review. Thanks 

Comments

  • lisa6793
    lisa6793 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    Hi, my PIP is due to end in February. I was sent a review form in September which I filled out and sent back and have heard nothing back. Is this normal? I expected to hear something from them as a result of the review. Thanks 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    HI,

    There's no timescales but this does seem to be rather a long time. I'd advise you to ring them tomorrow and ask what's happening. Your PIP will stop in February, if a decision's not made by that time. if you're successfully awarded again then you'll be backdated the money from the date your PIP ended. This could affect any other benefits you maybe claiming.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • DaveTheWasp
    DaveTheWasp Community member Posts: 37 Courageous
    My wife's last PIP review took about 3-4 months for us to hear back from, if I remember correctly.  In all honesty, we didn't really question it as long as her payments were still being made. 

    In our case, the next thing we heard was an invitation to a face to face consultation, which is a different story altogether.

    If you want to make sure everything's ok, I'd say give DWP a call and ask if they've received everything they need to compete the review (if you're able to do that, I'm aware that some people struggle with telephone conversations, especially ones of such a stressful nature).
  • lisa6793
    lisa6793 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    I received a text from them on the 22nd of October saying they had received my form so surely they wouldn’t just stop payments if I have done what they have asked and confirmed receipt of the form? I can’t cope with calling them and they don’t seem to be contactable online or via email. 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    As February is the end date of your claim then if a decision's not been made by that date, then your payments will stop.  There will be no award in place for your payments to continue. The text you received just means they received the form and most people have face to face assessments, even for reviews. How long it takes for the assessment to take place will depend on backlogs in your area.

    Do you have someone that can ring on your behalf? You will need to go through security and then tell the adviser that you're passing the phone onto them to speak on your behalf.

    Do be aware that once payments stop, this could affect any other benefits you maybe claiming.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • lisa6793
    lisa6793 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    I can’t believe they can just end it when they’ve asked to do a review and (as far as I’m aware) it’s being processed! I’ve been re-reading the initial award letter and they don’t make that clear at all. I’m extremely worried now, I can’t afford for my payments to just stop. 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    It makes sense for it to end because after that date, there's no award in place for your payments to continue. If it continued and the worst happens and you weren't awarded then you'd have an overpayment.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • lisa6793
    lisa6793 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    Well to me it feels having it end without them doing their job properly (ie completing the review on time) and without explicitly stating that payments will stop regardless of whether they can be bothered to complete their responsibilities is yet another way the DWP is seriously failing disabled people. They are quick to say that if claimants don’t uphold their responsibilities on time then payments will stop but they aren’t so forthcoming when it comes to telling claimants that they themselves can delay for as long as they want and have no regard for whether their actions causes claims to cease being paid!
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 53,333 Disability Gamechanger
    I don't make the rules, i can only tell you what they are. This has always been the rules with PIP and it's never been any different. On your award notice there's 2 dates, one where you will be contacted from and another date, which is the end date of the actual award. You can't receive payments after it ends because there's no award in place to pay you.

    As there's no timescales for decisions and they changed the review times from 12 months before to 6 months before it ends then there's a chance that a decision won't be made before the award ends. This applies to everyone, not just yourself.
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team
    Hi @lisa6793. Do you have a friend or support worker or anyone that could speak to them with you? It sounds like you really need to find out what's going on with your review.
    Community Manager
    Scope
  • lisa6793
    lisa6793 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    My partner has spoken to them this morning. The DWP passed the review form to IAS (formerly ATOS) on the 22nd of October. It is apparently supposed to take 6 weeks (it’s been over 14 already) to get a face to face assessment. He then spoke to IAS and they said I should hear about an appointment in a few weeks. Ultimately my payments are going to stop from the 22nd of Feb at least up until I receive and have had an appointment plus the 8 weeks the DWP says it then takes to make a decision (this is if I’m lucky enough to have the claim awarded again, if not it will likely be over a year whilst appeals go through). This means my partner also loses carers allowance for this period which (inc my PIP) will put us over £800 a month worse off - possibly more if this affects any other payments I’m not yet aware of! Obviously we can’t afford this - I can’t see that anyone would be able to - and are now totally stuffed!!! I just don’t know what we’re going to do! I can’t believe they can do this to people! Plus if I hadn’t have posted on hear i wouldn’t have even known this was going to happen because they don’t warn you!
  • michfinch
    michfinch Community member Posts: 173 Pioneering
    Good luck. I have a PIP Review today as my Hearing was adjourned for more Medical Evidence. I hope I’ve supplied everything they need. I’ve been campaigning at the DWP for Epileptics as ours is mostly a “hidden” Disability. I received PIP (at the lower rate) after a long and tortuous struggle. Happy to help any other Epileptics who need assistance. 
  • lisa6793
    lisa6793 Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    Good luck to you @michfinch, my conditions are also ‘invisible’ (Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, Depression, IBS and some other still not diagnosed issues) so I can appreciate how difficult it can be to prove how unwell you are. I was lucky with my first PIP claim and it was awarded without appeal - ESA was another story entirely. 

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