DLA to PIP transfers for claims not due to end soon

Hi

Just asking if anyone has any experience of this - I’m due to meet two clients today who both appear to have received letters ‘inviting’ them to claim PIP

One has a DLA award due to end in 2017 and the other has an indefinite DLA award. They might both be mistaken, and I doubt if either has called to report a change of circumstances so I can’t see why they have been selected. Both are in Edinburgh which has been a transfer area since Jan 2014

Anyone seen this happening?

Thanks

Isn’t it just the uprating letter with the PIP advice? It’s that time of year.

If they’ve been sent an invitation under reg.3(1) of the PIP(TP) Regs 2013, I think it looks like they will be required to pursue the PIP claim I’m afraid. Unless I’m missing something, this would appear to be part of the managed migration and I can’t obviously see a way around it.

The approach in regards to DLA claims naturally coming to an end, or turning 16, or having a CoC, are laid out in regs but the power to send an invitation to a DLA entitled person seems to me to be absolute i.e. there isn’t any other precondition to allow the SoS to issue such an invitation.

I’ll check this with a colleague in Scotland who has done quite a lot of work on PIP to see what he thinks but our Handbook editor agrees that this appears a possibility, even if it appears contrary to stated policy on DLA to PIP transfers.

I thought the migration didn’t commence until the coming October

http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-timetable

I know… it was the first hit on google though

That’s exactly what we’re saying - we understood the policy intention to be managed migration from October 2015 but that’s policy and not governed by regulations that I can see.

We have seen a couple of these in Stockton in the last 2 weeks.

Thanks for the posts, luckily mine were both just annual uprating letters that two panicky people read far too much into…

to Billy - I’m surprised that this might be happening without warning, although as Paul says, it’s a policy issue rather than a legislative one so there’ no reason why they couldn’t

Phew, that’s good to know Sean.

Sorry but just been looking at these regs again in connection with another matter and I’ve spotted why DWP can’t invite claims before a district has had a specified date notified by the Secretary of State.

The Personal Independence Payment (Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2013 amended reg.2 and reg.3 of the TP regs to insert paragraphs 3A and 5A in relation to new claims and changes of circumstances, as well as a definition of what a relevant date is under reg.2.

Basically, in neither situation can the SoS treat a new claim or a CoC’s notification as leading to an invitation to claim PIP under reg.3(1) unless the SoS has specified a relevant date which applies to the DLA entitled person.

Don’t know how I missed this before.

So : forgive my ignorance here, but if a claimant is inappropriately referred for a pip conversion in a non designated area and not awarded is there any right of redress?

I have a client in Sunderland with severe mental health problems who was awarded DLA until 2016.

In December 2014 he moved address and he was “invited” to claim PIP.

Sunderland is a designated area, but did not become so until 26th january 2015

He had no interest in the form and didnt return it, so DLA award terminated and no PIP entitlement due to failure to return form..

I believe the Department had absolutely no right to do this under these circumstances.

Ive just filled in a new PIP claim however i wonder if an anytime revision can be done to challenge the termination of a DLA award under these circumstances.

Any advice would be helpful. DWP just told me that his DLA can not be reinstated in any circumstances whatsoever.

I think Paul is right that they can’t treat a CoC notification as leading to an invitation to claim PIP before the relevant date. But Reg 3(1) of the PIP (TP) Regs says that the SoS can invite a DLA entitled person to claim PIP anytime after 27 Oct 2013 so unfortunately I think they can do it and can then terminate if the claimant fails to respond (regs 7-11).

Or have I read that wrong?

Right, this has been subject to some quite intensive discussions between myself and colleagues to try and clarify the overall situation.

Basically, I’ve reverted to the original position to a large extent on the advice of our legal officer Mike and my Scottish office colleague Jon. This is that the power under reg3(1) of the PIP(TP) regs 2013 allows the Secretary of State to invite any DLA entitled person to make a claim for PIP. This is a freestanding power and regardless of the reasons generally as to why that invitation may have occurred e.g. change in circumstances (as defined), reaching 16 years, voluntary transfer claimants etc, or simply that DWP decided to issue an invitation to claim PIP.

Whilst there are then specific duties also placed on the SoS as to how they should deal with claimants falling under the specific situations noted above, ultimately the Sos/DWP can fall back on reg.3(1) as an enabling power to invite a PIP claim and then all of the other powers contained in the transitional regulations seem to kick in.

There may be a sketchy argument regarding an existing DLA claimant who notifies a change of circs before a relevant date has been specfied but who is invited to claim PIP anyway, related partly to the provisions in reg.20. 

This regulation states that where a a person notifies the SoS of a change of circumstances (which is defined as something that could affect DLA entitlement), then in 3 defined situations that supersession request should not be dealt with under s.8 SSA1998.

We’re not sure that a DLA entitled person in that situation would trigger any of the situations described in para’s (3), (4) or (5) because variously they are not a notified person at the point they tell the SoS of the change (3), nor are they a transfer claimant as they haven’t yet claimed PIP (4), and they can’t be a person who reg.3(5) applies to because they haven’t had a relevant date notified as detailed in my last post (5).

There may therefore be an argument that the claimant could insist on a supersession decision being made with respect to their DLA change of circs/supersession request, but similarly, they could also then be invited to claim PIP anyway and that would limit the extent of any arrears accordingly (notwithstanding that arrears may be significant due to the delays in PIP assessment/decision making).

If anyone can come up with something more persuasive, we’d love to hear about it, but at the moment, it’s very difficult to see a way around the issue.