Asking for D.L.A to be reviewed ...

A very good Wednesday to all !

Just a quick one - if a person contacts the DWP and asks to claim P.I.P while they are in receipt of D.L.A, and they are then sent the form, do they have to complete and return this and if they do not will their award of D.L.A cease ?

Thanks for any thoughts ...

Pete

In my experience Robin, once you make the request then they will expect the form to be completed and returned. I’ve tried to cancel this as I’m sure others have, only to be told that this is not possible.

Non return of the PIP 2 will extinguish entitlement to DLA; it is suspended for 4 weeks then a decision is made to stop the claim. There is no right of appeal against the decision to extinguish DLA entitlement.

Thank you Thepadster and Dan,

I suspected as much but the DRH isn’t very clear about this on page 31 ?

Enjoy the rest of your weeks ...

Pete

Reg 8 of the PIP Regs gives the Secretary of State a power to request further information to which a failure to comply can lead to a loss of entitlement. However, that power must be used judiciously and within reason. For instance, where the SoS has information that calls a current award in favour of the claimant into question, or after a certain period of time a relevant change of circumstances was a possibility, then a reg 8 request would be reasonable.  It turns on how you define the word “requires”.

However, where information is requested pursuant to the claimant’s request for a supersession the SoS should be more cautious. Of course, in an ideal world this would be easy to say but in the real world there will be cases where inflexibility will be shown and decision makers will simply hide behind the regulation to justify their actions. And, this doesn’t even touch some ill-informed contact centre staff giving misleading or intimidating advice to claimants. Yes, there might be legal redress but this is time consuming and stressful to claimants with no guarantee of success. Having said that, in the small number of cases that I’m aware of, claimants are being given latitude.  But there is no guarantee that that will continue and I suspect it is coming to an end.

There is really no legal need for the regulation in its current form. Instead it could have been framed in such a way as to make it plain that it is a requirement in potential supersession situations where the SoS is acting solely on his own initiative. A much more equitable solution all round.

See p.622 of Welfare Benefits and Tax Credits Handbook 2015/16 - this sets out the rules around transferring from DLA to PIP, whether by invite or by choice.

As noted above, it’s basically 4 weeks from the date of initial claim form being sent before a DLA claim is suspended, with another 4 weeks subsequently to rectify the situation. If this latter deadline is missed, it is fatal to the DLA claim as well as the PIP claim (although the person concerned can of course make another new PIP claim). The 4-week periods can be extended at the discretion of a DWP decision maker.

Also worth noting that the situation is slightly different if a DLA to PIP claimant submits the PIP claim form but then fails to provide required information or attend a medical examination. In this case ,the DLA award ends 14 days after the first DLA payday following the decision refusing the PIP claim.