Very quick PIP face to face - Is this normal?

My husband had to put his PIP forms in (transfer from DLA) by 29th Jan. We sent them in special delivery (which still has no record of delivery) on 23rd. On the 29th Jan he received a letter saying it could take 4-6m for an assessment. Today 2nd Feb he had 2 letters telling him of his assessment on 6th Feb - Friday. He had a phone call 10-12 days before receiving PIP forms to fill in to ask name of clinic etc.

Is this a good or bad thing? My forms were sent off at the same time & to date I've received nothing.

Lydia wrote: My husband had to put his PIP forms in (transfer from DLA) by 29th Jan. We sent them in special delivery (which still has no record of delivery) on 23rd. On the 29th Jan he received a letter saying it could take 4-6m for an assessment. Today 2nd Feb he had 2 letters telling him of his assessment on 6th Feb - Friday. He had a phone call 10-12 days before receiving PIP forms to fill in to ask name of clinic etc.

Is this a good or bad thing? My forms were sent off at the same time & to date I've received nothing.

Hi L,

I don't think that you can read anything into the fact that you and your husband sent off your forms on the same day, and he has received an appointment for a F2F assessment whereas you have not.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason to how long a PIP claimant may have to wait before having a F2F.

If it is ATOS, have a look : Here.

What to expect at a PIP F2F is covered from Page 64 onwards of our : PIP Claims Guide. (2nd Link on page)

I hope that it goes well for him.

Please let us know !

bro58

My husband sent his form off on 16th Jan & his assessment was 2nd Feb. Even the assessor remarked how quick it was. Another person there had been waiting 4 months. Not sure of the reasons, but my husband is facing major heart surgery soon so don't know if that is significant.

Hubby has a number of pretty serious problems also. He's had a stent, years ago, possibly needs another + suffering from possibly 'sticky blood syndrome' or as they like to refer to it - a heart anomaly. He has also has had very bad diverticulitis in past when he lost 60% of his blood& was in resus. a number of times . This has started recurring & he was told 2 days before Christmas he'd probably have to have a stoma + bag. He had 60% of cartilage taken from left knee but needs knee replacement as it's become unstable + probably other knee after this due to the delay. Add to that ischemic attacks, asthma attacks where he loses consciousness after coughing/sneezing and to top it all he's been having anaphylaxis episodes after eating things he's been OK with.

Maybe it makes sense that, like your hubby, his problems sadly are significant

TBH at the moment he seems to be being pushed around by all the consultants as none of them REALLY want to do anything due to the amount of problems he has.

He's getting very anxious about the assessment as when we applied for DLA 2 years previously they kept turning him down for everything. It was 15m or so before they gave him middle care (should have been full IMHO) and full mobility. Thankful it is such a short time TBH.

i was to attend a F2F PIP back in November. I had applied in March , but did not complete the form as i could really do without the strengersss, the dwp rang said i can complete the form, then i completed the form posted on Monday and got appt through Wednesday, i checked with ATOS they have form before the assessment, and they said it had been up loaded. i think it is best to make sure they have your form, as the assessor i had typed fingers and asked very little and said she had a lot of info from the form.

Hubby had the appointment. It was nowhere near as bad as we'd expected. The lady was very nice, she however didn't have any of the supplementary letters from GP, consultants so quickly read the copies we had. (thanks raindaisy) She was a slow typist too so with all hubby's problems the interview took 2 hrs.

We had an another form through to tell of an appt. yesterday. Not reading it properly we thought he had another face to face March so I quickly grabbed the phone to protest. It was dated 5th February! and was actually for appointment 6th Feb - which was the one he'd attended! Since this was the 3rd time they sent the same letter & it was sent the day before the appointment (arriving a week late) the Capita person we spoke to on phone was amused & told us we might even get a fourth one!

We were told that hubby's appointment results had been sent off for assessment to the decision makers. I was also told that my forms had been sent to the decision makers also as they had sufficient information to decide without me having a face to face. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing as all I sent off to them was a letter from the surgeon who did my right total rotator cuff repair - which said I had the same problem on the left but that he just injected as I am now also under rheumatoid arthritis consultant and I also have soft tissue calcification. He also said that he has not made any follow up appts. but is happy to see me IF there are further concerns!

The letter above my doctor gave me from consultant - not amused when I received this as I begged him for operation as in so much pain & sleeping well is impossible. The tissue calcification means sometimes I get lumps that press on nerves so sometimes I can't feel my fingers or use them properly so drop things + my dexterity is often shot. I just hope this time they actually read what I wrote and we won't have the same as when we first applied for DLA when both of us were turned down at least 3 times for anything before hubby got mid rate care & full mobility and I got lower rate care - I think I should have got mid rate then and hubby should definitely have got full rate care BUT we were thankful for anything.

Now we just wait and see! I must admit to being very surprised at the pace of this. Hopefully we will have a (good) decision soon. Will let you all know.