Complaints address for Pip, no reply from mandatory reconsideration form, Ignoring letters, autism

mrszebra

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me.  My son is in his 30's and has autism.  He's had DLA all of his life, he moved into his dads some years ago, his dad is rich and proud so actively encouraged life without benefits due to pride.  At a pip meeting he let my son go in on his own and he sat there saying he can do everything and doesn't need help.  My son was awarded 0.  My lad now lives in a council flat with support workers popping in a few hours a week to prompt with everything, literally needs reminding to wash, cut nails the list goes on.  We tried to reapply for PIP in March and he got 0 again, I filed for a mandatory reconsideration and had no response, I wrote months later to complain and no response.  Does anyone know what the next step is?  Sorry this is a long post, I worry for his future when I'm not around.

tacpot12

The complaint is probably stuck in a long queue of complaints that the DWP will struggling to process due to staff absences. I expect you will get a reply in time. However, if your son won't tell the DWP that he needs help, it's not the DWP's fault that they assessed him as not needing help, so I don't think that you complaint is going to achieve mch. You might get further if your son was to make you his appointee for benefits. Then you could speak on his behalf and they would have to take the information you supply into account. 

You could write to your MP to ask them to find out what happened to the MR. Your son should have had a reply to the MR. Is it possible that your son received a response and disposed of it, or his father did?

In terms of long-term oversight of your son's benefits, you and your son need to find someone you can both trust to look after his interests if anything we to happen to you. You need this person to ask your son to make them his appointee if anything happens to you. 

calcotti

Complaints are being given very low priority.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

DWP is taking steps to make sure we can continue to deliver essential services, while protecting the wellbeing of our staff and our customers. 
Our priority is to make sure customers continue to receive their payments and to process new benefit claims. 
Unfortunately, this may affect the delivery of some other services. This includes responding to complaints, which may take us longer than usual. In these exceptional circumstances, we ask anyone who has already submitted a complaint to be patient and we will respond to you as soon as we can.

calcotti

Have you been able to confirm that DWP have the MR on the system?

Alice_Holt

Make sure the MR has arrived with the DWP (and no MRN issued), and then involve your MP.
Have you a copy and proof of posting?

I suggest your son sees if his local advice agency can help with the appeal. 

peteuk

Is your son under any specialist secondary care or medication, does he have a care plan or evidence from his support worker. It doesn't go just on what is said at the assessment, any supporting evidence provided is taken into account. Sadly the threshold for DLA and PIP are completely different and just because he was getting DLA doesn't automatically mean he will get PIP. Very easy to discount problems with no secondary care input, nil medication and no evidence of care plan.

Spoonie_Turtle

peteuk said:

Is your son under any specialist secondary care or medication, does he have a care plan or evidence from his support worker. It doesn't go just on what is said at the assessment, any supporting evidence provided is taken into account. Sadly the threshold for DLA and PIP are completely different and just because he was getting DLA doesn't automatically mean he will get PIP. Very easy to discount problems with no secondary care input, nil medication and no evidence of care plan.

This is sometimes true for mandatory reconsiderations but in reality is seldom true for the initial decisions on claims.  Decision Makers almost always just go along with the assessment report in the first instance.

mrszebra

tacpot12 said:

The complaint is probably stuck in a long queue of complaints that the DWP will struggling to process due to staff absences. I expect you will get a reply in time. However, if your son won't tell the DWP that he needs help, it's not the DWP's fault that they assessed him as not needing help, so I don't think that you complaint is going to achieve mch. You might get further if your son was to make you his appointee for benefits. Then you could speak on his behalf and they would have to take the information you supply into account. 

You could write to your MP to ask them to find out what happened to the MR. Your son should have had a reply to the MR. Is it possible that your son received a response and disposed of it, or his father did?

In terms of long-term oversight of your son's benefits, you and your son need to find someone you can both trust to look after his interests if anything we to happen to you. You need this person to ask your son to make them his appointee if anything happens to you. 

Hi, I forgot to put into my original post, when he reapplied he told them as it was, poor fine motor skills, speech and all about the  interventions he's had over the years.  I feel they are saying no now based on his previous application from when he was living at his dads.

mrszebra

calcotti said:

Have you been able to confirm that DWP have the MR on the system?

I haven't, I've no response, the MR was sent signed for, I've tried calling but they never answer the phone, I waited 45 mins today and gave up.

mrszebra

peteuk said:

Is your son under any specialist secondary care or medication, does he have a care plan or evidence from his support worker. It doesn't go just on what is said at the assessment, any supporting evidence provided is taken into account. Sadly the threshold for DLA and PIP are completely different and just because he was getting DLA doesn't automatically mean he will get PIP. Very easy to discount problems with no secondary care input, nil medication and no evidence of care plan.

My son went to both special schools and special college, he is with the disability team and has support workers for a few hours a week.  He refuses to take medication which I understand.

poppy12345

Sending anything "signed for or next day delivery" is a complete waste of money. It's signed for by someone from Royal Mail, not someone from DWP and it could be anywhere in the sorting office building.

How long ago did you send the letter requesting the MR? When ringing PIP the best time to ring them is as soon as they open and even then sometimes you have to wait as long as 1 hour for someone to answer.