DLA payment stopped and forced to wait 5 days for reply from PIP dept?

marko2002

Hello again all, my wife was expecting her DLA payment this week but rather surprisingly it didn't materialise. I called DLA to find out what happened and they told me because my wife had a pending application in for PIP we would need to contact them.

I did so, but they were none the wiser as to why DLA wasn't paid this week. Here's how the last payment happened ... on 29th July 2014 she received her normal payment of DLA, everything was fine. Then, on 5th August 2014 she received another £81.30 which equates to one week's high rate care component. I couldn't really understand why she had received that, so put it down to the fact she must have been owed it and we would likely receive a letter about it in due course.

So, as she doesn't receive the mobility part of her DLA in cash (because we have a motability car) this meant she should receive her next DLA payment 4 weeks after the additional £81.30 and 4 weeks from that date would bring us to 2nd September (2 days ago).

Eventually, the person from the PIP department figured that my wife's DLA was due to expire around 5th August which is why she received the extra weeks payment (i.e. her last payment). However this still didn't explain why her normal payments hadn't continued because even the PIP people could see by the notes we had done everything to the letter and her extension to continue receiving DLA was fine. The PIP person then explained she would need to pass this onto another department in PIP and it could take up to 5 days for someone to get back to us. They also went on to say my wife would likely be getting a decision regarding her PIP application within 4 weeks anyway which I found a little unusual and suspicious. Sounded to me as though it was the case that she may not be getting PIP given the DLA hadn't been paid?. She went on to say all the paperwork was in from her medical and healthcare professionals and she would hear from them within 4 weeks but regarding the missing payments we'd need to wait upto 5 days for someone to get back to us.

My first question is does this sound suspicious to anyone else, and secondly do we really need to wait 5 days because we really do rely heavily on this benefit and to potentially have to wait until Tuesday (5 working days) for as much as an answer seems to me to be ripping it slightly?!!.

As of posting this thread, we still haven't received a phone call or the much needed DLA.

As always, thanks a million for any advice in advance
Marko

marko2002

Phoned PIP again this morning in the hope someone could tell us something more, exactly the same answer, we will need to wait upto 5 days to be told why my wife's DLA payment hasn't been made. This really boils my blood when we all do everything to the letter to ensure we adhere to the rules and then for no reason at all they stop payments and make us wait unnecessarily for someone to get back to us !!. Surely they must be some department or governing body responsible for booting these people up the backside?

rogerblack

Surely they must be some department or governing body responsible for booting these people up the backside?

There is around 300 million pounds outstanding from people who are waiting for an assessment for PIP - some over 12 months.
ESA assessments for people reporting worsening conditions are in a similar state, and many millions are outstanding on those too.

In many cases, there is no remedy in the legal system - other than judicial review.
Which costs several thousand pounds to do - and in most cases is not appropriate.

5 days - lol.
(clearly - it is significant and should not happen - but... )
I do hope it's rapidly fixed.

marko2002

Thank for the reply Roger, I think I'm more annoyed in the sense that they have had to take action to stop my wife's payments as opossed to take action to initiate something, such as a new application. Then they make us wait for any form of explanation which to me just stinks of stalling tactics, my wife's award of DLA was ongoing pending her PIP decision which we still don't have, yet as I say, someone has had to interupt the normal payment process to halt it which is why we are particularly annoyed. I've no doubt they will take the five days and even then I wouldn't be surprised if I have to call back only to be given more nonsense which is why I was wondering where I may be able to take the matter after this. I'll obviously update the thread as and when I get more info myself
Marko

Groovee

I was under the impression DLA should still be paid until the PIP award comes through and gives you a date for it to end. I received a letter telling me what date my DLA would end and when my PIP would start. Very odd of them to not pay it on time.

rogerblack

Groovee wrote: »

I was under the impression DLA should still be paid until the PIP award comes through and gives you a date for it to end. I received a letter telling me what date my DLA would end and when my PIP would start. Very odd of them to not pay it on time.

That's not quite how it works in most cases.
Your case is migrated to PIP - then you - some time later (perhaps a year) get migrated over to PIP.
Your DLA award continues at the same rate until the PIP decision is made.

marko2002

Well the five days that we were made to wait came and went and still no call back from the PIP dept so I called them only to be told it was nothing to do with the PIP team because my wife had an extension of DLA so it should be the DLA people we were talking to. Can't believe they actually made us wait five days to tell us that!!.

Phoned the DLA team and explained the entire situation to them again and at that point the person on the other end of the phone said she would try and put me through to the relevant department ... why couldn't they have done this five days ago?. Long story short, she couldn't do it for some reason, she gave no explanation but said she would need to get someone to call me back and this could take a further 2 days. So through no fault of ours we have had to go without my wife's DLA payment, been made to wait 5 days for no reason and now we are expected to just wait a further 2 days, potentially longer if the PIP team are anything to go by.

I've already emailed my MP and he has passed my complaint on to a senior manager within the DWP apparently but I'm livid they can get away with this terrible treatment of people most in need. It even felt as if I was actually annoying them on the phone, I mean I'm not being unreasonable, I've remained pleasant and courteous throughout, unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been reciprocated very well by the people on the phone yesterday.

No idea what we can do if the payment isn't made this week, but we can't pay bills that were due and fortunately had ESA on Monday but we still rely heavily on my wife's DLA.

Any further advice greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Marko

GirlFromMars_2

Sorry to hear this, glad to hear you've got your MP involved though. The system is bad enough when it works, it shouldn't be breaking down as well!

marko2002

Well, we waited another 2 days for a response from the DLA department, and guess what? ..... nothing !!. I had to phone them back myself only to be told ..... nothing to do with us !!. Yep, once again, it's like table tennis, one department continues to pass the buck to another, and all the while there is still no sign of the overdue DLA payment.

So, phoned the PIP team again, explained the situation and low and behold someone actually recognised the issue!. The woman on the phone told me that my wife had been awarded PIP at the same level as her DLA so that was at least some relieving news, but she went on to say that because this award has only been made it should have been upto the DLA department to continue paying her money, but now she has migrated over to PIP they could look into it for her, but their payments wouldn't be starting until October some time, so we're still down an amount of DLA.

She raised this as a complaint herself and went on to say that even once a resolution was found, payment wouldn't likely be made for 3 days, so we're still looking at getting no DLA until next week (best case scenario) and if no resolution is found next week, then god knows when we'll eventually get it sorted but if next week comes and goes without this payment, my wife and I will be penniless, and I expect way overdue on our bills which means we'll likely be getting late fee's and as we pay for fuel by smart meters, well, actually I don't even want to have to contemplate that situation !

skintmacflint

Not too sure, but wonder if you could apply for a Short Term Benefit advance to keep you ticking over until you get the payment. Not sure if it applies to delayed disability payments but someone on the forum will know.

marko2002

skintmacflint wrote: »

Not too sure, but wonder if you could apply for a Short Term Benefit advance to keep you ticking over until you get the payment. Not sure if it applies to delayed disability payments but someone on the forum will know.

Wouldn't know the answer to that either, but we will need to contact someone next week if we don't receive this money as what we have left will be done by that time. It really is soul destroying to know these payments are being withheld iunnecessarily and there is nothing I can do, all I can do is wait and hope !