Help Me Understand DWP SAR PIP Info please

JKS$(

Posting on behalf of a friend so I may not have all of the information at this stage.

After not receiving any post from DWP despite being told PIP claim packs would be sent out several times, she submitted a SAR for all info for PIP from June 1 2023 to October 31 2025, including all correspondance & calls between her & the DWP.

What she received was very little & a lot of calls she had made were not included.

The oldest record is March 2025 

No record of any calls before August 2025 yet she made several.

Is DWP limited to supplying info for only the last X months, regardless of the dates requested in the SAR?

Or limited to the last X number of transactions?

Or to info only about the latest or open claim, not any previous claims?

She was hoping to see an info trail going back years showing all the times she had requested PIP claim packs, but this did not appear. Is this info available to DWP, or does each new PIP application 'overwrite' previous ones? 

Each time she rang DWP she confirmed her name, NINO & address - she assumed that if DWP had a different address on file, it would have been noticed at that stage. (SAR shows that her current address wasn't updated for 6 months despite her reporting this more than once, & also shows her previous address was also incorrect)

Do the call handlers not check this info for each & every call? I assume not, because the wrong address was not picked up during several calls. But why not?

There seems to be so much info missing from the SAR that I thought I'd ask here. Neither of us have experience of this. 

Thanks in advance all.

born_again

Depends on reason for call. Person answering may not have added any notes, which would mean nothing for the SAR to report.

Robbie64

If the notes were only clerical then they may not have been retained beyond a certain point. Was there an open claim when she was contacting PIP? If there was, do the notes refer to phone calls? Each PIP record has a notes screen where all telephone calls should be noted. Often the abbreviation TCFC is used in the notes - telephone call from claimant - with a date and a quick overview of the phone call.

The Right Of Access Request reply should include information about what to do if you aren't satisfied with the information you have received. There is an email address, which used to be included on the DWP website but it's no longer there so I don't know if it's monitored. The covering letter that accompanies the printouts includes an email for requests. The email address I have is for disputes.

JKS$(

Thanks both.

There is a comment about writing to them at an address if you disagree or want more info about the SAR - she will do this. 

Several of her phone calls were follow ups to report she had not received a claim pack - she wasn't aware that the claim would be closed if she hadn't returned the How Your Disability Affects You form within a month. Which she couldn't complete because she kept not receiving it. So no, often there wasn't an open claim.

Would this mean DWP no longer have those records?

The SAR shows DWP had an incorrect address (start date 2022) so the mystery of why she never received post has been solved. What's surprising is the number of calls she made, giving her correct address, reporting she was not getting PIP claim packs, yet the mistake was never picked up. Also surprising that DWP have no records to confirm this. She ended up in tears twice, asking why she wasn't getting these packs & was told a note had been made on the system - would that be classed as a clerical note @Robbie64 (I was present for one of these calls)

(To be clear, she tried to work at times between numerous PIP claims, but her condition flared up & she was let go in the probationary period, or she was caring for a family member)

Robbie64

If a note was made on the sytem then that isn't a clerical note. A clerical note is a quick note of a call made on a paper form. It used to be an A6 form that was used throughout the DWP. If the form is still in use then O don't know what the DWP do with the form until it is destroyed. I know that those forms aren't usually kept for long.

If your friend had to go through security when phoning up it would almost certainly mean that the DWP agent had accessed the computer record. What the agent was doing after that (or seemingly not doing) seems to be the cause of the problems your friend has had.

peteuk

JKS$( said:

Thanks both.

There is a comment about writing to them at an address if you disagree or want more info about the SAR - she will do this. 

Several of her phone calls were follow ups to report she had not received a claim pack - she wasn't aware that the claim would be closed if she hadn't returned the How Your Disability Affects You form within a month. Which she couldn't complete because she kept not receiving it. So no, often there wasn't an open claim.

Unless this has changed recently, then this is not true.  Once you call to start a claim you should still get an assessment without the questionaire being completed.  This was to allow those who struggled to complete the form get an assessment in a reasonable time.

I did many assessments from scratch without the questionaire.