Removal of PIP appointee

iampetesmith

Hi, my wife has been claiming PIP for a few years since she lived at home with her parents and her mother is her appointee. It's a bit of a long story, but her mother now just cares for her 2 disabled sons who still live with her and is the appointee for their PIP as well (and gets their money into her bank account, but my wife gets hers into her own). Back in January, her mother met a new boyfriend and disappeared to live with him for months on end, leaving the 2 disabled sons on their own. My wife ended up going back there to look after them, as the mother had vanished.

Now obviously, this didn't go unnoticed and social services got involved to try and sort it all out. Her mother came back a couple of weeks ago after the boyfriend finished with her and has caused nothing but trouble since. She's blamed us all for her boyfriend finishing with her, and is now hell bent on revenge. The main threat now is that she says she's going to call the PIP and get my wife's money stopped as she's the appointee.

We've called PIP ourselves twice, once was last week where we explained what was going on and they said they would write to her to ask if she agrees to relinquish it. They also put a note on the account to not make any changes after we told them about the threats. We called again today to check what was going on and all they said was that they can only speak to her because she's the appointee and they'd chase her again as she hadn't responded to the letter.

The problem is, she's doing all this out of spite so she won't voluntarily relinquish the appointeeship and she will try to get the money stopped or changed back into her bank account. Is there anything we can do to revoke it and what will they do now?

She won't relinquish it, she's using it as a threat to get my wife's money stopped out of spite and she seems to be ignoring their letters. Is there a time limit before they just take it off her? It needs to be removed as my wife has been living with me for about 6 years and doesn't need an appointee anymore anyway.

TELLIT01

I would have thought the fact that the daughter is now married to you would be enough to override the historic appointeeship.  I'm amazed that it's still in place.  Did you make PIP aware that you have been married for x years?

poppy12345

Once the appointeeship is in place it won't automatically be removed unless requested to do so. The claimant can contact DWP to request this but the appointee will also need to agree to this.

Edit to add, i just found this. https://www.moneycarer.org.uk/faqs/appointeeship/how-can-someone-change-an-appointee.html

iampetesmith

I haven't told them about the length of the marriage yet, but they know she's married as they have her married name and her address is down as ours. It just feels like we can't do a lot about it, and we're stuck with her on it as the mother will never agree to be removed and can now cause all sorts of issues out of spite.

If she phones up and changes the money to go back into her own account, I'm guessing we can have her done for fraud as it's not her money. I'm not sure if she can just stop the claim either without them speaking to or assessing my wife first. There must be some protection there for people in this position, where the appointee has gone rogue and is using their power to control and abuse.

All I know is, they've written to her and if she doesn't respond then they have a team that deal with it, but I don't know how long they give her to not respond before they revoke it anyway.

She also kept my wife's money after we got married for about a year, telling her she didn't get it anymore once she was married. We only found out when I got made redundant and went to the job centre, they mentioned her claim and we didn't know anything about it. When we confronted her, she just phoned up and changed it to go into my wife's bank, probably because she was scared of being done for fraud.

She is just downright nasty and will try every trick in the book to get the money stopped or changed just out of petty revenge, so there's no way she will just relinquish it, it will need to be taken from her kicking and screaming.

Brie

Can't help at all as it's completely outside of my area of expertise but it does sound like the boyfriend had a lucky escape.

Hope you manage to sort it all eventually.

Robbie64

DWP guidance on appointees, including where the custoser wishes to revoke an appointee

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procedures-for-dealing-with-agents-appointees-attorneys-deputies-and-third-parties/part-5-appointee

calcotti

iampetesmith said:

...doesn't need an appointee anymore anyway.

If she doesn’t need an appointee you just need evidence that she is now capable of managing her own affairs.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procedures-for-dealing-with-agents-appointees-attorneys-deputies-and-third-parties/part-5-appointee#revoking-an-appointment
See 5400 to 5402

iampetesmith

Brie said:

Can't help at all as it's completely outside of my area of expertise but it does sound like the boyfriend had a lucky escape.

Hope you manage to sort it all eventually.

We only met him a couple of times, but then she went off to live with him and carried on claiming for her sons (and keeping their money). She sent us her debit card details so we could order shopping as they weren't left with any money, then when she came back she reported the card for fraud. Bearing in mind that two lots of her disability payments are supposed to be for them anyway, but she reported that over a week ago and we haven't heard anything since. I think they know she's given her details out, but that's another mess she got us in when she came back.

Now she's threatening to stop the PIP and we're just not sure how much power she actually has over it, even though they've put a note on there not to make any changes until it's resolved. We just need her to be revoked from it so that she's no longer an appointee, but I get the feeling it's not quite that simple.

TELLIT01

Appointeeship can be removed without the agreement of the current appointee.  It's a long time since I was involved in that area so can't provide details of how, just that it can be done.

Spoonie_Turtle

It's another thing to throw into the mess but upping and leaving two vulnerable adults to fend for themselves is at the very least negligent, if not criminal.  I don't know who ought to be informed of that but she sounds like a real risk to them.

I don't have any help to add for your wife's situation but I wish you both all the best in trying to extricate her from this woman's abusive control.

tomtom256

Any DWP officer of grade EO or above can remove the appointee, if either the person they where an appointee can now manage their own affairs, wants another appointee or if the appointee is not acting within the best interests of the person.

It's in ADM and I think was linked above. Send an official written request to the relevant benefit office and maybe get your MP involved.