He got the form along with 2 forms asking for updates for his 2 pensions. I figured it would be to do with his savings account, but as it just provides 5 tick boxes (none of which are selected, and 4 of which are none applicable) and then says "we would like to contact:" and then there is an empty box, which other people have mentioned having the same form where they specifically asked to contact a bank. If its meant to be blank and for him to fill in his own details of his bank, I guess I'll help him get it all ready this weekend so we can send it off when they confirm it Monday. I hope its not going to cause a huge headache cause he has a bit more than 6k in savings, because he only went over it when they backpaid him owed ESA, PIP, Housing and Council Tax as one lump sum after he'd cashed in a small 4k pension pot, he'd have never been over if they'd not removed his benefit last year without reason anyway

I know that. I just wondered if anyone knew if it was normal to be blank... because it seemed to have been sent in error. Especially since its just addressed to his first name, and is sheet 4/12 but has no others with it. No one seems to know, but old posts I found indicated it should have details on it, so I found it confusing. Not expecting people to know the ins and outs of his case and what they want from him, just if people had experience with this specific form. No one seems to though, so may as well close the thread. Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions anyway.

This is hard though due to the aforementioned anxiety issue. He has huge panic attacks if he leaves his home, not to mention our local job centre isn't exactly easy to get an appointment at, and they won't speak to me at all. This is part of the reason for the LPAs I mentioned earlier, so I can deal with stuff like this for him. If I'm unable to contact them on Monday, I will try and arrange a face to face meeting. But I suspect it will be at least a week for that, and then can't guarantee I can even get him there without issue. Really shocked there's no info online about this form. I've found others who have mentioned it, but they all say they received a form specifically asking about a bank account... this form has nothing mentioned, and seems like a template. I'm assuming it's an error, but don't want to just simply ignore it if he is required to provide something. But can't provide something if he's not sure what they're even after. Fingers crossed I get an answer on monday

That's no use, unfortunately. He's on ESA, and the government portal DWP section is only accessible for a Universal Credit claim. It's a bit crap really, can't find any information anywhere about the form can't ask them a question online, so need to call. I'm writing this whilst on hold, and have been on hold since 9.20 so that's nearly 2 hours. I need to leave in 15minutes, so unless they answer soon I wont even have time to ask and will need to call monday

. Hoping for a quicker answer, mainly. Everytime i call dwp I'm on hold for 2+ hours, and I don't always have that time available when visiting my dad, and he can't call himself due to anxiety. I'll try tomorrow though

Hi, My father is claiming ESA and PIP. He gets two pensions, both of which provide him with money that is topped up by the sea to make a livable wage. He sends payment slips to the DWP, they decide he's fine, and is entitled to £8 a week from them. Which is good, because with his ESA active, he gets housing and council tax benefit. So he always makes sure he updates then about changes. He has about £8k in savings, which is due to drop a lot as he has bought a funeral plan, will, and LPA agreements and is waiting for cheques to clear (solicitor recommended cheques, as the LPA clears much quicker with one for some reason) he's had this for 1 month, prior to that he was below 6k. Today he got his usual letter in March, asking for an update on his pension... I guess because he will get a state pension in May, they want to make sure its all still the same too. Attached to his recent request though is an A42 form. But it's blank, and we don't know if it's normal. It asks for his details, as I would expect, but the back where it says 'what we need' no boxes are ticked, where it says they would like to contact, the box is empty. He's not sure what he's meant to be signing here, and what is going on, or what info to give as he has shown his pension and bank statements already on the other form Does he tick applicable boxes, and give the details of his bank.... or should this have been filled already, and a blank form was sent by mistake (this particular form doesn't have his full name on either, it's addressed just to his first name) Thanks for any help

Hi, At the end of June, my father lost his PIP, he scored zero points. It was obvious nonsense, I posted about it at the time, and I decided to argue his case for him and I got him reinstated with 9 points daily living, and 12 for Mobility. On July 4th, his ESA was cancelled. He has a pension, which he claims, the result of claiming the pension is that it is almost to the penny the exact amount ESA pay. However, with his PIP, he gets the Enhanced Disibility Premium for his ESA which was giving him roughly £32 a week. More importantly, because of his ESA, he was able to claim Council Tax benefit which he got with ESA anyway, but was now reduced to zero percent because of the premium, and he got housing benefit because of his standard ESA. On July 17th, he received a letter. From the council. His ESA premium had been cancelled, and as a result he would be losing his Council Tax Benefit, and his housing benefit, and also because they paid him on the 15th of July, they want him to repay them him £157 because they gave him Housing Benefit for two weeks when he was not entitled to it, which he must pay immediately. Obviously, this was a shock, because we didn't know his ESA was cancelled (we got a letter 3 days later from DWP saying his ESA was cancelled as without PIP, he does not get the premium, so his pension is more than the ESA amount, so the claim is now void). I called them immediately, explaining that the PIP judgement was going to review and it was nonsense. I got told that we could halt the £157 payment, or rather delay it in to smaller payments. Taking the monthly council tax up to £124. Housing benefit would still be cancelled. But should PIP be reinstated, and ESA be reinstated, the benefits would automatically kick back in within 7 days To my shock, on October 26th I received a phone call from PIP, they had ruled in our favour (was expecting this to be sorted next year to be honest). My dad got his back payments and his benefit reinstated. On November 1st, ESA called, they were also reinstating and back paying. We heard nothing from Council Tax, so today I phoned them. I explained the situation and exactly what has gone on. They gave me the following information about what I needed to do: 1) Send in supporting paperwork (which we have yet to receive, despite getting the payments and the phonecalls) to show my fathers benefit has been reinstated, then call the DWP, and ask them to contact the council, and then call the council a week later to see if they have the confirmation, and then show them bank records for 3 months to show my father doesn't have more than £6000 savings, or if he does, how much as this will effect his pay, and then they will reinstate his benefit from whatever date they get confirmation, but it will not be backdated unless they are told to do so by DWP. 2) If we do not have the paperwork, or if the end date for our benefit was June 30th, and the reinstated date was the 1st of July, giving a 24hour break then we will not be able to restart the same claim and instead my father who is 65, will have to apply for Universal Credit in order to be able to apply for a new Council Tax and Housing Benefit. Which is not possible, as he has an active ESA claim, and they already told him before he cant get universal credit as he is past the age group where they were shifting claims over, and instead he will just stay on ESA until retirement next May. So this is not a possible solution. This also, would not give him the back dated payments. 3) just wait, because it may be sorted out be itself, but only if ESA send them the information which in the advisors experience has only happened once. Anyway have any advice about what to do here in order to get it reinstated with the correct backpay? Option 2 is a none starter, and option 3 is impossible if we never get the paperwork (which has been lost in the post at least once) but also seems to have a lot of steps and hoops to jump through, in order to claim something back that they stopped immediately when they sensed something was wrong. I did ask why the CT and HB were stopped so quickly when ESA was halted, showing they clearly talk to each other, but why it's not the same communication now its reinstated... to which I was fed some line about it has to halt immediately to prevent fraud, but its the persons responsibility to claim it back (which sounds a lot like they bin you off quick, and hope you forget to sign back up). Really want to get this sorted, but with my fathers illness causing him massive anxiety when around people, and being unable to handle phone calls due to breathing issues, which the anxiety makes worse... the idea of getting all this evidence and making phone call after phonecall, and then going and taking evidence, seems like a nightmare to him just because some woman at PIP decided to score him zero 5 months ago despite massive evidence to the contrary.

Thanks for the help, just spoken with him today and he's going to apply tomorrow morning. I'll update this to let you know if it all went smoothly when he gets his decision... which from previous experience will be sometime next July.

Thanks for the help, I tried that site before (and again just now) and whilst it is great for letting me know what benefits they are entitled to, there's no section on it which lists PIP other than "You may also be able to get" ... and in that section, it does not mention whether two partners are able to have independent claims.

Hi guys, Trying to help out a couple I know who have been after some information, but can't seem to get a solid answer. They're both in their late 40's, the wife is disabled and subsequently gets PIP. The husband is registered as her carer. They live together, do everything together. He however has to leave the house on occasion to get shopping, attend his own medical appointments, have some time to himself, things like that. But he suffers from a huge anxiety issue, and also from Migraines which can come on suddenly and require him to get home quick (the anxiety can help spark them). He's unable to work, due to his illness and also being a carer for his wife. Would he be able to apply for PIP? the extra money would enable him to feel more comfortable when out of the home, being able to rely on taxis instead of buses, also help with his costs because he has to attend doctors appoints at a specialists which is a £15 taxi ride away. But if he uses the buses, it takes him 2 hours to get there due to poor connections. He has arthritis in his shoulder and left wrist, and uses specialist equipment to help him with jars and such. They are concerned that if they apply, that him asking for PIP would indicate that he is unfit to be a carer for his wife, even though he does everything for her without issue (even if he uses an aid sometimes)... or that if he gets PIP, her claim would be affected. I've told them that from what I understand, as PIP is a non-means tested benefit, that any claim for him would be separate from his wife as it's not reliant on household income. I've found things which seem to back this up, but also other posts which indicate that as a couple, like with ESA, only one person would be able to make the claim, but finding official rulings on it is proving hard. In fact, they got told to apply for PIP by an ESA adviser, who said only one could apply, but they had an assessor on the phone say she thought they both could, so not even the DWP gave them a solid answer. So I said I knew a forum that is great with advice about this sort of thing and here I am, asking for help once more. Thanks for any help, it will be of great use to them either knowing they can now apply... or knowing that it's not possible so not to concern themselves.

Theircreason for zero points literally just seems to be that they decided. There's no reasons. It's frequently says "you said you are unable to do this. I decided you are able to do this" I shall dig up his old PIP assessment if we still have it, he tends to keep everything as he's a bit of a hoarder, and find out where he got his points and compare them to his current situation. Thanks for that advice, seems an obvious thing to do now but I never even thought of it.

He can't claim attendance allowance until he is retirement age, but will be applying as soon as he is. There is a disability rights company near me, who do help with this sort of thing. They helped my mother when her case was in need of appeal (they took a certain percentage of back payment as payment), and did help her win, after waiting 21months for her appeal to be heard. But they would only help with the appeal once it had gotten past the Mandatory Reconsideration level, I cant remember the reason for it but it was really hard to get them involved, which was annoying as I was meant to be doing it with her but had been ill and she decided to use them in case the stress of it made me worse. I should state, my wife, mum, and dad are all in receipt of PIP... for different reasons, my father probably being the least ill of all of them (mother has heart failure and mobility issues, wife has life limiting life-long illness). Over the last 10 years, I've been to ESA and PIP assessments with my wife, mother and father and have had appeals for both where I have managed to get everything together and have successfully argued the case for them at Tribunal. I feel comfortable with the process, I've just never really had one that so blatantly seems to have been a case of "We're kicking this guy off to improve our numbers, just write that we decided everything is different to what he said". It's really thrown me back, because the evidence provided to them completely go against what they decided, and they even mention the evidence in places, or that it has been mentioned that something is a concern or that he needs something... and they just write that they "decided" its completely the opposite. How do you even deal with that? I'll try a charity and look for more advice too, but just wondering if anyone else has had such a huge 180% turn, going from a total of 20points to 0points, with no reasons for the decision besides "I decided", and how they went about arguing their case for reconsideration

Unfortunately not at our end. We had asked it to be recorded, and one of the ones cancelled by them due to health concerns was definitely recorded... But don't remember them saying this one was.

My Father has just received a letter about his PIP, previous he was on a claim which he had scored 12 points on Daily Living, and 8 on Mobility. This new letter scores him 0 on both, which is obviously annoying and now we will need a mandatory reconsideration and no doubt get turned down and then wait 2 years for a tribunal, by which time he will be past retirement age so PIP won't restart anyway (according to what was said by an adviser when the PIP interview took place) as he is due for retirement next May, he'll also be in even worse health as his anxiety will be through the roof as the PIP was his lifeline to the extra money he needed to get by, losing PIP also loses his extra ESA top up. It's all very upsetting for him, obviously. Whats really annoying though, is the language used in the letter, and I don't know how I'm meant to argue it in the Mandatory Reconsideration phone call. I'm my fathers carer, but not registered as such as I'm registered to care for my wife, and my father only needs help for 2-3 hours a day, so not enough I'd be registered anyway. But regardless, he needs me for various things. His original PIP application took this into note. He cant make phone calls, or talk on the phone, as his anxiety gets so bad he will start choking and struggling to breath. The PIP assessment was the THIRD one, as the previous 2 had both been cancelled by assessors who deemed him a health risk if it continued, and I was not allowed to speak for him until the third appointment. In the decision letter it says "You described an inability to talk on the phone to the assessor, I HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO DO THIS" So despite proof, based on previous assessors needing to cancel, and me needing to do the majority of talking in the third one... the decision maker, decided that none of that matters. He is fine. As part of my dads anxiety, he NEVER leaves the home. If he does, on those very rare occasions, I have to go with him. HE cant engage with strangers, and if we use a taxi as an example and the taxi fare is £3.70 but dad only has £10 on him in notes. He will give him the money and shakily say "Keep the change" and get out of the car ASAP because he can't cope with waiting for the change (I tend to pay now, just so he's not giving such a large chunk away). When we go out, he HAS to have Diazepham, and he's not seen any member of the family except me in over 2 years (including the xmas before covid) because he is unable to cope with visiting people or having them visit him. The man lives next door to a shop, and if he runs out of food or milk will not go in because it's too much him so he will wait until I visit. I was ill before for 5 days and when I got to see him, he'd been drinking black coffee only, and only eating cheese sandwiches because he'd not done his weekly shop as he needs me there to receive it, and had not been able to go to the shop next door; Decision letter "No Evidence that you are unable to engage, and although to prefer to be accompanied I HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU ABLE TO COMMUNICATE AND ENGAGE WELL WITH OTHERS" With regards to his anxiety on leaving the home, he was asked about planning journeys. We pointed out that I plan his journeys with him, and we go through them using google maps so it looks familiar and it's about a week of getting him ready to do it... and he has to do it with me, he can not go alone. Decision letter "With regards to planning and following a journey I HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU ARE CAPABLE TO PLAN AND FOLLOW THROUGH A JOURNEY, WITH NO CONCERNS AS TO CHANGES" he needs to use inhalers, pain medication, diazepham and walking aids when he goes out. He's not left the house for a year. HE was asked how often he uses them now. He answered honestly. Diazepham not at all, pain medication during flair ups, and inhaler he just uses his brown one daily but has had no need for the blue reliever one. Again, this is because he's not left the house for well over a year. This was pointed out, and we also pointed out that based on previous times a 10 minute walk to a shop would take us nearly an hour, as he would need to walk at a very slow pace. Would use his blue inhaler on the way there and back, would stop for a rest 3-4 times, would use his crutch to walk and would need Ibuprofen gel on his legs and wrist, and take pain killers when he gets home too and then rest for 2 days. Decision letter "Your current use of medication does not support any discomfort, or restriction, and you lack of need for medicine in recent time supports this I HAVE DECIDED YOU CAN WALK 200M UNAIDED" There's also various other little things. He uses disability aids to open jars, has an Alexa and automated diaries on his tablet and TV, which all give him notifications to take medicine, and anything else he has to do that day. he uses a large handle fork, he wont use his oven or anything he has ready meals cooked in a microwave, or occasionally some chips in a halogen oven. His kitchen is at the end of a hallway which he walks down resting his arm on the side of, because he has had a few falls in there before, and he rests himself on his walking stick and counter tops in the kitchen to keep balance but cant stand in there for more than 5 minutes or so (hence quick easy foods... or halogen oven which turns itself off when done, and he goes to fetch them when he feels able to do the short 20m walk again) He was under a CBT therapist, who discharged him because he was unable to complete any sessions, they decided he was not ready or suitable for them, so then they sent a therapist to his home... where he had a panic attack, during it, and they decided he was unable to be treated that way and that if he was OK with living a more hermit life then maybe thats just what he needs but he would be referred to another specialist, which never seemed to be followed up on (nor did hospital appointments in ENT, which were cancelled for Covid reasons), he is deaf in one ear but has no hearing aid (he doesn't like things in his ear, which is his own choice and I totally understand thats against him as does he) In the decision letter, they decided that he can hear perfectly well as he held a conversation (Even though I had to tell him what was said EVERY question, and I did most of the talking when allowed), decided that his anxiety is not an issue as the specialists have discharged him so he must be fine, that he needs no aids for daily living, that he can stand and prepare a healthy meal for 30 minutes, and that no prompting is needing to look after himself in any of these situations. I get that this is a decision maker, but how do I argue the term "I DECIDED" when their decision seems to be totally against what was said to them, and what has happened with his previous claim. How can he have gotten worse over the last year (which he has) but now get scored 0&0 compared to 12&8, just based on someone saying "You reported this, but I DECIDED the opposite" How do I argue this for the reconsideration, when we've given all the information, given all the medical info required, they have on their system that the appointment was postponed (TWICE, BY THEM, BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT IT WAS A HEALTH RISK)... and some decision maker has just seemingly decided that she was going to end the benefit, and then made to no account as to why things were ignored, or not looked at in any way past just writing "I DECIDED you can do this stuff" Thanks for any help.

Is it clearly stated though? What's clearly stated from everything I found, was that to get your ESA deduction, you take your monthly pension. Times by 12 for the year. Divide by 52 for your weekly amount. Minus 85 that you are allowed to have. Then whatever is left, you half it, and that is what is removed from your ESA entitlement. For my father, this worked out that he was losing a small portion of his ESA. As may be obvious from other posts, I'm not 100% sure on exact numbers... But it left him with nearly 60 a week from ESA. Based on ESAs methods that they worked it out with, his increase of £2 per week should see his ESA money reduced by just over a pound per week. He's hit no threshold, according to their calculations at every other stage. To hit it he would need an extra 55 per week, which he won't get until his other pension kicks in at 66. So if there is some other threshold, that you think explains why a 2 pound increases negates 57 pound of ESA that is due, its certainly not been clearly stated to me. We expect his esa to end next year, when his pension kicks in in May. But he can't afford it now, especially as if they cut ESA they also remove his housing benefit and council tax reduction. So now that £2 per week loses him 55 esa, plus he needs an extra 500 for rent. Unless he still gets ESA, but just no payment from them, and his housing benefit stays attached. But again, that's not clearly explained, because his letter says they can't pay him... Not that he's not entitled to it. Where as before when he lost esa briefly it was a loss of entitlement letter. I'll be honest, the whole things annoyed me to the point of confusion. Mainly due to the lack of callbacks I've been promised and 3 different ESA agents telling me it's not cancelled, but it might be, and they don't know, which isn't helpful at all. Thanks for all the responses everyone. I think I'll go with the suggestion of filing a complaint, and in the waiting process for that, I'll also call every day and hope for that elusive call back.