Why does the PIP process take so long and what are the steps?

Catlover777

It's important to me to claim PIP and I am wondering why it takes so long.

Also, what is the exact process that happens on both ends?

Sure, there are a lot of people that need to be dealt with, but it just sounds so unrealistic.

How difficult can it be to just make the few phone calls, send all the medical evidence in, have everything fully assessed and then have a decision made.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Sncjw

It takes time for the reports to be sent from docs, I really don't understand how people fake it when they need doctors reports and medical evidence. That is what I really don't understand.

I tried to claim dla when it phasing out but I was told I need help but not enough help. Surely that means I need help.

rogerblack

Catlover777 wrote: »

It's important to me to claim PIP and I am wondering why it takes so long..

Number of people with new claims for PIP * amount they will gain at the assessment per week * delay = several hundred million pounds the government is borrowing from PIP claimants.

GirlFromMars_2

rogerblack wrote: »

Number of people with new claims for PIP * amount they will gain at the assessment per week * delay = several hundred million pounds the government is borrowing from PIP claimants.

There really should be penalties for the government for taking so long to make decisions. I'm owed about £500 at the moment.

The amount of money they set benefit rates at is, the amount of money they have decided that people NEED per week. How on earth they think these claimants are coping for months on less money than the NEED is beyond me.

Incidentally none of my back payments have been that large, but what happens when a backdated benefit payment puts someone over the savings threshold? As I'm certain this happens in many cases.

On the plus side, the DWP have helped me save over the past year and a half with £2000 in total being paid significantly later than I was supposed to have needed it.

Sunshinesusie3

For as much as individuals believe their health conditions meet PIP descriptors and have medical evidence to support this the government can't afford for everybody to be awarded it.

So, to sort the wheat from the chaff as it were, they initially insisted that almost all claimants, including some with terminal illnesses, required a face to face assessment.

They didn't want anybody from the NHS to do this, so have contracted the role out to private companies. These companies said they would recruit healthcare professionals to undertake the assessments.

Unfortunately they haven't been able to recruit sufficient and so there's a long wait until claimants are given an assessment date, often miles from their home that may well be cancelled either before or after they turn up.

The assessment has to be written up as a report and returned to the private company which then, depending on the experience of the HCP, has to be audited, then sent to the DWP. This can be hours, days or weeks.

The DWP then has to make a decision based on the report and supporting medical evidence whether or not a payment can be made. Sometimes even though the report has been audited it may not be clear and there's a bit of to-ing and fro-ing between DWP and the private company and maybe doctors etc. after everything is clear a decision maker at DWP will decide if the claimant is warded and at which level. They can decide to telephone or write with this info.

It should be much quicker but then that may encourage more people to apply and in turn not save the government any money or allow private companies to profit from public service contracts.

rogerblack

Sunshinesusie3 wrote: »

Unfortunately they haven't been able to recruit sufficient and so there's a long wait until claimants are given an assessment date, often miles from their home that may well be cancelled either before or after they turn up.

This had to have been a conscious choice.
It was known how long pilot were taking, and the rate at which new DLA applications were made.

Switching all new claims of DLA over to PIP -when it was known there were problems with the assessment - was not an accident.

Sunshinesusie3

rogerblack wrote: »

This had to have been a conscious choice.
It was known how long pilot were taking, and the rate at which new DLA applications were made.

Switching all new claims of DLA over to PIP -when it was known there were problems with the assessment - was not an accident.

Seeing as they decided to go straight ahead with a full roll out to new claimants before the pilot claims had gone through the end to end process I'm not sure they knew how long pilot claims took. By going live before the statistics could be produced could allow the government to claim ignorance and surprise maybe?

Surely if they had gone end to end IDS would have been prevented from authorising the roll out? As it is he's been able to mislead and hide behind vague statistics claiming he's working in the best interest of disabled people and tax payers, suggesting the delays are evidence that they're getting it right by taking their time.

Catlover777

Thanks for all of the great responses, and I agree with the fact that the government specifically make the process long and tedious in order to weed people out (not only those wrongfully claiming) in order to save more money.

Whether this is morally right or not, I'm not sure - it may be absolutely necessary but it makes things difficult for those of us that absolutely need this help.

I just hope that my claim takes a relatively short amount of time in comparison to the 1 year timescale stated.

TELLIT01

Catlover777 wrote: »

I agree with the fact that the government specifically make the process long and tedious in order to weed people out (not only those wrongfully claiming) in order to save more money.

I think you are reading too much into the reasons for the process taking so long. Quite simply government has been unable to recruit sufficient Health Care Professionals to do the examinations but, as usual with government actions, they ploughed ahead regardless.
Nothing seems to have been learnt from ESA when the same problem of recruitment and/or retention were experienced. Surely it's not rocket science to realise that, if there weren't enough people to do the ESA assessments, bringing in another system which also required people with the expertise to do medical assessments the situation could only get worse.

lemontart

When I applied November last year it was passed to Capita who at the time had only just advertised for staff to cover the area I lived in. So basically were not actually ready to do the job they were contracted to do. The actual amount of time to do assessment was underestimated and not enough staff employed. That is a very minor part of it leading to a lot of folks waiting up to a year.........mine took exactly 39 weeks from day I called to day I got letter of decision. It was getting to stage where even though I want to move to single level living my hand was being forced so to say due to finacial issues and that in turn made me worse in some ways health wise.

Horseunderwater

If IDS & crew stopped their blithering - fixed the system, so that those needing got their needs sorted the benefits system might actually do what it was meant to do. Ain't rocket science. If 40% were assessed on paper evidence alone (GP consultants etc) then the more complex cases could be looked at better. I have yet to go down the PIP route but I am expecting it by year end to begin.