Will pip know form is received on time?

wrote:

Hi Chlorinated,

I have always posted my PIP and ESA forms the day before the deadline, via Special Signed For Guaranteed Next Day Delivery, and I have never had my payments stopped or any complaint or scolding from the DWP. Even if the DWP does not OPEN the envelope on deadline day, you will have proof that it was DELIVERED on deadline day, and that is what is crucial. The only exception would be, if the deadline was on a Saturday or Sunday, I would post the form (via Special Signed For Guaranteed Next Day Delivery by 1 pm) on the Thursday so it would arrive on the Friday when the DWP are there to receive it and sign for it.

I would be hugely grateful to hear how you got the 3 extensions? I have an enormous amount of symptoms, that I have to write about in answer to the questionnaire, so it's taking a painfully long time and there's no way I can return the form by my deadline. Any advice, on getting multiple extensions, would be massively appreciated!

Hi faith

Initially I called them and told them the person helping to complete the form made an appointment around the deadline time so they gave extra weeks.
As the second deadline approached I called again and said I was just need more time to write up and the lady said we give an extra 2 weeks anyway and she just extended it. As that second deadline approached I called again and asking for an extension and they had to get it authorised by a manager, he asked my why and I said I was lacking letters and my doctor was about to write one specifically for pip and he allowed it but said if the letter wasn’t done in time I’d have to send it. each extension was 2 weeks so an extra 6 weeks in total. Hope that helps.

Yeah

Many thanks for the helpful details Did you ever get help with completing the form or did you have to do it all yourself in the end?

Best of luck!

I did get help however I still had to do some work myself. Absolutely horrible doing these forms.

Guys, when I called to say I was sending the form by next day the lady and even a manager told me it’s the deadline has been extended by another 43 days! When I heard this I didn’t send form as I had a little work left. They said it was due to covid and Royal Mail delays or something like that.

I hope I haven’t been misinformed, but have you guys heard of such massive automated extensions?

Thanks

Hi Chlorinated,
Wow, thanks lots for sharing that! If you search for the post entitled,
"Everyone's PIP review deadlines extended?? True??"
(currently on page 3 of the forum) you'll see the long discussion between myself and many others about these extremely long extensions. I'll copy-paste, below, my most recent post from that thread.

"Recap:
A quick recap for those who have not read my earlier posts in this thread.
1. When my PIP review form arrived it was soggy, having been rained on, so on the 14th of July, I called the PIP team and the call handler issued a new form. She also told me that PIP was experiencing a major IT/computer system meltdown so they had automatically extended all PIP review deadlines by 85 days.
2. She told me that my new deadline, for returning my form, was therefore the 7th of Oct (85 days after that phone-call, which generated the replacement form).
3. When the replacement form finally arrived, the deadline printed on it was the 14th of August, one month after the phone-call during which I had requested the fresh form but, obviously, not the 7th of Oct that I'd been told by the PIP call handler.

Update:
4. Yesterday I finally braved calling the PIP team again, for clarification, and spoke with a different person who confirmed the computer meltdown and 85 day automatic extension on review deadlines BUT she insisted that I need to return my form no later than the 1st of Sept to allow the DWP five weeks to process the form.
5. So, I don't know which call handler gave me the correct deadline?
6. Today I have received a reminder letter saying I must return the review form by the 14th of Aug but I'm guessing that letter was just auto-generated by a computer and is irrelevant under the current circumstances?

Any info or input greatly appreciated!"

If you sent it ‘signed for’ you can go online to track it. Then take a photo of the page (signature and date) in case you need to prove it later.