PIP - Mandatory Reconsideration & Appeals

GSTAR

This one's a bit confusing, but I'll try my best to explain. It involves two PIP claims, for the same person:

• Claim 1 - Mandatory Reconsideration decision received 17/12/2024 (no award)
• Claim 2 - Mandatory Reconsideration decision pending

Before making the MR for claim 2, I sought advice from Citizens Advise Bureau. It was during this call (in December of last year) that they advised me that I could still appeal against the MR decision for claim 1. They said you normally only have 1 month to lodge an appeal from the decision date, but you can have up to 13 months with good reason. They said what will happen is, if I'm successful with the appeal, I will be rewarded PIP for claim 1, and if I am also successful with claim 2, then claim 1 simply ends when claim 2 begins.

So, I went ahead and put in an appeal for claim 1 with HM Courts & Tribunals Service and I also submitted the MR for claim 2.

Fast forward to today, I receive a "courtesy call" from DWP. They wanted to let me know that my claim was being looked at and I should expect to receive a decision within the next 2 weeks. I asked him which claim he was referring to and he told me but I got confused because I didn't have all the dates to hand at the time.

I said well one of my claims is in appeal, and he said no, HMCTS will only accept an appeal after DWP have made a "second MR decision".

I've logged on to the HMCTS portal to view the appeal and it says it's still awaiting a response from DWP, and that they should respond before 09/02/2026 - which was 5 days ago.

Can someone help me make sense of all this? Have DWP cocked up or have I been ill advised by CAB?

rosewalk

I think that CAB are right. If you make a PIP claim and this fails you need to make an MR and then if this fails an appeal. If whilst waiting for an appeal to be heard you decide to make a second claim then the appeal should still go ahead. If the appeal succeeds then if an award is made it will only run until the start of the second claim. I think that the person you spoke you at the DWP was confused and that they were probably calling in relation to the second claim. If you have logged into the HMCTS portal and this says that they are waiting for a response from DWP then this is probably be the case. Sometimes DWP fail to respond and will be chased by the tribunal service.