Claimant Says DWP Letter Ended Her PIP ‘With Immediate Effect’

DWP PIP benefit cuts letter claimants, Digi Mart USA News: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Personal Independence Payment claimants have warned that their benefits have been “taken away” in a stripping of welfare from the government.

One claimant, Emma Boulton, has said PIP was meant to be the support that “helped her through recovery”. The PhD researcher has autism, epilepsy and dysplasia.

She told the Big Issue she received a letter telling her her PIP had ended “with immediate effect.”

She told the magazine: “I’m autistic, I have epilepsy, and I have dysplasia in both hips. None of that is going to change.

PIP was meant to be the support that helped me hold my recovery together, and for a while it was.”

She went on: “The letter offered no evidence that I had improved and no explanation of why a judge’s ruling no longer applied, just a line saying my needs had changed. I had told them I was worse.

They decided I was better.

“It was the third time a DWP decision had given me exactly the same score: two points for reading, and zero for everything else. Every time my case has been looked at independently, I have won.

Every time the DWP has looked at it, I have lost everything.”

Under DWP rules, changes can affect a PIP award. Depending on the change, PIP could go up, go down, stay the same or stop.

Claimants could be taken to court or have to pay a penalty if they give wrong information or do not report a change straight away.

Claimants must also contact the PIP enquiry line straight away if personal details change, for example their name, address, phone numbers, bank account, or doctor, or if someone acting on their behalf changes. These changes will not normally affect eligibility for PIP or how much is paid.

Changes that can affect an award include needing more or less help with daily living and mobility tasks, or going into a hospital, a hospice, a nursing home or a care home. Others include going into a residential school or college, going into foster care or the care of a local authority or health and social care trust, or being imprisoned or held in detention.