PIP review timeline and decision

Fl4sh84

Not sure if this is allowed but I spent alot of time searching for answers throughout my PIP review process so thought my journey may help answer a few questions for others.

I received my PIP review forms in September 2022, initiated by PIP. They were sent back and received by PIP on 23rd September 2022. In this form, I informed them of a change in my health and sent multiple evidence to support this.

On October 2022, I received a letter to say my PIP award had been extended to October 2023 while my review was being processed. I then didn't hear anything else from them until February 2023, in the form of a text stating they still had my claim and would process it as soon as possible.

I continued to receive this text every two months or so until I got a text on September 5th saying my claim had been passed to the assessment team. A few days later I got a letter with a telephone assessment date of 27th September 2023.

The assessment lasted around 30 minutes and at the end, the assessor told me what points she was recommending for me in my report. The next day I received a text to say they had received the report from the health professional.

16th October, I received my decision letter in the post (letter was dated 11th October) and both my daily living and mobility had been increased to the enhanced payment. The letter states they had awarded this from 23rd September 2022 and if I was owed any money they would write to me.

Yesterday, 23rd October 2023, I called PIP to ask for an update on this backdate payment to see if I was even getting it as I was under the impression reviews were not backdated. They told me I had been awarded a backdate because I had informed them of a change of circumstances and also because of the backlog delays, I should have been receiving these payments alot sooner. But they then told me my backdate had been sent to debt management! 

This confused me as, as far as I was aware, I didn't owe anything other than a budgeting advance, which only had one payment left anyway.

I decided to call debt management to see what I supposedly owe to be told I owe nothing and it shouldn't have been sent to them at all and they had already issued a refund of the full amount to me which I will receive in the next few days.

Apologies for the extra long post but I had a bit of everything during my journey and thought this may put a few people's minds at rest that after the long wait, and a few bumps it can all work out. 

Paulbnm

This sounds very similar to me, I ended up with nearly 18 months of back pay from standard to enhanced PIP for the same reason. The ‘debt recovery’ they mentioned was so they could check I didn’t already owe them money from another benefit. It’s very unlikely with PIP but with some benefits they might need to account for another benefit you got instead while waiting for a ‘review’ eg some people claim JSA while awaiting and ESA review or appeal. I would advise that If you have another benefit that relies on PIP or is increased due to it, like housing benefit or Council Tax Support make sure you send copies of all your new awards to the council, especially the ones covering April uprating as my council at least have a habit of not actioning info from PIP properly and suspending people’s payments, many councils use the same system.