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DWP to start inviting people with long-term/indefinite awards to claim PIP from 13 July
Updated timetable here - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/437756/timetable-for-pip-replacing-dla.pdf
Aim is that all existing DLA claimants who were aged 16 to 64 on 8 April 2013 will have been invited to claim PIP by late 2017
I’m not sure “invited” is the right word here. “Coerced” may be more accurate, under threat of loss of disability benefit altogether.
I think the risk is they are just invited and it is very unclear what will happen if they don’t accept. The letter ‘inviting’ people to claim PIP - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/303631/pip-notification-pip0201.pdf - does not warn a claimant until page 2 that if they fail to take up the invitation they will lose their DLA. On page 1 it just says ‘your Disability Living Allowance payments will be stopped temporarily’ - obviously many claimants may not get beyond this. And by the time they realise what is happening it may be beyond the 8 weeks and DLA has stopped altogether along with any connected premiums and/or carer’s benefits. All they can do is put in a PIP claim and wait…
The invitations aspect of the transfer is what most people attending our PIP training courses are most worried about regularly. For various groups of people with certain health conditions and/or vulnerabilities, it’s more than likely that they won’t take up the “invitation” and probably won’t seek any assistance until, at the very earliest, their DLA payments stop, which then creates tremendous time pressures in resolving the situation positively. Let alone the people who may not seek assistance until it’s simply too late completely and their entitlement is terminated.
I’m struggling to think of any other “reform” of this kind whereby existing claimants are being legally required to do the initial running necessary in order to kick off the process of transferring themselves to the new benefit. It feels misguided at best, and downright irresponsible at worst.
It’s an interesting one. It’s not really an outright acceleration of the process as if it were that then presumably the end date would have been brought forward also. It’s also not really a big bang of the type anticipated in October as we’re talking roughly just under 5 new cases a day per the 10 areas. It’s not being brought forward because all of the relevant processes have bedded in (at least not in our heads) so, why bother? I suspect it’s just buying some time given that the end date is almost inevitably, based on the ESA experience, going to be extended beyond September 2017 at some point. Who knows there may even be some recognition that having people on UC who then have to go through the conversion process could get very messy? I doubt the thinking is that logical though.
So, from my perspective. All rather bizarre.
DWP has announced further postcodes where people with long-term/indefinite DLA awards will be invited to claim from 1 September -
Bath (BA); Blackpool (FY); Bromley (BR); Bournemouth (BH); Bristol (BS); Cambridge (CB); Canterbury (CT); Cardiff (CF); Chelmsford (CM); Crewe (CW); Dartford (DA); Dorchester (DT); Durham (DH); Gloucester (GL); Halifax (HX); Huddersfield (HD); Lancaster (LA); Luton (LU); Plymouth (PL); Portsmouth (PO); Reading (RG); Romford (RM); Salisbury (SP); Southend on Sea (SS); Southampton (SO); Stockport (SK); Taunton (TA); Torquay (TQ); and Truro (TR).
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/timetable-for-pip-replacing-dla
Grab a place on our next PIP course on 14 October 2015 (.... and meet me and Daphne!!!!)
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/training/courses/personal-independence-payment/
Oooh, Shawn, there’s an offer I can’t refuse!
DWP have just updated their ‘invitation to claim’ PIP letter -
It is an improvement in that it does now say on page 1 that you cannot choose to stay on DLA even if you have indefinite award, and that if you don’t claim PIP by the required dated your DLA will end. So some of the feedback has definitely been taken on board…
Just an update from a colleague who attended the PIP forum -
On the planned timetable for DLA to PIP migration both Assessment Providers are continuing to work to the current planning assumption that ‘full PIP rollout’ activity (reassessment of DLA claimants for PIP) will have concluded mid-2019 (so invitation letters issued by late 2018).