Huge delays on PIP2s being issued for non EEA claims

Hi all,

I am just wondering whether anyone is looking at the issue of huge delays in sending the PIP2s to people who have just been granted status?  I think Migrant Organise were conisdering something.

I am having to chase every single PIP2 form and sometimes multiple times.  The PIP2 I chased today was for a claim made on 8 Feb 2024, and I’d sent proof of immigration status back in February as well.

I’ve had a couple of different explanations from Case Managers but essentially, they’re saying PIP2s are not going out because it sets up a “discrepancy task” on the system (re residency). A Case Manager has to manually clear the task by sending out a verification request document so they can provide proof of immigration status.  There is a huge backlog so even this document isn’t going out.

Another Case Manager said it was newly granted refugees answering that they had been out of the UK in the last 3 years (as most will have arrived in the last 3 years ) so they needed to write out to ask for absence dates, even though we know refugees are exempt from the past presence test!

They’re all citing workload but I think this needs to be looked at refugees (newly granted) are waiting many months to even get a PIP2 so you can imagine how long the decision on the claim will be!

Also discussed here: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/20134/

My experience is that if a client is able to provide share code, things move quicker. Everything stalls if DWP has to send a request to the Home Office to confirm status.

Thanks Jo.  All these clients still have BRPs, so no share codes unfortunately.  I guess this problem will go away when they’re all replaced by eVisas and we can provide share codes…