PIP / ESA wait times

[Beaniebeemer]

I applied for PIP and ESA two weeks ago for my partner who is sectioned and in hospital. I did this on advise from the hospital. I have heard nothing more. The PIP people said they would send forms through the post and ESA have a back log because of Covid. Has anyone else applied recently? What are the wait times like? Thanks

PIP takes months to get an award. It takes them about 2 weeks to send the form then another 6-8 weeks to get an assessment if needed then another god knows how long to get the decision. It can't be paid until he is out of hospital. I assume it is new style ESA you have applied for ? it takes about 2-3 weeks to start being paid the £74 assessment rate assuming your dh has paid sufficient NI contributions over the relevant years but at the moment it is taking a very long time to get an assessment as they cannot do any face to face assessments currently so unless it can be done as a paper based assessment they just don't seem to be doing them. I have had some clients waiting almost a year to be assessed.