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Severe drop in PIP and AA aplications
Recent news has reported significant drops in the applications of PIP and AA, does anyone have a theory or view on why this might be the case ? I have a few of my own, such as the dramatic increase in UC claims and offer of instant money and the horrific waiting times when calling the PIP and AA helplines. Any other thoughts, views or factual statements welcome.
From the perspective of our network, it’s simply the need to instigate remote working and therefore the associated difficulties with assisting clients to make AA claims in the first place. We’ve started offering more guidance to advisers about how they can try to overcome some of the obstacles of assisting, by their nature, vulnerable people but it does take much more time for each client, thus having knock-on effects on capacity.
I also think some older people are just shutting themselves away, I saw some statistics somewhere and the contrast between younger and older people about leaving the house were very striking.
Couple of other possible factors: DWP slowing up or suspending migration from DLA so fewer people are being invited to apply for PIP; and difficulty in getting medical evidence from GPs at the moment.
I agree with the previous posts. It is difficult to instigate a new claim when it’s virtually impossible to get through on the phone lines. I believe a significant number of staff have been redeployed to handle the increase in UC claims. This has led to an increase in processing times.
In addition, the difficulty in providing face-to-face advice, which usually makes up the bulk of our workload, has significantly impacted on our ability to assist with form-filling etc. Like Paul, we are currently looking at different ways of delivering our services.
Recent news has reported significant drops in the applications of PIP and AA, does anyone have a theory or view on why this might be the case ? I have a few of my own, such as the dramatic increase in UC claims and offer of instant money and the horrific waiting times when calling the PIP and AA helplines. Any other thoughts, views or factual statements welcome.
I made a PIP claim recently for myself. Not much delay on the new claims line at all but I suspect I was just lucky. What has surprised me is that I had a phone call from a HP the week after I returned the PIP2, it’s been done as a paper assessment and I’ve had the text from PIP to say they have received the report.
Of course I’m fortunate in not needing help to complete the PIP2 but I’m still surprised at how speedy it has been up to now. I did happen to mention my job when making the claim but I’m sure that has nothing to do with it. Being old and cynical I’d be more inclined to think they would drag their feet even more..
No guarantee any of this means an appropriate award of course.
Assume it’s also to do with fewer people seeking welfare advice for other matters, including going to JCP - as a route to being told they can claim PIP. Knowledge about disability benefits is dismal.
Assume it’s also to do with fewer people seeking welfare advice for other matters, including going to JCP - as a route to being told they can claim PIP. Knowledge about disability benefits is dismal.
I’ll second that.
Thank you for your responses, we started an online form filling help service about 8 weeks ago, we used a mock up of the PIP application form as a word document, when we telephoned the client, we completed our version as per their responses. This word document was then securely sent to the client, with further suggestions on how to complete the sections asking about medication and their Doctors, specialists etc. So far it has worked well, so we are also running an AA pilot.
An initial large scale blip regarding the ability to get phones answered certainly contributed and won’t have been helped by word of mouth on the claimant grapevine despite things improving dramatically around the 3 week mark. Ally that to an assumption that advice services are closed or gone. Ally that to zero work by DWP to talk directly to the public to confirm what was still open and what was not. Finally, of course, the simple fact that a significant number of those who might ordinarily have considered a new claim have been in lockdown; very ill; caring for the very ill and so on.
Unspoken within this is the fact that anecdotally (and with some obvious exceptions) telephone assessments have produced more points and telephone hearings probably have a higher success rate than oral hearings. Whilst there are obviously some cases for whom the phrase “you just have to see them” would apply, the reality is that taking out the face to face element removes deceptive functional assessments and a whole pile of visually based judgemental clap trap. Anyone missing “made good eye contact” type reports?
[ Edited: 6 Jul 2020 at 09:43 am by Mike Hughes ]For my clients the lack of face to face support to phone to lodge a PIP claim has been a factor. And with clients who struggle to engage, I’m not always able to get hold of them on the phone to help them compete the form once they have got it. It was a lot easier when Support Workers could fetch them in the car to see me. Or I could go and visit them.
Let’s not forget all of the barriers to claiming that were put in place when PIP was designed - has to be a phone call to lodge claim; advice services can’t have stocks of forms; Alternative Office scrapped. This is coming home to roost now.
For my clients the lack of face to face support to phone to lodge a PIP claim has been a factor. And with clients who struggle to engage, I’m not always able to get hold of them on the phone to help them compete the form once they have got it. It was a lot easier when Support Workers could fetch them in the car to see me. Or I could go and visit them.
Let’s not forget all of the barriers to claiming that were put in place when PIP was designed - has to be a phone call to lodge claim; advice services can’t have stocks of forms; Alternative Office scrapped. This is coming home to roost now.
Absolutely agree Helen. I think those clients who were already vulnerable/hard to engage will have been the most disadvantaged by the pandemic and “social distancing”. These are the clients where support is almost always face-to-face. Frankly, I am at a loss as to how we will deal with them going forward, as it appears there will be no face-to-face for the foreseeable future unless a safe way of doing visits can be found.
Reduced opening times to the claim line (open 9-5 instead of 8-6) and today, a 39 minute hold before reaching 5pm and therefore the line closing… I think posts #9 and #10 have it covered from the point of view of multiple barriers. Why can’t a PIP2 just be made available online like child DLA, & include the PIP1 questions in it?
Also - aware I’m preaching to the choir here - when was the last time you saw an advert for a benefit, encouraging people to claim it as they might be entitled? I remember the tax credits adverts back in the noughties with ska music, but that’s it, apart from some bus stop adverts saying ‘we’re coming for you if you’re a benefit cheat’ etc.
Due to the reduction in applications, they are being processed quite quickly. I am doing one normal rules visit a week, socially distanced and risk assessed .The one completed and posted 28/7/20 has had an award letter today.
The one prior to that took 2 weeks posting to payment received.
But doing a full AA form with a mask on is horrible - not to mention glasses steaming up or falling off! Especially on public transport!
I think that because clients are getting their own forms. they either don’t bother, or they don’t contact when they receive them…….and at one visit a week then the bookings are quite far ahead. Some of them do try to complete it themselves, or we do a phone appointment (they write), but some of the people who really need visits are being lost.
I think PIP need to introduce an online way to complete PIP 2’s that advisers can complete over the phone with the claimant and then somehow send to the the claimant to agree and submit. I understand there is a trial of this somewhere - not sure it includes enabling a 3rd party to complete.
There also needs to be a way to request the PIP2 online that someone (us) can do on the claimants behalf. We often had to get claimants into the office or do a HV just to ring and order the PIP2 as people are too nervous or have disabilities that prevent them from ringing to register the claim.
As people have already said the most vulnerable people are shielding and obviously advisers can’t do face to face form filling which was a lot of what we used to do.
With AA and UC50s etc we can still complete electronically and post completed forms to claimants to sign and send on but PIP2s aren’t as easy to do this with.
PIP claims are known to be massively down and really it is for the DWP to come up with solutions urgently. They know people find the forms hard to complete and rely on advice agencies to help with this.
Given Covid 19 is going to be around for a long time and we need to be able to support vulnerable claimants it is for them to promote claims and make claiming accessible.
This issue has been picked up via the stakeholders forum (thanks to Julia Harris at Lambeth who has set out really detailed reasons why this is so vital) and we are waiting on a response - I’ll post here as soon as I get anything
Daphne Can you also raise the issue that I have now had 2 clients in 2 weeks told they cannot move over from DLA to PIP without having had a letter inviting them to do so. One was told that if she decides to go ahead to request a claim her DLA mobility will stop immediately so people are being dissuaded from making claims for PIP if they are getting DLA.
I also had a client who was told repeatedly throughout 2018 that she had to wait for a letter before she could transfer from DLA to PIP. We have lodged a complaint and asked for compensation for the income that she has missed out on as a result. It’s now with the Independent case Examiner.