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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Disability benefits  →  Thread

Automatic increase in existing DLA award with production of DS1500? 

Mrs Mac
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Macmillan, CAB

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I have been advising clients to make a claim for PIP when they become special rules and have an existing DLA award as this is a change in circumstances.  However, it appears there are instances when the DS1500 has been sent to PIP without a covering letter an no claim being made for PIP and DLA is increased to high rate.  Has anyone else experienced this?  It’s certainly better for the client as they don’t have the 4 weeks waiting time before the increase but I’m worried that, if this is being done in error clients will miss out in future if no new claim is made when DS1500 is sent off.

Edmund Shepherd
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Tenancy Income, Royal Borough of Greenwich, London

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Are you in an area where changes of circs prompt reassessment under PIP rules?

Mrs Mac
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Macmillan, CAB

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Yes.  Changed here 28th Oct.

JohnColegate
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Riverside Advice, Riverside, Cardiff, Glamorgan.

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I have now had a decision refusing to supersede my client’s late husband’s D.L.A. claim under the Special Rules, which, although I have yet to see the letter, appears to say that they have refused under P.I.P. because the decision had not been made by the time her husband had died, even though the DS1500 had been submitted some time before he died (maybe 3 weeks or so before, from memory). This was all in around February.  No proper decision was ever notified, but I asked the M.P. to insist that one was now sent out, in order to allow for us to take it further. His previous award did not include M.R. or H.R. Care, and there is a C.A. claim depending on this, too. This all seems most unfair, and will be challenged.

nevip
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Welfare rights adviser - Sefton Council, Liverpool

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They should have appointed someone to carry on the claim under reg 30 of the Claims and Payments Regs 1987.

http://lawvolumes.dwp.gov.uk/docs/a1-5501.pdf

Lucy@Barrow
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Macmillan Benefits, Barrow

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If people are being moved onto PIP then in order to avoid the 4 week waiting time….would it be possible to cancel the current DLA claim on the same day that a new claim for PIP with a DS1500 is made thus treating it as a new claim rather than a supercession request?

JohnColegate
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Riverside Advice, Riverside, Cardiff, Glamorgan.

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Thanks for your suggestions.

The letter says that the P.I.P. (Transitional Provisions) Regs 2013 apply, which say all c. of c. notifications must lead to an invitation to claim P.I.P. as opposed to a D.L.A. supersession. The supersession request and med ev was rec’d on 10th Feb. The docs were scanned + forwarded on to the P.I.P. office, being rec’d on 20th Feb. Regs state that a person on D.L.A. who dies before a determination is made on their P.I.P. claim, the claim shall be treated as if it had never been made. Claimant died before the case was determined.

I can see where they are getting this from, but it is very unfair, and I wonder whether the reg may be unreasonable on grounds of unfairness, given that it all rests on when the S. of S. makes a determination, and not on the date of the supersession req’ or the date of the DS1500.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Barbara Knight
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Leorn Welfare Rights Training Services, Derby

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Hi, below is a paste of the regs I think you mean, I read that as saying the PIP claim doesn’t exist if they die before a decision is made so leaving a claim for DLA still valid.
Does anyone agree?

Death before or after making claim for personal independence payment
16.—(1) Where a notified person dies before making a claim for personal independence
payment the law relating to the person’s entitlement to disability living allowance shall apply as if
the notification had never been sent.
(2) Where a transfer claimant dies—
(a) before any assessment determination is made in relation to the claim, or
(b) where an assessment determination is made in relation to the claim, before the day on
which the claimant becomes entitled to personal independence payment in accordance
with regulation 17(2),
the claim shall be treated as if it had never been made and, if the transfer claimant is a notified
person, as if no notification under regulation 3(1) had been sent.

nevip
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Welfare rights adviser - Sefton Council, Liverpool

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The DWP should have carried out a DLA superesession.

JohnColegate
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Riverside Advice, Riverside, Cardiff, Glamorgan.

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Thanks Barbara and Nevip. The D.W.P. are saying that they cannot supersede under D.L.A. but have to treat it under P.I.P., so, given the way in which the regs are worded, this is the correct result, or so they say. Could they supersede under D.L.A.?

Paul_Treloar_CPAG
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Advice and Rights Team, Child Poverty Action Group

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I don’t think they are correct John, for the reasons of the regulation that Barbara quotes above i.e. where the claimant passes away before an assessment determination is made, then they are treated as if the notification was never sent and therefore the transitional provisions do not apply.

16 (1) Where a notified person dies before making a claim for personal independence
payment the law relating to the person’s entitlement to disability living allowance shall apply as if the notification had never been sent.

So as Paul says, the DS1500 should be treated as a supersession request on the DLA claim and a decision made accordingly.

JohnColegate
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Riverside Advice, Riverside, Cardiff, Glamorgan.

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Thank-you all for this, I shall take this approach and see what happens…

Mrs Mac
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Macmillan, CAB

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Mac@Barrow - 28 August 2014 02:24 PM

If people are being moved onto PIP then in order to avoid the 4 week waiting time….would it be possible to cancel the current DLA claim on the same day that a new claim for PIP with a DS1500 is made thus treating it as a new claim rather than a supercession request?

I was hoping for an answer to that too.