PIP Update and story

Hoogle

Hello all, I had an ESA assessment back in July where the assessor at the time appeared to be ignorant to my condition and had no understanding, which wound me up Asperger syndrome along with other multiple health conditions including personality disorder. She stopped the assessment and said I would not have to attend another assessment and advised I should be applying for PIP as well. I was shocked at how her attitude changed when she saw me in my "worst day" scenario needless to say I got my ESA in Support group.

Applied for Pip on 2nd of August and care workers and health team advised to not do a f2f interview due to issues it would cause me (in hindsight maybe for the short f2f time with them actually meeting me it may have been better long term) plod along to October i start phoning up chasing up decision weekly eventually find out i had been rejected and decision was made nearly 3 weeks prior only leaving me 1 week to get my MR which I had sent off with their permission without even being able to use their report to go off. I have been chasing this up every week sometimes twice a week just to be told it was with the assessors and a decision had not been made but I would hear by the 15th December.

15th December arrives I had not heard anything so phone up to see what the outcome was and I was told after almost 45 mins of trying to get through that it was still with the assessor and that I should not have been given a date for the decision to be made by. Now I am not sure if that really is the case but I have aspergers and I know for a fact she said I would know by the 15th my care worker was also witness to it as we use speaker. And me not being a patient man especially if I am expecting something to be done by a certain time I take things very literally for example if you say i will be there in a min then i will time that 60 seconds and get wound up if your not here. So of course I got very angry with them on the phone and escalated it to speak to a manager. The manager looked into my case and said yes it is with assessors we sent for further info from your gp for a factual report and they have not responded request was made on 29th november and they have until 27 dec to return it. Now I may not be as socially aware as others but I know anything over the next month from now is going to be snail pace as everyone shuts down for christmas and new year, then back log kicks in for clearing.

I then phone GP to see why they have not sent requested information as I had warned them prior that they may be contacted by DWP for further medical reports but GP surgery said they had not received any request but would get their report writer to call me back to make sure. SHe did 5 mins later and she also said they had not received any further requests.... SO now I am fuming knowing I have like 1 week to get a report and sent back to dwp and the doctors game me her direct fax number for them to send the request again.

I phone DWP back now getting just past 4pm get through, ignore the usual person that answers and said got the manager again who looked deeper into my file that said yep the assessor is waiting for report from GP so asked how could that be the case when they have not even sent a request the manager was like I dont know we dont have that info. SO i bulked up all my anger and used it to good (normally a pushover) Telling the guy your telling me my whole claim expires in 10 days as your waiting for further information from my GP which you have not even requested, on top of that why do you need info from GO my GP referred me to specialist team and I have had senior psychological consultants working with me yet your choosing to ignore their reports and in writing state I am a good candidate for PIP payment and waiting on a specialist input from my GO who has had very little to do with my care and treatment. I managed to get the assessors phone number from him and was surprised to find out it was capita (luckily a direct line so no queue at 4.30pm).

Capita Answer the phone doing security checks and tell me they have received everything they needed used the specialist report and sent it all back and closed my case on 8th December and the DWP had everything back to make the decision on. I double checked it clearly stating so you are not waiting on any gp reports or any further evidence, you have looked at my claim again since Mandatory Reconsideration and it is not just closed from original form claim and she was really nice and said whole heartedly my case was closed at this stage. ( I have little faith in Capita as I was shocked to only get 2 points from original form claim and none of the further evidence was mentioned in my report)

Back to DWP 5pm straight through this time back to conflict resolution manager Stated chronological facts for whole claim and mis told information today etc etc and wanted to raise a complaint to a higher level as I feel I have been lied to just being passed around, was expecting a decision today and at the moment I feel like it is in limbo DWP are waiting on information from Capita, Capita are waiting on info from GP, GP has not received any request, Capita have closed the case, DWP are sitting there waiting for info that is not coming, and I have no decision made nor am i ever going to get 1 as no one knows what is going on. SHe gave me a direct number as it 17.20 now and she was in on saturday and monday so will chase it up and get an answer for me on case status and where it is at.... Ok not what I wanted but knowing all these notes on the system must go towards ssomething if they contact me and say I failed to supply information in time etc...

17.45 I go back into my flat upset some of my support workers as i was not coping well not really appreciating the fact they finished at 4.30 but stayed to help me out but i was to wound up to acknowledge that.. 17.55 knock on my door as my support worker came to tell me the DWP had phoned her back and said I had been awarded PIP and would they would draft the letter out tomorrow (saturday). Of course she did not ask what I actually had been awarded, or when I would be paid so that is in limbo but she did not ask how I have just spent 3 hours constantly on the phone getting bounced around to suddenly being told I have been awarded it.... A mystery that will never be solved I am sure.

TLDR:
Summed up after a long time if being messed around I was awarded PIP yet not sure what rate and when I will be paid
So anyone like to have a guess if I would be paid in time for Christmas

poppy12345

I got rather bored half way through that essay, sorry.

Well done on the award although a more simple story would have made it less boring. Once payment has been made it takes 3 working days to hit your bank. No one here can tell you when payment was made, ring them back Monday morning and ask when you're likely to recieve the money. Friday/Saturday are the last paying days before Xams.

[Deleted User]

I have aspergers and like you find some situations difficult to cope with. In my case I have a bit of a housing saga going on. After a couple of incidents of me getting extremely stressed and 'acting up' my support worker (social services not a PA) is now dealing with housing for me. Its slower but means I am not causing untoward incidents/arguments nor am I looking for a high bridge.

Well done for dealing with it, usual ineptitude with these people, and glad you have got some kind of result. BUT if its stressing you out this much, far far better to hand the situation over to your support worker.

I hope you get some money before Christmas.