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PIP & ESA assessement venue issues - request from BBC journalist
BBC disability correspondent is compiling details of the accessibility of every ESA & PIP assessment venue - following up on a piece on ‘You & Yours’ some months back.
They are looking at practical issues including:
• Where is the venue located – city centre, out of town industrial estate, rural location etc?
• How easy is it to get to by public transport? Frequency of service, distance from nearest bus stop / trains station etc. Would a client need to take a taxi for part of the journey?
• Parking – at venue or nearby, cost etc. Problems if not a Blue Badge holder.
• How well is the venue signed – big sign or little plaque on door / in window? How is it identified – providers / sub-contractors name / logo?
• Financial difficulty for client paying for the travel cost up front / delay in provider paying refund or refusing to pay taxi fares.
• Accessibility – steps, ramps, for (electric) wheel chairs etc. Issues with suitable adaptions, provision of BSL and other interpreters etc.
• Pre-appointment info. - does it provide details of public transport routes, parking, accessibility restrictions, prepayment & refund of fares, paying for taxi, requesting an alternative venue or time of appointment?
They would be interested in particularly difficult to get to or find or otherwise inappropriate venues and other related problems like clients refused appointments at local / most easy to get to/accessible venue.
For example: one of our venues (featured in previous item) is ‘hidden away’ in a small industrial estate in a village which has no public transport on a Sunday (when claimants are offered appointments). City centre(ish) venue is on a busy main road with no parking (double yellow, residents only in side streets, public car park 150m away and often full), old shop front with whitewashed windows (looks empty) with a tiny sign in the window (if you can see it due to condensation!).
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Where has that text come from Peter? Any objection to it being posted on GMWRAG?
Where has that text come from Peter? Any objection to it being posted on GMWRAG?
Mike - from me (my summary of the sort of issues with venues they are interested in) - no, post away!
Cheers Peter. I’m on it now.
Can I add - if anyone has a claimant who is willing to be interviewed (radio - probably pre-recorded) about issues they had with a venue Carolyn would love to hear from you!
so for example - cleint missed their appointment because they couldn’t find the venue (tucked away on an indistrial estate with a tiny sign on the door). Or couldn’t get to the venue for the correct time (or had to go hrs early / or hang around for hrs after) because of infrequent bus service etc.
perhaps what they are not so interetset in is claimants who were given an appointment at a venue a long way away when thay had a more local venue (that was covered in the original piece - although if the provider refused to change the venue that would still be of interest)
of course no venue is appropriate for everyone - so the more generally unsuitable the venue is for claimants in general the more interested Carolyn would be to know more about it!
She is probably aware of this already but there are loads of comments from members of the public on PIP assessment venues by following the links here https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-assessment-centres