Won a tribunal over 5 months ago....no response from DWP. What next? 28 February 2021 at 4:39PM in Disability money matters 33 replies 1.2K views

dixieeh

I have been in receipt of DLA for 15+ years, and in 2018 I started the process to transfer PIP (at the DWP’s request). I was on DLA medium care and high mobility. 

In February 2019 the DWP halted my payments (I was on DLA at that point) and, long story short, I won the court tribunal in September 2020. 

Since then all I’ve had is:

(a) a copy of a letter requesting the tribunal judge’s justification for the decision 

(b) a letter stating an assessor will be in contact with me.

I have not started receiving any payments yet so I have followed this up with recorded letters (still no response) and am contacting my local MP this week. Is there any advice you can give please?

 Am I right in assuming that I should receive backdated payments to February 2019 when the DWP stopped the payments? I won the tribunal over 5 months ago and I am shocked and disappointed that the payments have not resumed. It is saddening having to rely on my parents not only for my physical daily needs, but also financially.

Additionally, due to this delay I have been unable to apply for the warm home heating subsidy or help with things like the car tax subsidy that I was previously entitled to. Is there any way of applying retrospectively so I am not out of pocket for this?

Thank you.

[Deleted User]

dixieeh said:

I have been in receipt of DLA for 15+ years, and in 2018 I started the process to transfer PIP (at the DWP’s request). I was on DLA medium care and high mobility. 

In February 2019 the DWP halted my payments (I was on DLA at that point) and, long story short, I won the court tribunal in September 2020. 

Since then all I’ve had is:

(a) a copy of a letter requesting the tribunal judge’s justification for the decision 

(b) a letter stating an assessor will be in contact with me.

I have not started receiving any payments yet so I have followed this up with recorded letters (still no response) and am contacting my local MP this week. Is there any advice you can give please?

 Am I right in assuming that I should receive backdated payments to February 2019 when the DWP stopped the payments? I won the tribunal over 5 months ago and I am shocked and disappointed that the payments have not resumed. It is saddening having to rely on my parents not only for my physical daily needs, but also financially.

Additionally, due to this delay I have been unable to apply for the warm home heating subsidy or help with things like the car tax subsidy that I was previously entitled to. Is there any way of applying retrospectively so I am not out of pocket for this?

Thank you.

 Sounds like they are appealing. So you are waiting on the Courts. No backpay whilst that's going on. 

poppy12345

I would agree with shel here and it sounds like they found an error in law when they received the Statement of Reasons. They very rarely appeal the decision but it can and does happen. Whist this is going ahead you will not receive any payments but this process can take well in excess of 1 year. All you can do is wait but you may receive a letter from HMCTS at some point.

dixieeh

Thanks for the responses. It's been over 2 years already since they stopped the payments and it's really tough.
Don't the DWP have a certain number of days within which to appeal the court's decision? The court's decision was 5 months ago and I have not been informed of an appeal in that time, but then again I've not heard anything at all so I don't know what is going on. Hopefully the MP can help. Any other suggestions please do let me know.

[Deleted User]

 Have you rang or written and asked? 

dixieeh

_shel said:

 Have you rang or written and asked? 

Written and asked via recorded mail, mainly because I'm exhausted and confused by the time I finally get through to someone. With a letter my Dad can help me go through it and it'll make more sense and get to the point without wiping me out.

poppy12345

They have 1 month from the date of the decision to request the statement of reasons but it can take many months for the Judge to write this because they will only do this in their spare time because it's takes a lot to write that and it's only written if requested. Once this is sent then DWP have another month to appeal the decision.

DWP may not even write to you to tell you they've requested the SOR.

When you received a letter to say an assessor will be in contact with you, who was this from?

Have you even rang DWP to ask what's happening and why it's taking so long?

You mention a "heating subsidy" do you mean the warm home discount? If so then applications will have already closed now and i beleive it's now ended completely, unless they extend it another year.

Spoonie_Turtle

dixieeh said:

_shel said:

 Have you rang or written and asked? 

Written and asked via recorded mail, mainly because I'm exhausted and confused by the time I finally get through to someone. With a letter my Dad can help me go through it and it'll make more sense and get to the point without wiping me out.

I have no advice for you but I totally sympathise with this bit!  Even when I've written down what I'm phoning about, finding the words can be a huge struggle, let alone process what they are saying on the other end.  I usually put the phone on speaker on minimum volume (and I'm laying down or reclining) until I actually get through to anyone.  Don't know if that might help at all, or if maybe one of your parents could phone for you and only pass it over to you once someone picks up.  Just if your letters have had zero response, phoning may be the only way of finding anything out.

poppy12345

They don't always answer letters so may not be the best idea to do that. Also sending recorded mail is justa waste of money in my opinion because it still has to go through the same mail sorting process as standard mail. It's also signed for by someone at the mail sorting office and not someone from DWP and is not classed as arriving until it's added to the computer.

I'd 2nd the advice to ask someone to ring on your behalf but you will of course need to go through security first.

Although they are most likely appealing the decision which is the reason for the delay in paying.

Spoonie_Turtle

poppy12345 said:

I'd 2nd the advice to ask someone to ring on your behalf but you will of course need to go through security first.

Parents can still give the details at the start of the call, it's not until you speak to a human that they ask security questions

poppy12345

Spoonie_Turtle said:

poppy12345 said:

I'd 2nd the advice to ask someone to ring on your behalf but you will of course need to go through security first.

Parents can still give the details at the start of the call, it's not until you speak to a human that they ask security questions

Well obviously when going thorugh security it would be with a human