DWP Local Service Visit

[Watt]

I am currently on ESA in the wrag group after migrating from Incapacity Benefit. My health is not good and recently when i visited my local Jobcentre Plus office for my ESA work- focused interview with my personal adviser she advised me to apply for Personal Independence payments due to my condition. She said this would help me financially and also i would not have to struggle to attend any more interviews with her. I applied for PIP by telephone and then a massive PIP claim form arrived. I have had difficulty trying to complete this form(ESA50 is nothing compared to this monster). I telephoned them to say i was having difficulty completing the form. I have now received a letter saying an adviser is coming to visit me at my home address. They say they are coming to assist me with the form and to discuss benefits i am already receiving or may be entitled to, plus to provide information on further services.

Has anyone else been through this procedure or can anyone offer any advice please? I hate claiming benefits in this current social climate and am very suspicious(rightly or wrongly) of DWP after all the problems i have had with them and ATOS whilst claiming ESA.

I do not know if i have done right by applying for PIP. Should i have applied to go in ESA support group? Will they stop my current ESA payments if i fail on my PIP application? The whole thing worries me so much. Can anyone help please?

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I'm not a forum expert, but this just might be good news for you. Do you have the job title of the person who is coming please?

 

HB

[Watt]

Thanks for the reply Honeybee13.

May i say that if you are the Honeybee that did the sticky on details of how to complete the ESA50 then i would have been lost without your excellent help and thanks for that as well.

I am always on the lookout for good news and would love to know why you think this may be so.

The appointment letter is from the DWP Disability and Carers Service. All it says is "The Pension Service and the Disability Carers Service work in partnership with other organisations to provide a combined service for our customers". It then goes on to say the name of the person that will visit me at my home address and the date. It does not mention any job title of the person visiting anywhere in the letter. After that it just lists all the relevant documents they need sight of.

[honeybee13]

Hello again. I'm pleased that the stikky was helpful. Yes, I'm the same honeybee :blush: it's based on my own appeal a little while back and my OH wrote it with extra information I dug out.

 

I can't answer your question, sorry, but we have some really good people on the forum who seem to be around today, so hopefully they will spot your thread and answer. I'll keep an eye on it and send a couple of SOSs if you don't have replies.

 

HB

[**Margaret**]

:Watt:

 

What a nice well intentioned adviser. Contrary to popular myth, some Jobcentre staff are as appalled by the welfare cuts as we are. Unfortunately (probably due to lack of training) she's misadvised you, but I can't think of any adverse consequences. And should you eventually (current processing time is at least six months) be awarded a personal independence payment she'll have done you a massive favour.

 

There's some scenarios in which an award of personal independence + carers + income support can be a viable alternative to employment n support, but your situation isn't one of them. Personal independence payments can be awarded in addition to contribution flavoured employment n support, regardless of other income or savings.

 

Cos personal independence is a new benefit there aren't many claimants who've completed the process but the procedure for Disability n Carers, or someone on their behalf, visiting very vulnerable claimants at home isn't new. The adviser will ask questions about the help you need with personal care and mobility, then transcribe your answers onto a PIP2 form. As an added extra, s/he may have time to consider whether there's any other help you're entitled to. The guide below, particularly the descriptors for personal independence, may be useful reading in preparation for the visit cos even if you don't feel able to tackle the PIP2 it may be helpful to make some preparatory notes. And to start a diary as supportive evidence.

 

http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/personal-independence-payment-pip

 

Should you be awarded personal independence it won't get you out of work focused interviews for employment n support unless you close your claim cos you can manage without the money. They're different benefits, awarded for different reasons. How long is it since you were awarded employment n support with the work related activity component? The paragraph about appeal/reconsideration is tucked away on page 5 of the conversion award letters. As Disability n Carers have accepted that you've problems with their forms and letters, it may be possible to argue for a late appeal/reconsideration on the grounds that you couldn't cope with the decision notice.

 

Disability n Carers/Jobcentreplus sometimes use previous reports to inform or defend new decisions, but a failed application for personal independence won't affect an existing award of employment n support, or vice versa, unless there's provable contradictions between the applications.

 

Lastly, lots of thanx for letting us know you were helped by one of our forum stickies. Convinces us we're not writing into thin air.

 

Sincerely, Margaret.

[Watt]

Just a quick update.....as there may be more of you treading the same new PIP path as i am.

The adviser arrived and appeared very nice. The adviser had not done a PIP application before and appeared to have some difficulty in completing it on my behalf.. In the end i feel i could probably have done better or at least as well by blindly struggling on and completing the form myself. I wanted to keep the application form the adviser completed on my behalf and submit it myself thereby giving me time to check the form and make any amendments etc. I was informed this was not possible as they had to take the completed form away with them. This was cause for a little concern in my opinion. It is now approaching six months since i applied for PIP. I have not received any communication regarding my application and have been unable to obtain any update on my application when phoning them. One does despair both financially and personally at times!!!!!!!!!!

Any advice welcome....as always.

So wish there had been a honeybee PIP advice sticky like there was for completing an ESA50!

[Nystagmite]

PIP is such a new benefit that it's a bit hard to make a sticky for it. I don't think many people on here have gone through the PIP process yet.

[essexmat]

My Father is disabled and on indefinate higher rate care and mobility component anda few years back had to do a load of forms. With his condition and bad memory and poor handwriting I called up for him to say he could not do these forms by himself and I did not want to put the wrong things down by doing them for him. The person that came to see hime was very good and even helped him claim for stuff he was entitles to but never claimed for so not all of them are bad news - some genuinely care. It is great you are getting this help and it will put you at ease having help from someone with the forms.

 

P.S My Father's DLA(c and m) letter came through last week and his indefinate award remains with an increase as well so he is feeling better about it all now. I suppose being 68 at least he does not have to go through all this ATOS and PIP nonsense