Pup review time

Does anyone know how long the DWP are currently taking to review Pip claims once they receive the form back.

Also, are the DWP carrying out Face to Face assessments again?

I am extremely distressed as I received my Pip review form, my 5 year award is due for renewal in December 2022

I get awarded Pip for Major Depressive Disorder, Complex Ptsd, Anxiety, social phobia and other physical conditions as well.

Back in 2017 when I was transferred from DLA to Pip, it was a nightmare, Initially I was refused a home visit as I have psychologist reports that state that when I suffer from flash backs I can become extremely agitated afterwards and so I was deemed a risk and told that I had to go to an assessment centre. This was obviously impossible for me to do, due to mental health conditions and I became extremely distressed on phone, had a melt down over the phone as I became suicidal. The call was taken over by a Psychiatric Nurse and it was decided to an over the phone assessment there and then.
I was under the care of a consultant Clinical Psychologist at the time who was fortunately able to stabilise me over the following days...But there was no duty of care on the part of ATOS / DWP who failed to inform anyone of my mental break down over the phone.

A couple of weeks later my decision letter came through the post and I was transferred to PIP, I did however still have to go through a mandatory reconsideration as the correct level award was not given, which I won.

This is now the first time that I am having Pip reviewed and I am terrified.. There have not been any changes in my mental health ( There wouldnt be, I have Psychologist reports that state that I suffer from permanent mentally disabling disorder and would require the input of mental health services for the rest of my life) So I really do not know why I have to keep going through all this again with reviews as nothing will ever change, but that is another story. However, I have filled out the form according to the advice in the members guides, I have submitted all up to date supporting documents from Psychologists and community Psychiatric Nurses and Lead Care professionals etc and I have submitted supporting evidence on why I cannot attend a face to face assessment and I have asked for this to be done as a paper assessment.
I am terrified of having the same thing happen to me again with them refusing me and wanting me to go for a face to face, I would even struggle with a home visit right now due to covid as I am in the clinically vulnerable group and dont want anyone coming in my house, especially if they are unvaccinated or refuse to wear a mask.

This has got me all in an mess again, just filling out the forms and worrying about the next stages again, due to past experiences dealing with DWP and Assessment providers.
I am not in any face to face treatment with mental health services at the moment due to the covid situation and am feeling very vulnerable.....Should I be mentioning any of this in my form, especially what happened the last time with the DWP where I became Suicidal and needed intervention by the Psychologist??

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you Gary.

Yes all my Psychiatric and Psychological reports mention overwhelming Psychological distress and talk of my self-harming and suicidal attempts.

I have letters from Community Psychiatric Nurses that say I should not be sent to an assessment centre and should instead have a home visit IF a benefit review is required ( But they all mention that I suffer from permanent mental health disabilities that will not ever go away and can only be "managed" ) , but my fear is that the assessment providers have refused to do this before because ironically they have used details in my Psychiatric reports to say that I am known to become unstable when under stress and so will not enter my home..

I am worried because after reading the forum what other members are saying....

My latest Psychologist reports only go back as far as 2020, My community support workers and lead care professionals stopped home visits during the pandemic because I am clinically vulnerable and I did not want people in my home.

Then I moved house to a different part of the county in April Last year, and again, because of covid, it has been impossible to get into see GP's or other healthcare professionals....I have referrals in place for my transfer of mental health, but as I am sure you can imagine, everything has ground to a halt and it is impossible for people to access mental health right now.
I am due to start "private funded" trauma therapy again in March depending on the covid situation...After reading what others have said, I am worried that they will say reports from 2020 are not recent enough.

This is all starting to stress me out because of my past experiences with the DWP and I think it was Atos, I can't remember.... I just don't know whether I should be mentioning in the more information page what happened last time where they caused me so much distress that the call had to be taken over by a psychiatric nurse as I became unstable and suicidal thoughts and then I ended up needing the intervention of Psychologists that week.... I just dont know if I should make the new DM aware of this, or whether that would just wind them up There was a big Drama over it last time as my Psychologist wrote to the DWP and complained because she said they failed in their duty of care of me, because I became suicidal on the telephone call, she felt that the DWP/ Atos had a duty of care to inform her of the incident as they had her details OR another appropriate body, but they didnt and they left me in a vulnerable state.... And she was not made aware of the incident until after my partner contacted her to tell her that my health had deteriorated and she intervened.
I dont know whether it is worth mentioning, or like I said, writing something like that can go against me and just make them more hostile.

Morning. I totally understand your stress. I had my PIP review last April.
I took 3 months gathering my evidence together before I phoned for a Review form. I put in a lifetime of MH stuff down, using my GP notes and MH letters from professionals to back this up. Even if the person you saw has left the service you used, that service should write you a letter giving the dates you used that service. (I did an appendix of the letters and photocopies of relevant GP notes, starting with present day and working back. They will not read them, but they then cannot dispute they exist!).

Write as if to an idiot and explain things clearly including any meds. Also prognosis, ie. This is not going away.
I got extra MH points this time as I gave a life history. I have physical stuff going on too, so have always just been awarded only that in the past (despite protestations).
Mine took 3 weeks. I was totally shocked.

I added CEV correspondence from the government and my hospital department who has shut their outpatients (haven’t seen them F2F for 2 years). I asked for paper based due to MH and CEV (I got paper based!!).
Get some support if you can.

I did my own application, and gathered my own evidence, including asking my Specialist for a support letter. I did however pay for Fightback’s ‘form review service’ and did have to reword my application.
Do what works for you, but do get some support as you don’t want to get poorly. Take care and Good Luck.

Sorry for another follow up, I dont mean to bombard the board or its moderators....

I cannot find the MR award letter, however, I still have the letter of appeal that I wrote challenging the original decision makers award, its quite lengthy and legal as it took each activity in turn and set out legal arguments why the DM had chose the wrong descriptor and its points to Government legislation and guidance and then made reference to all my Psychological Reports and evidence supplied on why a different descriptor should have been given.

My evidenced was accepted and the award was increased on both Care and Mobility.

Do you think I should resubmit it, or would this again just wind the DWP up, I am so frightened.

I have tried to take benefits and work advice in the members guide when filling out this review form and instead of just putting no change, I have wrote things like, No change due to mental health conditions I still continue to struggle with this activity.
I have then used separate pieces of Paper to say how I manage this activity and the help that I receive.... However, I have not gone into anywhere near as much detail as I did on the original Pip forms or indeed the Mandatory Reconsideration because it is so mentally traumatic for me to go into this level of detail and so I am worried that if this review form is not as in-depth as the original, they will take this as an improvement..... I think you can tell this has got me very distressed and I am sorry if I sound manic, but I write as I speak and think...

I am just wondering whether it would be helpful to resubmit the evidence that I supplied for the MR and state this information is still applicable as it details the difficulties I continue to face with the activity and take the risk that all the legal jargon contained it annoys the DM, or whether I should just cut and paste pieces of it on to new evidence that I supplied, but then I am worried that they will see this as repeating word for word what was said in original claim....

Dont know what to do for the best