Won my late brothers tribunal

[Chrissi1970]

Good evening , my brother passed away in may ,whilst sorting his things out I found his MR for his PIP claim,I was so angry at the absolute rubbish and lies they had told throughout all his PIP claims giving him zero points at first and just enough to not get standard rate on the reconsideration I attempted to complain by ringing the phone no on the letters I found ,after being on hold for a hour a gave up with pure frustration so I appealed as his next of kin /representative . I thought I’d get the basic sorry for your loss but they actually allowed me to appeal on his behalf .Five months later we won the appeal he was awarded the maximum enhanced on both parts which he should of received all along ! So the DWP sent me a form about paying the money owed to my brother which I filled in . Today we received the back payment BUT only for the enhanced mobility part not the enhanced care . Is this usual to send them separately or not pay one part luckily I have never had to go through the degrading soul destroying claiming of PIP myself so am unsure of how it works .Thought I’d see if anyone had any experience of this before I gear up for another fight with this inhumane bureaucracy .TIA for any advice can I just add that my brother died age 51 from end stage COPD and end stage heart failure but was still put through this absolute joke of a system to claim disability benefits.

[nukecad]

It doesn't sound right at all.

If he was awarded enhanced care then they should backpay the difference between standard (which he had been paid) and enhanced (which he hadn't) for that.
You don't give any dates*, but as you say it was May when he passed then in 2020 that difference between standard and enhanced DL would have been £29.45 (Slightly more after April 2021).

It's not clear there what he had been awarded, Standard DL yes, but did he also have Standard Mobility or no payment for mobility at all?

Are you sure that an amount for that hasn't been include in the backpay along with the Enhanced Mobility?
The letters they write are confusing and notorious for not telling you everything that they should do.
Although it's equally possible that they have simply overlooked it. (They are often not the sharpest knives in the box).

I think your first step would be to query this and ask them for an itemised breakdown of just how the backpayment has been calculated, and take it from there.
Often when they do make mistakes in calculating payments (which they do) just querying it is enough to prompt them to look again and get it right.

PS. With PIP it's called 'Daily Living' (DL) and not 'Care'. ('Care' was the term in DLA which has been replaced by PIP).
It's a small point, but it's usually best to use the right term so as not to confuse the DWP anymore than they already are.

*If you could tell us what he was on before your appeal (the amount he was being paid will do), the date that award was paid from, and the date of his passing, then I should be able to calculate the differences and so what the backpay should be.

[Chrissi1970]

Thank you for your reply,
Sorry I didn’t make it clear my brother didn’t receive any PIP when he was alive , he didn’t get enough points .he was awarded mobility and DL at the enhanced rate at a tribunal his award previous to the appeal was zero points . All he received when alive was ESA , the dates the tribunal mentioned was 14/8/20 when he first applied for PIP until his death 27/5/21 . TIA for any help

[atmywitsend]

They should have paid everything at once.
I would give them a call and see exactly what the payment was for and the dates.

Also, he might have been entitled to premiums on his ESA if he was living alone, which you may be able to get, however I'm not too sure on how that works after a death, maybe Nukecad would know?

[nukecad]

Thank you for your reply,
Sorry I didn’t make it clear my brother didn’t receive any PIP when he was alive , he didn’t get enough points .he was awarded mobility and DL at the enhanced rate at a tribunal his award previous to the appeal was zero points . All he received when alive was ESA , the dates the tribunal mentioned was 14/8/20 when he first applied for PIP until his death 27/5/21 . TIA for any help

Thanks for clearing that up, I'll take a look at the calculation later.

Atmywitsend does make a good point about him possibly being entitled to the additional Severe Disability Premium for the time he was entitled to PIP in any other Income Related benefit he may have been claiming, which is usually ESA if you are applying for PIP but also applies to Housing Benefit, JSA, Income Support, and Attendance Allowance.
You only get it with one benefit if you are claiming more than one.
That would also be a substantial amount of backpay due from that benefit, which would need to be claimed from that benefit.

So another couple of questions,
Was he claiming any of those benefits?
Did he live alone?
Was anyone claiming Carers allowance for looking after him?

[nukecad]

Here are my calculations, you may want to double check them.

PIP enhanced both from 14 Aug 2020 till demise on 27 May 2021. (I'm not quite sure if they will pay for the 27th itself, but I have included it here).
Benefit rates changed on 12 April 2021

PIP Enhanced rates 2020-2021 - £89.15 DL, £62.25 Mobility
PIP Enhanced rates 2021-2022 - £89.60 DL, £62.55 Mobility

Daily Living (Enhanced)
£3069.31 14 Aug 2020 - 11 Apr 2021 (34 weeks, 3 days)
£ 588.80 12 Apr 2012 - 27 May 2021 (6 weeks, 4 days)
£3658.11 Total backpay due for Enhanced DL

Mobility (Enhanced)
£2143.18 14 Aug 2020 - 11 Apr 2021
£ 411.04 12 Apr 2012 - 27 May 2021
£2554.22 Total backpay due for Enhanced Mobility.

£6212.33 Total of PIP backpayment due.

As mentioned above if he had Income Related ESA then there may be a further entitlement to backpayment of the Severe Disability Premium from ESA.
SDP for a single person in 2020 was £66.95, in 2021 it's £67.30
66.95/7*241 = £2304.99
67.30/7*46 = £442.58

That's £2747.57 more backpay that may be due for the SDP in ESA.
You would need to contact ESA and tell them about the PIP award of Daily Living to get that backpaid.

[Chrissi1970]

Hi , thank you all so much , I rang PIP today to query the payments they were refusing to pay the DL because my brother was in sheltered accommodation!!! He wasn’t and never had been in sheltered accommodation so they finally agreed to pay that part as well .
My brother only ever received ESA no disability premiums and definitely no carers we cared for him as family which he was very grateful and embarrassed about equally .
After reading his assessments after he died I cried , some idiot physiotherapist decided my brother who was housebound for the last few months and very ill previous to this wasn’t disabled enough , my brother was very honest in his descriptions of how his disability’s affected him the assessor lied and twisted everything . Money wouldn’t of extended his life but it would of made it easier.
We were and still are in a pandemic we struggled to get gp appointments like everyone else in the country this went against him “no recent reviews from his gp “ The 6 week stay in hospital with pneumonia didn’t matter because his medications hadn’t changed you can’t change your meds when your on the best and highest dose for your illnesses . How can a bloody physio assess someone over the phone with severe respiratory illness simple YOU CANT my brother was assessed by these morons 4 weeks to the day before he died I pity everyone who has to deal with these monsters .
I guessed from my own research for his appeal he would of been entitled to the disability premiums but like my brother I am sick of dealing with these horrible people so they can stick it now, it’s not worth the arguments with them they would of shut down his claim and will just make it difficult because they really couldn’t care less .
But once again thanks for all the help
Stevens family

[nukecad]

Unfortunately nothing you have said there about the assessment surprises any of us.

Those arguments you say they used are common, spurious, and irrelevant, they regularly get dismissed if/when you take it to tribunal (as you have found).

But they still trot them out in the hope of putting what are vunerable people off taking things to tribunal.

There is no block on paying PIP DL in 'Sheltered Accommodation'.
But it's true that you can't be paid PIP DL in 'Supported Accomodation' where care is provided. (Actually called 'Exempt accommodation' which includes a few different types).
As you suspect they were trying it on and hoping you wouldn't know that difference. Once you pushed they caved in.

My brother only ever received ESA no disability premiums

That could be relevant.
If he was in Support Group and didn't recieve the Enhanced Disability Premium (called the 'Disability Income Guarantee' on letters they send) then he would have been on CB ESA and so not entitled to that, and so not entitled to SDP either.
If he was in WRAG however then it's more difficult to say.
If you decide that do want to take the SDP further then come back and we'll try to work it out.

PS. You may want to watch Ch4 next Friday, there is a Dispatches programme about the assessment system and the deaths that have been attributed to it.
Although I do realise you might find it too traumatic at this time.