PIP decision without decision letter

Hi all,

Just an update on my partners situation with her DLA to PIP transfer. She was on DLA high mobility middle care. We rang up today as I spotted by chance no DLA payments going into the bank since the 12th October. She rang up and was initially told she had not completed her PIP initial form, which she kindly corrected the advisor on as she has in fact been for an assessment and was waiting to hear back.

She was then sent to the PIP helpline, where the advisor said your decision was made on the 9th and you "should" have received a decision notice. Obviously we did not, the first we were aware was when I looked at the bank account. The advisor said she has been given standard PIP for both components, her PIP we are told will be in four weekly arrears beginning on the 10th November. However I made the advisor aware that I was concerned that this would impact her ability to apply for a mandatory reconsideration (as this is what we are going to do) by my reckoning she now has about four days to lodge this, however without a decision letter it's hard to know how to word all this, that's if postie gets it there in time. The advisor did state she would note this on the claim, however I don't hold my breath.

My questions are, 1) it was my understanding that there was a four week run on in payments of DLA after a decision had been made, to assist in getting used to the difference in money, and 2) how does she stand with this mandatory reconsideration issue? Have we now lost the right of appeal as they have not sorted her decision letter out?

Any help gratefully appreciated. Feeling gutted as was hoping it would all sort its self out after the essay i wrote them!

Hi Chris,

I'm sorry that you did not get the PIP decision you merit.

As you say, the DLA award should have run on for 1 month after the PIP decision was made, your wife should not have been without payments for any length of time. I'm afraid the only way you will know what has happened is to contact DWP again

The time limit for submitting the MR request runs from the date on the decision letter. If DWP accept that a letter was not sent there should be no problem. If DWP insist that a letter was sent, you can still request an MR and explain the reason for the delay. This should be accepted as good cause for being late with the request.