New PIP Claim

Hi,

I need some advice regarding a PIP claim - I am actually writing for my sister who is with me. Over a month ago we spent several days trying to get through to the "new claims" department for PIP. My sister has numerous medical conditions and her spinal cord is being crushed by a nasty neck condition, which leaves her in terrible pain. She is not able to sit or stand for any length of time and having tried so many times to get through we gave up.

The government website says that you can write for a PIP claim form so that is what I did on her behalf....explaining the situation and that she had tried so many times to get through. The letter was posted first class recorded and was delivered next day....copy of tracking and signature obtained.

We have waited over a month for the forms, which have not appeared. Today she got a letter from the DWP telling her that they do not send out clerically produced claim forms and she would just have to continue sitting on the phone until she gets an answer.

I am absolutely outraged that they have kept her waiting a month to write and tell her that. The government website tells you that you can send for a claim form and gives an address to enable you to do this....the letter was sent to that address and the response has come from that address. She has now lost a month of claiming and is still no further forward. How can they do this....she actually cannot physically sit on the end of a telephone for as long as it takes for them to answer and then another twenty minutes for an interview....it just isn't possible. I am at work all day so am not around to do this for her....I live a bit away from her anyway.

What would you advise? Who do we complain to? Thank you

Hi Beechesgirl,

Yes, you are correct in saying that claimants are entitled to initiate a PIP claim using a form, rather than over the phone.

We do have several members who have done this, although it does seem that DWP staff are under instructions to be as obstructive as possible when dealing with these requests!

In addition to complaining to DWP, your MP should be interested in hearing how people are being treated.

Complaining to the DWP

Contacting your MP

You might want to bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future. This will allow you to return with further questions/coments as your sister's PIP claim progresses, without having to start a new topic each time. It helps us enormously when everything relating to the same claim is kept in one place - and I hope you will find it useful too

Hi, I had a similar problem getting the form. I wrote in to request it to the address on the www.gov.uk site - unable to get to the post office to send it recorded delivery unfortunately. I didn't hear anything from them. I then got a friend to phone to chase it up and request a form again. She called one number, waited 30 minutes, then was told to call another number. Got through quickly that time but was told they couldn't help and was given the original number to call. My friend wasn't having that and managed to get them to help. This person didn't appear to know that it was still possible to send out the form, they said it had to be done over the phone several times. It took quite some time to convince them. My friend mentioned what the website said and then spoke to someone else to check if it was possible and to find out what to do. It took nearly a fortnight to arrive but I did get it.

It might be worth you doing the same for your sister. She will need to speak briefly to confirm her details and give permission for you to speak to them. That's what I had to do.

As they clearly have your original request for the form and their response that they don't send out clerical forms wasn't correct I'd hope that they would take the date that your original letter arrived as the start date of the claim. That's probably misplaced optimism but worth trying for that if you do speak to them.

Thanks so much for the advice. We will get on to this straight away. My sister does not hold out much hope in getting help from her MP - he is useless. She has written to him in the past both at his constituency office and at parliament and he did not even have the decency to reply.

I will get a letter of complaint off to the DWP - didn't think it was right as I since found several websites including Age UK that advise people to write for a claim form.

Will keep you informed on how we get on.

Just a quick update. We made a formal complaint to the DWP in writing as suggested a month ago and again requested the claim form to be sent by return. No response to the complaint and no response to sending the forms.

It is now 2 months since we originally wrote asking for a claim form....seems they are determined to stop people making claims for as long as they possibly can.

Where do we go from here?

I'm sorry you are still struggling to get a claim form from DWP Did you ever get in touch with your MP?