Have been on DLA for 6 years and now have to change to PIP!!

exactly pollmadol64 fibro never leaves you but this is added on to of rheumatoid and oestearthrits, then we have the shoulders, wrists etc. All proven by xrays and docors but its just not goo enough!!

Well my own doctor said he will be disgusted if I dont get it?

 

Well even if they did stop these payments to them they wouldn't give us any more.  They would use it to give their millionaire friends furthe tax cuts and give themselves bigger pay rises. 

Much more important than immigrants is the big companies and individuals,  who through tax loops which the Govt, are well of and refuse to close,  only paying a pittance in taxes.   I heard figures that it costs this country £120 bilion a year - more than enough to stop all the austerety measures!  

it has little to do with money though but the idealogy that all benefit claimants are scroungers.   x

I worked from I was 14 until I officially retired at 60 ( would have stayed if fit) and in all that time I never claimed a penny....not even family allowance and now I am made to feel like a scrounger !!

Thank you Sarah, am on low fat diet in fact have lost over 3 stone. They cannot operate until I come off the blood thinners after  my heart attack. Have had a few bad turns though....pain is excrucating !

Totally disgusting!! if  I remember rightly this new scheme was brought in to get people back into work.? Well I have worked for 46 years and paid handsomely into the governments coffers, think it is our turn now Les. If I were you I would appeal, can you now claim attendance allowance ?

Yes it is disgusting. PIP was brought in purely to save 20% of what was being paid out under DLA.

I worked from age 10!!! (well unofficially - we had a farm and it was all hands to the pumps so to speak - at 10 you were expected in those days to do what an adult would do), until I was 60 when due to poor health I was kicked out onto the scarp heap!

Never claimed a penny in benefits before, didn't know what benefits actually were. Never had a day unemployed and for all years until I was in my late 20's I had to carry out two full time jobs - farm work and a career elsewhere.

I agree, I too think that we are entitled to a little bit back and not have to undergo regular reassessments to see if our illnesses and disabilities have been cured and to get back to working!

Unfortunately that isn't the case. PIP is a 'working age' benefit and carries with that, the demands to have regular reassessments whilst receiving the award.

Yes I could claim Attendance Allowance, but given what is now being reported and likely to be made, that benefit is due to bite the dust in the same way that DLA has gone. Osbourne has listened to the local councils who are demanding more money to look after the elderly. Consequently The Attendance Allowance money is to be given to the councils to bolster up their needs first. I don't see the point in going through all of that - face to face assessment (like my dear wife had to have at home she had 3 attempts refused the first two, third one lucky - High rate indefinitely) only to find that the benefit gets cancelled. 

I now want the DWP to leave me alone, I have enough going on as it is trying to live and cope with everything that is going wrong with this deteriorating body of mine.

If I were you I would appeal

One thing that I didn't mention that is rather important.

There are NO appeal rights for failing to respond to the request to make a telephone call to start a PIP claim off within the time given. You can apply for a Judicial Review however which costs mega money.

This is the same if you fail to ask for a Mandatory Review within 30 days of the decision notice - you do NOT have a right to appeal against that decision.

I don't know about that, have never been in that situation. Good luck for the future anyway. C

Thanks, neither have I until I was told that I had to claim PIP.

It seems that the government are consistently putting more and more hurdles in place with the clear intention of making it more likely that you will fail at one or more of them. And if you do you have no right to have it questioned at an independent Tribunal. 

What a shame they didnt explain it all starts with a phone call, surel there are records you were claiming dla, therefore if i was you i would appeal, if they didnt send the letter not your fault. i do know the phone call has to be done, its just part of the sstem, but if that was not made clear you should appeal, good luck

 

Well I am still on DLA at the moment.

I am partly deaf so whatever anyone says to me on the phone I demand it in writing. So if al this starts by them phoning me they will have to write to me as well.

Atleast if they write you have proof of what they say.

Sarah

Hi there is a text system for those hard of hearing so ask about that if you want.  x

No I was informed by the DWP help line that there was a choice - do the intial claim over the telephone or ask for the actual form PIP! to complete at home. I downloaded a sample copy of the PIP1 and it gives you a lot more room to answer the questions and more options that the DWP have to comply with - such as using evidence from previous DWP medical assessments. Over the phone you are asked if the DWP can use it. On the form it asks the same questions but also you have a third choice, 'yes you can use it' (you can define which DWP assessment you want them to use) but only after they have sent it to you for you to pick and choose which evidence they are allowed to use/see.In my case there is the full DLA re-assessment that took place in 2013, the IIDB assessment that took place in 2011 and the last ESA assessment that took place in 2012.

Additionally if you use the form YOU can dictate who the DWP should contact for evidence instead of allowing them to pick and choose.

I sent a letter and a reminder within the month allowed but they never got back to me. I then heard from them that they had closed the DLA claim down as I had not telephoned them to start the PIP claim.

Anyhow I was toying with the idea of not applying for PIP as I could not see me coping with re-assessments every few years until the day I die plus the strong possibility of MR's and Tribunal hearings along the way.

Far too much stress and anxiety involved for me. I thought about attendance Allowance, but that is now in the process of being scrapped by the government. So for those over 65 there are NO disability benefits you can claim (that is if you aren't on DLA/PIP already) 

Hi me too. I am stuck with two aids to help. Rather annoying to say the least but better than nothing. I think I was lucky when I got mine - real state of the art - nobody can really notice them, and all on the NHS from the audio dept of the hospital. Mind you I always carry at least one spare battery around with me!!!

 

So PIP, we lose 20% is that right as my daughter gets dla and its changing to PIP?

No, the government intend to save 20% in cash terms of what they were paying out for DLA. Overall many will get nothing under PIP and most will see a reduction in what they get.

However the system isn't working out that way for the government. Yes people are losing out but when you add to that the success rate at appeal of 57% and the actual cost of running the appeals, the overall position is such that the government aren't making much of a saving.

As with ESA, they expected to slash the IB budget. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way, hence why the government are intending to overhaul the ESA benefit to make it that much harder to get and keep.

I fully expect them to do the same with PIP - they aren't making the savings that they had hoped for. They have already started with looking at not awarding PIP for 'aids' in the way they have in the past. I wouldn't be surprised to see more tightening and more goalposts being moved as they did when they altered the walking distance from 50 metres down to 20 metres. One way or another, they will make savings if claimants continue to manipulate the rules for their own benefit.