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PIP: DWP forgot to refer for assessment in Oct 201

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5 years 1 month ago #246093 by CG31
Is it possible to get PIP reinstated in the absence of an assessment?

Friend was getting PIP till early October. DWP acknowledges receipt of “new claim”in October and told him long wait for assessments. Payment stopped in October 2020. He had previously won a Tribunal case and was advised that hie would probably gat more points when he was reassessed. In early Feb after hearing nothing he contacted DWP and was told that they had failed to refer him to the assessment provider. DWP wrote to the assessors and friend followed up with a phone call - they said wait for them to make contact.

As I understand it no assessments are scheduled in the foreseeable future. He has no PIP money and despairing of getting any. His mental health and physical difficulties mean it is difficult to make follow up calls and he is worried that his claim will disappear again. Is there anything we can do to move this on?

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5 years 1 month ago #246097 by BIS
Hi CG31

The DWP are not doing any face to face assessments but they are doing telephone and paper-based assessments, so the only thing for your friend to do is to keep phoning to see what progress has been made. As he has had no contact from the assessment provider, he can only do this with the DWP. There is a unit specifically for vulnerable people including those that have been flagged up with mental health difficulties. I don't know whether your friend has been, but it might be worth checking. They should offer extra support and push the assessment providers to speed up his claim.

BIS

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5 years 1 month ago #246135 by CG31
Thank you.

The evidence put forward include information about his mental health. The advice worker thought he should be getting the enhanced rates for both areas

Does he need to update evidence from Summer 2019? His condition has not improved, worsened over the last 9 months.

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5 years 1 month ago #246136 by Gordon
CG

I would!

We are in new territory with Paper assessments due to the Coronavirus, previously we would not have expected more than 5% of claims to be done on the papers and there were undoubtedly reasons for the small number. We are not aware of any new guidance being issued to assessors so far so the Assessment Providers are going to have to adapt their processes and we will have to wait and see how this pans out.

Gordon

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