PIP Urgent appeal request email

hi guys,

My mother has heart failure, Osteoporosis, and other issues... some of which are new, and not from her original claim. But those two are.

In 2014 she was turned down for PIP, then appealed and it took 9 weeks. At the appeal, the judge was disgusted that she was turned down, as she had limited quality of life and was on a bag full of medication everyday in order to have some function. He awarded the decision for 3 years.

In 2017, she moved near me, and was assessed, and was immediately given it. A 3 year award.

In November 2018, she received a small lump sum from a pension payout, with which she bought a funeral plan (DWP said she could do that, and it would not been seen as a lavish purchase so although she had more than the £6000 thresh hold, buying this to take her down to £4700 was fine and she would not be seen as doing anything wrong and no more would be taken from her. This was her safety egg should she need it.)

So she bought the plan, and a week later she was contacted by ESA and PIP, who bought wanted the proof again of what she bought. So she she sent it recorded delivery. 2 weeks later, another letter, they weren't happy and needed more proof. She sent everything, which was more than they needed. They eventually agreed it was ok, but a week later both of them sent her a letter and she was being evaluated for her PIP and ESA awards. Almost like they wanted to remove her awards instantly because she had a little bit of money

ESA was ok, she got that, and the person doing the review was shocked that she'd been called in, as her last ESA assessment was 11 months before and she was in the long term support group.

But PIP came out to do an appointment in my mums bungalow. She told them all about the support she has, the fact it's bungalow for disabled people and people who are 65+ (she's only 60) who need support. So it's all adapted. The lady say 'ok' but never looked around. My mum stayed seating after initially answering the door cause it's hard to get up. 2 weeks later the report came back. She'd been turned down. Furthermore, the removal of this led to her enhanced disability rate of ESA being removed too. So she lost over £400 a month, losing enhanced rate PIP and this extra ESA portion which was a further £17 a week. She also now needs to pay council tax. So thats another £18 a month

Obviously, I helped her plan a budget. That little life line of money was going to help her keep going how she is used to, so we budgeted it. We were told 6 months for an appeal. But first two weeks for mandatory reconsideration. So we budgeted 9 months. Some things came up (broken appliances, and this cut the budget to 7 1/2)

Reconsideration took 7 weeks, then we had to appeal, and on Friday my mum phoned appeals to find out where she was in the process. Well, apparently they didn't lodge the appeal until April 24th, so she's only 17 weeks in, and is expected to wait 54-62 weeks. Obviously, this has just broken her. Because she is now really struggling. She doesn't live a lavish life, obviously. But she likes fresh food in the house all the time, as she enjoys cooking (with a bunch of aides) and needs to eat healthy and fresh due to her conditions. She goes to the gym 4 times a week for special Osteo lessons. She tries to go on day trips on a coach, ever few weeks so she can get out and socialise as the other women in her complex are much older than her and tend to not want to go out much.

She also has grandkids, and very young great grandkids who she tries to see. She uses her free bus pass for that, but will often need a taxi back as a day out doing something, even if just sitting around and holding a baby or walking around a town with someone else pushing a pram can leave her exhausted. The coach day trips are usually 3 hour trips out, where she sleeps on the coach on the way back for this reason.

But that's all she really does, and now she can't afford it at all because of the PIP being taken... which means no gym, so she's not getting her exercise. She cant buy as much fresh food, so she's doing a cheaper food shop but having more processed stuff. She's not able to go visit as often, because she had to bus and walk both ways, so she's left exhausted the entire day afterwards. This had lead to her needing to see a councillor (this all started getting to her at the end of July as her budgeted money was nearly out) due to low mood, her doctors have upped her medicine as shes been getting serious pains, and today she has been taken up the hospital after calling 111 because they're worried she was in the middle of a heart attack... thankfully it's not, an her pacemaker defibrilator has done its job

Now, when she phoned on Friday and was told about the length of the appeal, she was told "You can write to email address on your appeal form, and ask for an urgent appeal if your health is getting worse or if you feel you have good reason, but they're not often successful and it will still be a wait"

She said she would... except she's asked me to do it, and we've just looked through her entire appeal (which is 172 pages of information on her condition and past reports) and there's nothing! it doesn't mention urgent appeal anywhere, just tells us to contact the appeals team if we need help... and it's them who told us to send the email to an address we dont have!

Does anyone know what it is? as I'd really love to get this sent as soon as possible, as this 'heart attack' they suspected my mother was having stems from chest pains and flutters she's been feeling since Friday when she was told she still has 9 months to go without the benefit she's twice been told that it was ridiculous that she wasn't awarded. So at least getting this request sent will be something that may help feel a little more at ease.


Thanks for your help