Pip face to face assessment suspension

daisy80

Hi there, I suffer with multiple mental health conditions and tinnitus. I wont go into all my health details but Pip got my claim in Jan and my psychiatrist wrote a supporting letter to request a paper review due to the detrimental effect a face to face assessment would have on me. However they denied it and told me I had to wait for a face to face assessment. 2 months later no appointments available so my husband called. All of a sudden they told me I could have a home visit after refusing before. I was told previously that I didn't qualify. How is it that the advice changes based on who you speak to. Why didnt they tell me 2 months ago?! Anyway it's all irrelevant now as I saw there is now a suspension on face to face assessments. I was told i would now get a paper review or phone assessment. I can't use the phone because of my hearing and told them this. So hopefully I'll get a paper review as my audiology dept have given me a supporting letter. My question is what date order will they work in? They had my claim at the assessment centre in mid Jan. I have more evidence to send them but how do I do this? Knowing my luck they will get round to mine after the 3month suspension and it will start again for a home visit which already takes ages. At that point I imagine it could be nearly Sep or something! That would be awful to wait so long plus if I needed to appeal it could be years. I also heard that the appeals might be effected now due to redeployment of staff etc. I may be worrying unnesscessaily but has anyone been contacted yet? UC got my uc50 in early Jan and by 24th they had done a paper review and I got a decision early Feb. I was placed in the lcwra group for 2 years. I know it's a different benefit but it would be so good if they were all joined up someway. Apologies about my long post! Thanks 

Darcie555

Hi I’m in same boat I think it might be a phone assesment

poppy123456

HI and welcome.

It will either be a phone assessment, paper based or none of those and they will wait until face to face assessments are back up and running. As for waiting times, there's isn't any, backlogs are just part of the reason a decision can be delayed. During normal circumstances a claim can take several months but it will more than likely be significantly increased waiting times now. Unfortunately, there's nothing more you can do but wait.

If you have more relevant evidence to send then i'd advise you to ring the health assessment providers to ask where to send it to because at this stage it's better to send it to them, rather than DWP.