DWP Home Visit - what to expect??

WillyWonga

Hi all,

Had a letter today to say a home visit is planned for Monday next week by DWP.

I have been claiming DLA on behalf of my son and he reaches 16 in the next couple of months. His DLA expired on his 16th birthday but had a letter to say will be extended a year whilst claim for PIP is looked at when forms eventually come out. A letter came at end of December asking if my son was capable of handling his own affairs. I replied no and put myself down as the person to be acting. The letter received today was addressed to him saying that as I put myself down as acting he wanted to see me and my son and provide 2 forms of ID each.

Has anyone had one of these visits? I just want to get myself prepared for anything they may ask - ie will they be taking details of a possible PIP claim and assessing my son or is it just an ID check to cut down on benefit fraud??

Many thanks in advance.

nannytone_2

its normal for DWP to visit when someone is claiming as an appointee.
they have to be satisfied that your son needs you to arrange his finances for him

chickens11

I also had a letter like yours when I had to do my husbands money affairs when he had a stroke , we both had to sign various forms so that all future mail would be addressed to me , plus they wanted to confirm that he couldnt deal with his own affairs....

kingfisherblue

I had a visit last year, about three months before my son turned 16. The lady who came was very pleasant and the visit lasted about 20 minutes. We chatted a little about my son's capabilities with money (non-existent), and I gave a couple of examples of his maths (for example, he had some homework where he had to give the answers for 1p above, 1p below, 10p above and 10p below the value of 81p. He managed 1p above 81p equalled 82p, but that was with a great deal of help from me).


I wasn't asked to provide the above, but as he had the work at home anyway, I showed it to her. The visit went very smoothly and she agreed that my son couldn't manage his own money. She explained my legal obligations and I signed a form to become his appointee. There wasn't even time for a cuppa.

TELLIT01

Not even time for a cuppa??!! That woman needs reporting, she'll be giving Civil Servants a bad name, after all they do nothing all day except sit drinking tea :-)

toomuchinfo

I had one of these when my son turned 16 too.
The visiting officer was very nice. My son was very agitated so she said she'd seen enough to make her decision and my husband took my son out.
For the rest of her visit she explained my responsibilities as Appointee and filled in the forms which I signed. A few days later I got my Appointee form through the post.

WillyWonga

Many thanks for info.

Appointment lasted all of 10 mins. Asked my son if he was good with money and forms to which he replied "no". Explained was taken out of mainstream school due to problems and doing foundation studies at college when should have been doing his GCSEs this year.

Guy said would appoint me as appointee and signed a couple of forms and to await the PIP form in the post sometime this year. He says DLA got extended for a year as a huge backlog in claims.

Lets hope these forms are more user friendly than the DLA ones, somehow I am not hoping too much .......

nannytone_2

dont try to fill these forms out by yourself.
either go to CAB, DIAL or welfare rights ( if your local council has one)

disabled_NCIS_fan

WillyWonga my mum filled out PIP forms for my sister the other month. She said they were far easier for her to do than DLA. There was more room for her to write stuff and the tick box questions had an it varies option. Plus there was no questions been asked in different ways a dozen or so times. She made sure she photocopied it too. This way if anything gets "lost" she has the back up.