Thousands due £12,000 backpayment from DWP after PIP rule change

Thousands could be owed up to £12,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). A court ruling in 2019 changed the DWP's PIP assessment rules and the benefits department is now contacting those affected in the UK.

Some 326,000 PIP claimants could be due back pay and the DWP is urging those who've applied to check their entitlement. It comes after a Supreme Court judgment in July 2019 changed the way the DWP defines 'social support' in one of the assessed PIP categories.

The Supreme Court's MM Judgement changed the definition of "social support" for the assessment of the Daily Living Component of PIP. The DWP was ruled to have got the law wrong when deciding the points PIP claimants could get for the activity of “engaging with other people face to face” during their PIP assessment.

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One claimant told Benefits and Work: "Had a call on Tuesday this week (5th) from a decision maker, she ran through a few questions with me, like how I prepared if I am going to go out and who I use as my support when I do that etc. She told me there and then that she was going to back date my claim to 2016 and increase it from standard to enhanced. I have just had just under £5K paid into my account today.”

"“My partner received a missed call Tuesday, text received stating they will call back Wednesday morning. It sent him in a whirlwind thinking they were going to stop his entitlement. The lady called as previously stated, spoke about the situation in hand and advised he would be receiving a payment in the coming days for almost £12,000. It has definitely come as a shock to say the least. I can confirm we hadn't made any contact with PIP (Dwp) in regards of this, they just contacted us," a second said.

And a third said: “Got a phone call I’ve been awarded almost 10,000. This is from 2017 to 2023. I was moved over to ADP last year. My payment has gone up to enhanced also from standard.”

In the latest DWP update, published in October last year, it revealed that 79,000 had been reviewed against the MM Judgement and around 326,000 cases were set to be reviewed. Alongside the claims identified by the DWP, the department is also asking around 284,000 existing claimants to contact them if they think they may have been affected.