Published on 12, July, 2020
How long is the PIP process?
I phoned up to request a form a few weeks ago and set up all my security details. The lady on the phone was very nice and said the claim form would be sent out and to ring back in a few weeks if it doesn't come.
It hasn't come so I rang up and they now say they can not verify who I am and I must have rung 3 times today and not gotten through the security questions. This is the first time I have rung in a few weeks. Then I get a phone call back and they can not verify who I am through the national insurance number and I now have a different set of forms and not the original one they said I was getting. Unless the person on the other end of the phone made a typing error I don't understand what is going on and am now in tears with the stress.
Given I have autism, fibromyalgia and permanently borderline anaemia even though I am on supplements I don't even know if it is worth going through the process or not or whether they will just say no as I can manage to work (through necessity not choice).
All I want is a little bit extra so I can get some extra high quality supplements and get my bills down so I can maybe drop a day or two at work so I can feel normal again and not live between fibromyalgia relapse and autism meltdowns all the time. But that is obviously too much to ask of life right now I just feel so hopeless and doomed to this cycle forever.
Julie
I don't want to sound negative about the process, but.......
I am having a lot of touble with my pip - be aware that they claim to be understaffed so they 'appear' to be making deliberate mistakes to buy themselves more time.
They also like to say that their mandatory 28 days for response does not apply to them because they are short staffed.
They also like to post their responses back to you 20 days into YOUR 28 day time so you have only a couple of days to reply back before your time runs out. (with fake dates on the letters and obsolete phone numbers to make you jump through hoops).
They also like to pass the buck and 'accidentally' forget to update your file when you speak to them - so the next person denies you ever spoke to anyone - just to keep buying more time and generally delaying everything.
At your interview, the person will likely lie and falsify information and badger/bully you into saying you are fit to do xxx.(and even if you don't say what they want, they will lie on the form to say you did). Make sure you have at least one other person with you as a witness of what is said).
If you ask for a review, they will ignore all the medical evidence and letters from consultants and only look at the false data from the original interview. (we demanded a disclosure of all data held about me to find this out).
Anyone would think there is a deliberate management policy to obstruct and deny claimants.
This is all been going on since February.
Also - they will NEVER ring you back.
I'm having to go to tribunal. Possibly another 6-9 months expected.
BTW - I have Aspergers, severe ulcerative (pan)colitis, osteoporosis, crazy hypertension and a brain injury (menigitis) resulting in serious memory loss, CFS and chronic pain and, not surprisingly, anxiety and depression.
You MUST go through with it - but expect to be messed about, lied to, put under pressure to give in and generally given the run-around.
Make sure you have all your medical evidence before you start and get someone professional to fill the form in for you - there are correct words and phrases to use that say the same thing but score more points. CAB are very helpful.
My psychologist is so outraged by the way I'm being treated that she says she will make time to attend the tribunal and speak on my behalf.
Good luck.
Greetings, anyone... I know that this is a Month-Old Thread, but I really wanted to support "Plastic"'s first answer. (And I do not get on this Forum that often, lately.)
The methods of deliberation/procastination, which are used by "Official persons" should well start its own Thread. (though I doubt support here.)
For instance, a decade or more ago, I was starting to claim Unemployment Benefit; then the offices closed, and I had to claim it again.
One time, I claimed, and then I went back, and I was told that my 'Claim Form' had "not gone through".
The Woman dealing with my claim was puzzled, and then spent much time making Phone Calls and faffing about, asking others in the same building about my 'Claim Form'. Genuinely Perplexed, she at last opened the drawers at her own right hand, and so then exclaimed, joyfully: "Oh here it is!"
...That is not the worst of it, yet; for, after my commenting at this behaviour in a subdued manner, she then said the following words in an extremely gleeful and cheering tone:
"Oh, well, it's a new system! You can expect a few hiccups now and then!"
...The fact that she did not thereafter wind up in Hospital shortly from that, was because the chair upon which I was sitting was far too heavy for me to pick up to then give it to her upside of her head.
There was a lot of other nonsense after that, in the same place, but I shall not list it here. And then that office closed down, too...!
End of Post and Good Fortune to anyone who may read...!
They are putting on this sort of behaviour. They sent me half of a warning letter as I had not sent in a form that they haven't sent me. I received the warning two days before the deadline and as I was ill and in a state of prolonged meltdown I couldn't fill it out or go the the job centre so I have not responded. Guess I am now disallowed but I haven't got the energy to fight on the phone with them anymore. Each phone call takes everything I have and I just don't have that kind of energy at the moment so I guess they have won and gotten what they wanted.