× Search rightsnet
Search options

Where

Benefit

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

From

to

Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Disability benefits  →  Thread

Assessment cancellations

ib
forum member

Supervisor/caseworker - Malvern Hills District CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 57

Joined: 18 June 2010

Client has severe MH problems, severe anxiety, PTSD, great difficulty interacting with other people.  She can’t use the phone and does not possess a mobile. Could not cope with a home visit for PIP assessment - cannot let anyone in her home.  Went to assessment centre, to find she was not on the list - appointment had been cancelled due to staffing problems.  We helped client make another appt.  She went to this one, to find it had been cancelled, this has happened 3 times.  Has now been given a date for an assessment in Birmingham, this is more than 90 mins away and anyway her illness is such that she could not cope with the trip. We rang Capita line about the repeat cancellations and how to progress her case and were told they had tried to phone her on a mobile number given (she does not have a mobile) to rearrange.  When we asked for an appt for assessment locally, we were told this would not be possible as the system would show her as having failed to attend twice and her case would have to go back to DWP.  Client became more and more agitated.  How can this be resolved? Advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

Mike Hughes
forum member

Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

Send message

Total Posts: 3138

Joined: 17 June 2010

This comes up quite a lot locally. Their own guidance suggests nothing should be arranged that’s more than 90 minutes away but, that aside, the only consistent solution I’ve found is to put in a request for them to sort it as an RA under EA 10. It seems to (mostly) stop the whole referring it back to DWP nonsense too. Would be interested in alternative solutions from others.

ib
forum member

Supervisor/caseworker - Malvern Hills District CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 57

Joined: 18 June 2010

Thank you for replying so quickly, what is a RA?  EA 10 I presume is Equality Act 2010?  The client is coming to see us on Fri, gets highly agitated very quickly, we hope to be able to make progress for her as quickly as possible, get her a date locally and not have it cancelled yet again.  Thank you.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

Jeremy Barker
forum member

Citizens Advice North Lincolnshire

Send message

Total Posts: 102

Joined: 7 September 2010

ib - 26 September 2018 10:25 AM


When we asked for an appt for assessment locally, we were told this would not be possible as the system would show her as having failed to attend twice and her case would have to go back to DWP.  …

Somethings is really screwed up here. How can an appointment that is cancelled by the assessment provider ever be considered as failed to attend???

Mike Hughes
forum member

Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

Send message

Total Posts: 3138

Joined: 17 June 2010

Jeremy Barker - 26 September 2018 12:22 PM
ib - 26 September 2018 10:25 AM


When we asked for an appt for assessment locally, we were told this would not be possible as the system would show her as having failed to attend twice and her case would have to go back to DWP.  …

Somethings is really screwed up here. How can an appointment that is cancelled by the assessment provider ever be considered as failed to attend???

Thanks Paul.

And yes, very screwed up. It’s the HCP who failed to attend.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

Yes, complaint to Capita might be an idea?

Comments and complaints

ib
forum member

Supervisor/caseworker - Malvern Hills District CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 57

Joined: 18 June 2010

Thank you for all the comments.  We shall certainly help client with a complaint as well.

Dan_Manville
forum member

Mental health & welfare rights service - Wolverhampton City Council

Send message

Total Posts: 2262

Joined: 15 October 2012

Hi Ib

Capita are amenable to doing paper based assessments in cases like this.

Write to Capita, request the PBA with as much evidence as you can muster, or at least the promise of it and explain the difficulties both of a clinic appointment and home visit. As Mike says; suggest it would be a reasonable adjustment pursuant to section 20 Equality Act 2010

If she’s under secondary care; especially if there’s a CPN involved, there’ll be enough information for them to do the PBA and avoid the need for a F2F all together

neilbateman
forum member

Welfare Rights Author, Trainer & Consultant

Send message

Total Posts: 443

Joined: 16 June 2010

The assessment companies get penalised by DWP for cancelled appointments, so is there an incentive to describe it as failure to attend by the claimant?

ib
forum member

Supervisor/caseworker - Malvern Hills District CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 57

Joined: 18 June 2010

Thank you for the suggestion of a paper based assessment, and all the other suggestions, colleagues.  I’ll post if I get anything that might be useful to others.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

Jist to make sure you’ve seen this decision?

As I said when giving permission to appeal,  “it seems somewhat perverse to be found to have failed without good cause to attend an assessment appointment which has been cancelled by the Government’s contractor.

Good cause for failing to attend PIP assessment in neighbouring town.

Mr Finch
forum member

Benefits adviser - Isle of Wight CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 509

Joined: 4 March 2011

Jeremy Barker - 26 September 2018 12:22 PM
ib - 26 September 2018 10:25 AM


When we asked for an appt for assessment locally, we were told this would not be possible as the system would show her as having failed to attend twice and her case would have to go back to DWP.  …

Somethings is really screwed up here. How can an appointment that is cancelled by the assessment provider ever be considered as failed to attend???

They’ve admitted they are aware of a risk their computer system might transmit information they know is false. It’s plainly possible for someone to call the DWP and make them aware of the true facts. To choose not to do so would be an… interesting decision.

Wensleyfoss
forum member

Welfare Rights Advisor, Autism Anglia

Send message

Total Posts: 61

Joined: 10 June 2015

Sort of indirectly linked to this post. For the past few months, every HCP report I have complained about has been upheld. However while the complaint has been acknowledged, claimants have to wait to see if a decision can be made on paper or another F2F assessment required. The failure on the part of the AP to carry out a ‘proper’ assessment means that the claimant is penalised by having to wait further for an outcome. To date all decisions have been favourable, which makes matters worse for the claimant (and me).
I received this yesterday from an AP, other than the bit about the HCP being off, it’s basically in the same vein. This complaint was a result of the Appointee not in attendance and yet another badly written report.

Apologies for the delay - I hadn’t heard back from the investigation so please feel free to give me a chase on future cases if I don’t get back to you.
As I previously said, I can’t share much about the case without authorisation, while recognising the specific issues in this instance. I can say that it is against our policy to conduct assessments for individuals without appointees or agreed alternatives present. In these cases, we would reassess those individuals. However I have asked that we seek further evidence to see if the assessment can be completed on paper without the need for a further face to face assessment.
We have reviewed the case and it has not met our quality standards. The HCP who undertook the assessment is currently absent from work and is in a HR process which I’m sure you will understand I am unable to discuss. However, I would like to reassure you that we take complaints of this nature very seriously.
I am sorry for the level of service XX experienced. The feedback you give on cases like these means we can take action, so thank you for bringing it to my attention.