DLA to PIP

later

Hi, I was wondering something with DLA.

I have an indefinite award. Mercifully I haven't been contacted yet, but I was wondering when I am contacted:

1. will I get much notice for my DLA stopping? Will I be told when my last payment will be?

2. If I apply for PIP (though I'm deaf so unlikely to get it) will they keep paying me DLA?

Thanks

GlasweJen

When you get the letter you have a date on the letter by which you must phone the DWP.

The phone call triggers them sending the form, this will come with a letter telling you which date they want the form back on.

You may or may not be sent for an assessment.

Once the decision maker comes to a decision you get 28 days worth of DLA, then your payments will either stop or change to PIP payments.

paragon909

later wrote: »

Hi, I was wondering something with DLA.

I have an indefinite award. Mercifully I haven't been contacted yet, but I was wondering when I am contacted:

1. will I get much notice for my DLA stopping? Will I be told when my last payment will be?

2. If I apply for PIP (though I'm deaf so unlikely to get it) will they keep paying me DLA?

Thanks

You only get DLA for people age under 16 now.

Your DLA will only stop once you have been assessed for PIP and a DWP decision makes a decision on the result of the medical. Other than your payments will continue to that day of the decision from DWP. You just need to wait until DWP contact you and invite you to apply for PIP.

w06

Worth knowing there is an email address that you can respond via and also New Generation Text Relay works to the PIP folk too. When I initiated my claim (DLA to PIP) the text relay wasn't set up yet and it was a bit of a faff by email - because it wasn't the norm, but it did work in the end.

I wouldn't dismiss getting PIP, I've other disabilities too but just with the points for being deaf I'd have been on standard rate daily living

later

Thanks guys. I'm just anxious for it all to happen. Mainly because I'm not having the best financial situation and am going back to uni in October!

Alice_Holt

Some info here:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/before-claiming/if-you-get-dla/

This may also be useful when the time comes to complete your PIP form:
https://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/supporting-you/benefits-and-personal-independence-payment.aspx
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip

These regulations will be important in getting a PIP award -
When your ability to carry out an activity is assessed, you are to be assessed as satisfying a descriptor only if you can do so–
(a) safely;
(b) to an acceptable standard;
(c) repeatedly; and
(d) within a reasonable time period.

You can find a full copy of the amended regs @
http://lawvolumes.dwp.gov.uk/the-law-relating-to-social-security/

From a discussion on rightsnet: http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/7963/

First Post "With regards to hearing impairments, the obvious Daily Living activity is 7. Communicating verbally.
8 points can be scored for needing communication support to understand/express basic information.

Consider ability to express AND understand information. If they lip read, is this consistent? How does this ability differ between strangers and people they know well. If they are not a BSL user, how do they communicate? Again, how does this differ between strangers and family? When they go to the GP, shopping etc. etc. how do they communicate? Who do they have with them? Do they limit or avoid their activities because they struggle to express themselves/understand others?

With regard to mobility activity 1 - the activity being assessed is the ability to plan and follow a journey. You can still score pts on this activity without a MH condition/cognitive impairment despite DWP stock phrasing.

Consider public transport e.g. information being communicated verbally over PA at a train station or on a train, disruptions to journey - would you be able to adequately ask for and understand help/directions etc?"


Another Post "I’m not convinced that the switch from DLA to PIP has necessarily caused a problem of itself. Usually it’s the lack of anecdotal supporting evidence on a claim pack that’s the real issue and, in the case of PIP, people saying they can do stuff when the real answer is no when they can’t do it repeatedly, reliably, safely and in a reasonable time. The move to functional tests within PIP has big advantages for the sensorily impaired so something else must be going wrong.

Putting aside the traditional emphasis on a hearing impairment leading to communication problems and issues with travel (which depresses the hell out of me as it’s a stereotype that, true or not, many would do well to move beyond) I would always be looking at stuff like the ability to read, understand and write English. Many with sensory impairments will struggle with basic tasks if BSL is their first language and English their second and if they don’t have BSL then it’s a leap to assume their English must consequently be okay.

I would therefore always be looking at planning and preparing food as well as budgeting. Same issues can impact on the ability to reliably take medication too. Can the claimant read food labels; use by dates; cooking instructions? Can they understand a utility bill and so on? Can they read the instructions on their meds? Can they understand food ingredients when shopping or indeed prices?

After that it’s just a case of providing anecdotal evidence. In other words, it’s not enough to assert “My hearing impairment causes me communication issues”. That’s an empty assertion. 2 or 3 examples of the last time it happened plus the who, what, when, where and how moves you from assertion to evidence. I always explain to clients that WROs are not fans of form filling either; nor do we have “magic” forms of words that will always work. It’s just about the anecdotal evidence supporting the assertions. If you don’t have the anecdotes you probably don’t have a claim.

Yes, I too can do sweeping generalisations "



Another Post "We won a PIP appeal for a deaf tenant in May 2015. The tenant is deaf from birth, has 2 hearing aids and lip-reads. Tenant works full time in a large company. No medical assessment was done. Tenant only scored 2 points (for use of hearing aids). MR did not change the decision.

Our ‘tribunal strategy’ was based on letting the tenant do the communications. the Tribunal was informed that the tenant lip-reads. First hurdle was that the Tribunal clerk did not lip-read and was unable to get simple info across (such as his name and role) to the tenant. I had to intervene (while thinking ‘good illustration of needing communication support to understand basic verbal info’). None of the Tribunal were good in lip-reading and after 10 minutes of questioning, we were sent out. The Tribunal decided on entitlement to Enhanced Daily Living (8 points for 7D and 4 points for 9C) and Standard Mobility (10 points for 1D). the Tribunal also said that it was inappropriate to fix a term.

We left about 30 minutes after the start time of the Tribunal with a decision.

We requested the Statement of Reasons. Some interesting points:

The basic flaw was that the HCP prepared the papers based upon the papers only.
It was extremely difficult to understand the evidence the appellant was giving because of the difficulty she encountered with speech as a result of her deafness.
The difficulty in communication has, as indicated by the appellant in her claim pack, to become wary of large groups of people because of the difficulty she has in communication. Consequently she needs support from another person to be able to engage socially face to face with other people.

re Mobility:
Has tried satellite navigation system but found not able to navigate safely as needed to look at the map on the satellite navigation system and at the same time keep her eyes on the road and not being able to hear the vocal instructions.
Cannot use public transport because of difficulty in communicating to the driver the desired destination and being unable to necessarily understand enquiries from the driver."



Hope this is useful when the time to transfer to PIP comes round.

Good Luck.

later

Alice you are AMAZING. Thank you so much xx