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poppy12345

You're right and your award should have been extended. You need to ring them but do be aware waiting times could be long when ringing.

JessicaF_2

Ostrava said:

poppy12345 said:

You're right and your award should have been extended. You need to ring them but do be aware waiting times could be long when ringing.

Hiya Poppy. Yeah I've already had to call twice this morning. First time I waited half an hour then the advisor cut me off during the call and didn't ring me back! Then I had to wait another half hour. Currently 20 minutes waiting on my third call. 

I'm just wondering. My form had to be in by March 19th, but the government said the benefits extension was effective from March 24th. I wonder if they will say because they already sent my claim off to the assessors before March 24th that the claim is out of their hands. But the actual claim end date was April 10th, so it seems to me it's the DWP's responsibility to fix this.

I believe there are some issues where the award was made by a Tribunal rather than DWP. There is a discussion about the issue on the Advisers website Rightsnet: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/15981/ 

Jess 

vitaweat

Ostrava said:

Just finished the call. The first advisor I spoke to said all claims had been extended by 6 months. I was then passed to a case manager who said that because the forms had already been sent off I'm not eligible for an extension. I told her that I should be eligible, as the government announced the extensions would be valid from March 24th, and my claim ended on April 10th. They could not agree to anything on the phone and are going to call me back later. I'd appreciate any advice in the meantime. I feel like I am definitely in the right here.

It does sound like you're in the right.

I'm not an expert but I'd just like to wish you all the best with this.  It must be hard.

[Deleted User]

I’ve seen lots of people say the same on FaceBook that they have been told of it was awarded via tribunal it would be included in the three month extension.

calcotti

Ostrava said:

Just had the call back. They are refusing to extend my PIP award, on the basis that the tribunal decision gave a specific end date, and that they are powerless to extend this date. I told them that this distinction was not made by the government when it made the announcement about the extensions, and I asked for the specific wording of the advice given to the DWP. She said there was no specific advice in relation to tribunal awards with a fixed end date. I then asked why she was not extending my award, given that there was no specific advice regarding such cases. At this point she just kept reading out the guidance for new claims and the call went round in circles. I will now write to my MP as I don't see any other option at this point. Frankly I'm disgusted.

Unfortunately the DWP may be correct that because the award was made by a tribunal the DWP cannot extend it. refer to the discussion linked to in the post made JessicaF_2. Government announcements (and even their public guidance) do not include all of the details.

calcotti

Ostrava said:...my claim had been sent to "independent assessment provider" whoever that is, and that I would have to wait until I heard from them. I have not received any mail regarding this at all.

The IAP is the organisation that prepares a medical assessment on behalf of the DWP to inform their decision making. Usually this involves face to face assessment but these are of course currently suspended. They are supposed to be trying to prepare the reports based on the paper evidence and/or by speaking to you on the phone but this will not always be possible. 
The DWP used to send out the renewal forms/invitations about a year before the end of an award which was much too soon. More recently they have only be sending them out about 14 weeks before the end which is too late because they often taken longer than that to reach a decision (seven before coronavirus). 
The problem wouldn't arise if PIP was set up like ESA to be ongoing until reassessed instead of having a definite end date.

cattie

Good luck, usually getting an MP involved can really help to get a positive result. 

elsien

Well done - perseverance can pay off, although not always as quickly as we might like.