PIP Enquiry line - fault and dropping calls

Hi all

Anyone else having a problem calling the PIP enquiry line this morning? The call drops as soon as the message about the April uprating letter starts.

Thanks

Yes I emailed my colleagues about this just today, have copied and pasted below

Hi All,

On this issue. Yesterday I managed to get through to PIP by selecting the Man Recon option. Although I had to wait a long time.

The person I spoke to said that as far as she was aware there was no technical issues with the main enquiry line – apparently the system is designed to reject calls when the hold queue reaches a certain point. She said to call early in the mornings and you would stand the best chance of getting added to the hold queue.

I suspect that on the MR line they will not do anything under implicit consent (I added client to the call on teams) and I’d suggest only trying to get through to them that way in case of emergency.

There was an article in Private Eye this week saying that the proportion of UC case managers taking time off for mental health reasons had risen from 7% in 2019 to 26% in 2023. Of those, 27% were taking more than 4 weeks off a year. So I guess they are facing staffing pressures which are knocking on to service provision elsewhere.

Have a good weekend everyone btw and enjoy the sunshine if it sticks around ????!

Sam

Hello
Yes it cut me off yesterday and today just as it would normally transfer to waiting to speak to an advisor. Third time lucky I got an answer after 40 mins and spoke to an advisor who sounded new - had to ask a colleague about implicit consent - and answered my query.

My colleague has just tried to ring the enquiry line for a Bereavement to see if PIP had been processed before the death she was reporting. She was cut off the first time. After a 22 minute wait the phone was answered by someone from the Pension Service who has been drafted in because PIP are “at capacity” and cannot answer calls in a timely fashion, if at all.
Apparently there is only capacity for 100 callers to be waiting to get through - after that they just get cut off.
The Pension Service operative would have been able to deal with the call if it had been an AA claimant, but couldn’t as it was PIP.

So they can’t answer calls as they don’t have enough staff, then they draft in staff who can’t answer calls because they deal with the wrong sort of benefits. Bearing in mind that this enquiry related to a Bereavement, goodness knows what state the bereaved partner would have been in trying to deal with the DWP.

The DWP and contracted staff are doing their best under horrendously stressful circumstances - can nobody get this Department sorted?