PIP Extension

Crazydennie

Received a surprise letter from DWP extending my PIP award from Jan 2023 to October 2023.  This surprised me as it is so far in the future and it was blaming COVID.  Called my brother who is also in receipt of PIP to ask if he had heard anything, as his award runs out in June this year.  He has heard nothing from them so my mum called and they confirmed his award is ending in June and he has to reapply. She waited an hour to talk to someone and was then told to reapply she needed to call a different number. to reapply.  I had read on here that people were receiving six-month extensions to their award due to COVID,  Is this no longer the case? 

calcotti

Some are but not all. Some awards have been extended but letters not yet issued.

[Deleted User]

My mums received a letter too this morning.

Hers has been extended until Sept 2026 even though she was awarded for 5 years which would have taken her to 2025. 

Maybe they expect a back log so are extending as a precaution? 

The letter does say “we suspended PIP award reviews because of covid” but then she wasn’t due a review for 4 years anyway? 

Are they extending everyone’s? 

poppy12345

If your brother was awarded by a Tribunal then this will explain why his award hasn't been extended. DWP can't extend an award made by a Tribunal and as advised, he will need to reapply, although DWP do send letters out about 14 weeks before the award is due to end asking you to reapply.

Although they are extending some awards this doesn't mean you won't still receive your review forms at the usual time (6 months before the original award date ends.

[Deleted User]

Is there a reason why they are extending awards like my mums that isn’t even due to end until October 2025 or are they just doing it as a precaution to people? Sorry if I’ve misunderstood what’s been said. Just seemed weird. 

Spoonie_Turtle

This is pure speculation on my part but in the absence of actually knowing what's going on behind the scenes, the only thing I can think of is if they are preparing for some kind of influx of claims, either new or changes of circumstances because of the impact of Covid.  There's Long Covid of course, but the mental health impact of the pandemic is huge (especially for NHS workers) and there is a non-covid physical health impact due to help being unavailable or inaccessible.  Long term we do not know when everyone will have been vaccinated, or the efficacy of the vaccine with the, ahem, revised schedule, so we don't know how long it's going to eventually go on for.  I am surprised to hear of awards being extended so far ahead and that is really the only thing I can think of, that they're covering themselves in case the workload does shoot up.

[Deleted User]

My mum received the letter this morning too. She got given a 5 year award so it’s not due to end until October 2025 and it’s been extended until September 2026. 

The letter mentions:

”We suspended PIP award reviews because of covid”

and 

“We have now begun reviewing PIP awards again and we may look at some awards later than we originally planned. To make sure that you still receive your payments we have extended your award”

I’m guessing they anticipate they might not be able to review on the anticipated review date that was set so they are extending them as a precaution maybe? 

calcotti

MarkN88 said: I’m guessing they anticipate they might not be able to review on the anticipated review date that was set so they are extending them as a precaution maybe? 

Exactly so. As poppy has already said, claimants should be aware that the reassessment may come much sooner than the new extended end date might imply. The extension is to avoid the risk of a claimant having their award stopped before DWP have had time to carry out a reassessment.

poppy12345

I do know that new claims are taking priority over reviews. The extended awards will confuse a lot of people and i'm sure there will be more threads regarding this over the coming months.

[Deleted User]

 Yup i got an extension letter giving me an extra year about 2 weeks ago. 

 Hubby got one extending his for 2 years, assume his longer extension is because its autism rather than a condition that might get better. 

poppy12345

_shel said:

assume his longer extension is because its autism rather than a condition that might get better. 

I had my award extended twice from October 2020 to April 2021 and then again to January 2022. My daughter has Autism and a learning disability and her award was extended from February 2021 to just November 2022. I received her review form just before Christmas. I did ring to ask for an extension to return it and they extended it by 1 month, which does help. I'm actually in the process of doing the last couple of questions.

This is her 2nd review in 2 years, makes no sense at all because her condition never changes and she's been exactly the same for quite a few years but they somehow think that someone with Autism and a learning disability will magically improve enough to be able to manage by theirself. Totally ridiculous really.