PIP Reviews after Successful Tribunal Appeals

Hello All,
I had a withdrawn PIP award reinstated after taking it to tribunal in Sept 2016. The appeal found that my advising the DWP of a change in circumstances was not a claim for a higher award - but simply that I was attempting to 'do the right thing' according to their guidelines' and so my previous award was reinstated and allowed to run to it's original end date of March 31st 2018.

In January, having not had a PIP Review notification, I contacted the DWP to ask where it was. They told me that there had been an 'administrative error' and that a number of review letters had not been sent out. Because of this error the DWP now required me to submit a completely fresh application for PIP.

I contacted my local MP's office as I felt that having to make a completely new claim was unfair and that I was being penalised for their (the DWP's) error.

My MP's office contacted the DWP and got an entirely different story. They were told that where a claim is reinstated at tribunal and the claim has less than two years to its natural end date, the DWP do not send any further communication to the claimant and expect the claim to end or the claimant to make a fresh claim off their own back, with no reminder or letter to say their current claim is nearing its end.

Has anyone else come across this? If so, what was the outcome? Or, conversely, has anybody ever had their award reinstated, with less than two years remaining, and still had a review letter rather than having to make a new claim?

I just feel like this is another attempt by the DWP to deter or diminish people applying for this benefit. If I can take evidence to my MP of different methods being applied for similar/same circumstances that would be great.

If others have had awards reinstated at tribunal - make sure you contact the DWP at least 14 weeks before it's due to end and ask for your review letter!

Gary