Stopping receiving PIp payments

We received an assessment form back in July 24, and decided that the intrusion of the whole assessment process was too stressful, and given that we no longer really needed the money, and my wife’s anxiety about going out , we decided not to return the form, fully expecting to receive a letter saying payments stopped. However, we received nothing. A week or so ago we received a letter to say that they had not made any assessment and were extending the payments to March 2026. We have decided that we want no further payments , for many reasons, one of which being we feel that as we do not need the funds it would be disingenuous to continue accepting the money. So now my wife is nervous that if we phone the helpline and tell them to cease payments, they will find that unusual and she is worried there will be some kind of investigation. The alternative is to state change in circumstances , but that in itself may trigger more issues. We just want to stop the payments and get on with our lives, my wife is an anxious person and how to handle this is causing us great stress. If we phone and say stop paying, are we obliged to give a reason ?

Personally if it was me I would let them keep your claim going. You haven’t done anything wrong. They may have looked at your claim and decided on paper that you have qualified for PIP. PIP is not an income based benefit. You can win the lottery and still be entitled to it.

With all the hate speech from people like Starmer, Reeves and Fraser Nelson I would say don’t let them win. You are entitled to it and you are getting it. Wait until they send you another review form and if you really don’t want to carry on then just don’t send it back and let them decide what to do. It really is not you job to chase after them. I appreciate you don’t want the stress. But you really should not be stressed out about it. You are entitled to it.

As for not feeling you want it you don’t know how your financial situation is going to change in the near future. There is not going to be any investigation as you have done nothing wrong. THEY know you didn’t send the form back but THEY decided to keep your claim going. When I was getting ESA my attitude was I’m not going to engage with these people as much as possible. I ignored letters. Demanded a home visit. It went on for months while they kept my payments going. In the end they just extended it. I’m off it now but that’s another story.

It has nothing to do with honesty because you haven’t done anything wrong. Let them make the decision. Don’t do it for them.

If you really want to say something you can just phone them up and say something like “I received a form but did not send it back but my claim was extended. I was just checking to see if there has been a mistake or if I have been overlooked.”

They might say we will send you another form or they might just say there is quite a backlog of cases and we will get around to it sooner or later.

Don’t worry about it. There are people out there who are undoubtedly playing the system who should be stressed out and worried but you are not one of them.

Regards.

Thanks `Chris, any other experiences or comments welcomed. Of course we could keep receiving but it does not sit right with us.

Hello,

I agree with Mark - I would let them decide when they are ready. In the meantime, they have already decided you are entitled to PIP for another year, although they may well assess you before then. If you don't want to participate in the process, they may stop your claim then, but I doubt whether they would query your reasons if you wrote to them and told them you wanted no further payments. I just don't think you should be too hasty, unless there has been a definite improvement in your health, which, of course, they would want to know about.

Best wishes,

Wendy