PIP review - GP sent questionnaire by DWP

MrsBrooks13

My PIP review telephone assessment is next week (review form returned January 2023 following extension to original award of six months). Original award for daily living was 11 points, so by no means did I ‘scrape through’ then and I have suffered further deterioration forcing me to give up my career in the interim. Anyway, I saw my GP today on an unrelated matter and he showed me a questionnaire he had been sent by DWP in connection with my PIP claim. I was surprised at this because:

 a) I sent a lot of supporting medical evidence with my review form, including my patient summary record from the GP, Consultant reports, Occupational Therapy reports and Ill health retirement reports, all clearly confirming my diagnoses and detailing my associated difficulties; and

 b) most advice on forums such as this suggests DWP don’t usually contact your GP. 

Sounds like DWP are upping their game. Not a bad thing - but don’t assume just because you put together a comprehensive application/review form and provide lots of supporting evidence that they won’t be seeking further information!

peteuk

All PIP assessments are triaged prior to assessment, this way it is decided if a paper assessment or full assessment is required.   One of the options is to get more info from your gp. However once this extra information is received then it goes through triage again.

It seems strange that your gp should get a request so close to your assessment, given that even if they completed the form today it is unlikely to be received by the time your assessment.  Could it be that the requests have crossed?

poppy12345

MrsBrooks13 said:

 b) most advice on forums such as this suggests DWP don’t usually contact your GP. 

It is rare for them to contact anyone but this doesn't mean they never do this, it does happen sometimes.

HillStreetBlues

My first claim (DLA) they contacted my surgery, A doctor  who I've never seen answered unknown to near every question and claimed the fee!
Can see why they don't normally bother.

MrsBrooks13

Thanks for your observations and comments. I think it’s good that they check these things out; I’m just surprised given the extent of detail in the specialist reports I provided from a variety of consultants and therapists, in addition to the GP patient report summary that they felt the need to contact the GP. The info requested from him was far more basic than the detail provided by the specialist doctors/therapists. So the triage system doesn’t seem to have worked in this instance! It seems a futile exercise to involve the GP when presented with such evidence from specialists. Especially as it is a review - a lot of info was supplied in my initial application three years ago, yet the GP wasn’t contacted then.

The GP admitted he received the request three weeks ago but cited work pressures for the delay in replying - understandable, this is low priority for them. DWP won’t get it by the time of my assessment on Monday. So I hope waiting for it’s return doesn’t further delay my claim now … 

HillStreetBlues

MrsBrooks13 said:

Thanks for your observations and comments. I think it’s good that they check these things out; I’m just surprised given the extent of detail in the specialist reports I provided from a variety of consultants and therapists, in addition to the GP patient report summary that they felt the need to contact the GP. The info requested from him was far more basic than the detail provided by the specialist doctors/therapists. So the triage system doesn’t seem to have worked in this instance! It seems a futile exercise to involve the GP when presented with such evidence from specialists. Especially as it is a review - a lot of info was supplied in my initial application three years ago, yet the GP wasn’t contacted then.

The GP admitted he received the request three weeks ago but cited work pressures for the delay in replying - understandable, this is low priority for them. DWP won’t get it by the time of my assessment on Monday. So I hope waiting for it’s return doesn’t further delay my claim now … 

I don't think they will wait for your doctor, I expect quite a few never get returned.

ayupmeduck

If someone has a specialist nurse, community team, support worker etc and we need information we will contact them, generally it's just the claimant we contact mostly. we rarely contact (phone) the GP as they don't give information over the phone but we do send out questionnaires that GPs rarely fill in anyways. It shows that we have attempted to contact everyone we can before sending to consultation.

Assessors don't wait for a to be returned before sending to consultation.