PIP award runs out, no renewal claim made

I’d be surprised if this hadn’t come up before, but my searching skills may not be what they once were.

We’re getting more than a trickle of people contacting us to say their PIP has stopped.

This is either because

a) They were sent the renewal claim/invitation letter and did nothing about it, for various reasons
b) They changed address and didn’t let PIP know, so the renewal documents never reached them.

Clearly the first advice is to make a new claim ASAP.

I’m wondering if there’s any more to advise, really. 

I’m not sure you can challenge anything, in the absence of a new decision.  Similarly, I can’t see DWP making an ex gratia payment if they have sent out their documents, and got no reply (in most cases, at least).

This CPAG article is useful :-

https://askcpag.org.uk/content/203553/disability-benefit-awards-in-the-age-of-coronavirus

Begs the question has anybody been trying to supersede the end of a fixed period award, after it has run out, and did it work?

Does anyone have any other ideas/experience?

It’s a depressing thought, but when the UC managed migration letters start going out, you’d have to expect we’ll be seeing a lot more than a trickle of these sort of queries…

Worth checking whether there is a vulnerability marker on any given case. It does open the door a little to the idea that when a claim was not received then a set of laid out checks should have taken place.

Hi , I had a case in the early months of the pandemic the client never received their renewal form and thus her PIP award was terminated , I Put new claim in asap and asked for a reconsideration which was awarded , because DWP do not send out their correspondents by Recorded delivery to state a form has been issued does not constitute the claimant has received it , as the DWP cant prove it

Wasn’t there some caselaw to say that, as long as DWP can show they’ve sent the letter, it isn’t incumbent on them to prove it was received?

An anytime revision can alternatively be won on other grounds anyhow.

EDIT: The route Mike suggest being where DWP had a duty to make extra efforts to contact a vulnerable claimant, and in this scenario can be challenged if they can’t evidence having complied with that duty.

Thanks all for your thoughts/experience.