ATOS Cancelling by telephone?

I’ve only just got involved in this case, so apologies if things are a little vague.

My client was in receipt of ESA assessment rate, had an appointment for ATOS medical in September 2011. She states they phoned her and cancelled the appointment a day or so before, and as a result she didn’t attend. Trouble is, they deny having called her, have no record of this, and ended her claim due to non-attendance.

She’s put in a new application, but falls foul of the 6 months rule, while she’s awaiting a new appointment.  She also tells me she appealed & this was unsuccessful (unlikely to have actually been an appeal in this timescale, but I fully beleive that she’s been in contact with them about it & been told no.  Either way, the chance of a successful out-of-time appeal seem slim)

What’s the likelihood they DID phone & cancel & don’t have records?  I believe that she did receive a phone call telling her not to go, but wonder if it was from somewhere/someone else - maliciously, or genuine confusion with another appointment.

And has anyone got any suggestions for me, aside from making sure she gets everything in writing?

I would lodge late appeal (on assumption that client didn’t actually appeal- worth checking first but I agree with your feeling that she probably didn’t actually lodge appeal) as she is still within the absolute time limits. Just explain what has happened and why it is late.

As to the phone call- I can quite belive it happened. I don’t know whether ATOS keep records of calls or not but it is worh requesting them to release anything they have. If they refuse and there is an ongoing appeal you can always ask TS to issue a directive instructing them to do so. Otherwise, it is going to hang on how credible she is as a witness.

One of our Caseworkers accompanied a client to his Atos medical in Dorset this Tuesday. They were told that the appointment had been cancelled as the medicals were running late and they couldn’t fit our client in.
Atos stated that they had phoned to cancel the appointment but our client had no messages on his mobile. Transpires that Atos had called his house phone 10 minutes before his appointment time to cancel, I will now contact ATos to ensure that the face that the appointment was cancelled by them has been properly recorded!

Ridiculous. If Atos were to cancel 10 mins before the WCA appointment then simple common sense should have told them that the claimant was obviously on their way to the assessment, and therefore not at home to take the call.