DLA to PIP "lost in post" farce

Hi all,
In September I received a letter telling me that my DLA was ending & that I needed to make a claim for PIP, which I did. In due course I received my claim form, which needed to be returned by 23/11/15, I posted it on the 18/11/15.

On the 17/12/15, I received a letter stating:
“We’ve considered your claim but have decided that you don’t qualify for PIP. This is because we asked for your further information to be returned by 23/11/15 and we didn’t receive it on time.”

I rang them the same day, telling them that I had posted it in time. I was told that they would check to see if they could find my form or that they may need to send out another, if it became apparent that my form had been lost in the post. I was also told that it may be several weeks before I heard anything.

The next thing that I knew about this was when I received a letter from Working Tax Credits, telling me that, as my DLA has been stopped, the Disability Component of my Working Tax Credits would also be ending.

I have just rang the PIP people to be told that, basically, my claim had been rejected because they didn’t received my claim in time & I didn’t ask them to look at it again, within one month, so I would have to start a new claim.

The person that I spoke with didn’t really seem to know what the problem was, or what he was talking about. I explained that I had called them on 17/12/15 and had effectively asked them to look at it again when I told them that I had sent my form in etc. I have not received any more correspondence from them since the letter dated 12/12/15, so how am I supposed to know what’s going on?

I have asked for a call from a case handler, but, in the mean time, I would like some advice on what to do next/how to handle this, please.

It seems to me that this is just a conspiracy to try to get people to drop their claims, has anyone else had similar experiences?

Finally, I would like to suggest that everyone is advised to return any correspondence via a recorded form of delivery, so that the DWP cannot use “lost forms” as an excuse.

Thanks.

Hi Gordon,
thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately, I didn't send it by recorded post, but I'll make sure I do from now on!

Will let you know how I'll get on.

OK, so I did receive a phone call from another member of staff at the PIP office, not sure if she was actually a case handler or not, but she did, at least, know a bit more about my case and it appears that this was all down the my application being lost in the post.

Anyway, it appears that, although I was told in December that another form would be sent out, one was not. I did, however, receive another form last week that I duly completed and returned via RECORDED delivery.

The major problem that I have is that my DLA has now stopped and the disability component of my WTC award is also likely to be stopped. I did enclose a covering letter with my second PIP claim form, requesting that my DLA be reinstated, until a proper decision about my claim for PIP is made, should this be enough to achieve this goal or would you advise any other action?

Many Thanks,
Limbs

Thanks for your help Gordon,
I ended up having to re-apply. I have since had my face to face assessment and was subsequently awarded the standard rate of the Daily Living Component having scored 10 points, which is pretty much what I thought I should get. Finally, my award was back-dated to when my DLA was stopped.

I have spoken with the WTC team and I also need to re-apply for that, but I have been told that if I put a note in with it, that too should be back-dated.

Once again, thank you!