Not quite an appointee

Hi Robp

As mentioned by Wendy above, I had a visit from the appointee team when we were applying for PIP for my son. They did a home visit and we all agreed that my son needed support to talk to officials, however he did not need a full appointee - because that takes all the responsibility away from the claimant and he is, actually, able to manage his finances even if it is not easy.

The lady then suggested that she would get in touch with the vulnerable people's team and they would agree that I could talk to the DWP on my son's behalf. However, we never heard anything more and often when I rang the DWP they said they would not talk to me. When we appealed to the tribunal the DWP appeals team got in touch and they were lovely and just took our word that we wanted them to talk to me and they did the whole process through me.

So, apparently there is a vulnerable persons team, but we never had contact from them. Some people at DWP were utterly intransigent and would not talk to me, whereas others were lovely and did...

Sorry I can't be more help than that!!
Anji

Hello Anji, Robp and David,

Anji, thanks for clarifying this, as I seem to have misunderstood and thought the DWP had officially approved this arrangement for you to speak on behalf of your son without actually becoming an appointee. It's a bit disappointing to hear this because I was wondering if it might be a suitable arrangement for my son and I to explore in future and why I was interested in Robp's question. At the moment I am my son's official appointee, but he only receives PIP, not UC, so the journal entry does not apply.

If any of you do manage to speak to the vulnerable person's team or make any headway with this, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Best wishes,

Wendy

Hi all, for the time being we do not have to deal with the DWP and my son does not have the energy to pursue this 'for the next time', which is a shame, as it would save him in the long run from having to endure calling them. But if we do hear anything I will be sure to let you all know.

What I do know is that when I have said to officious staff that my son is vulnerable and explained about the visit and the alleged referral no one has ever said 'we do not have a vulnerable person team' they have just said 'well there's nothing on his file' so one assumes that this team does actually exist!!

Anji