appointeeships.

Very unusual query!

For very complex reasons we may need to apply for an appointeeship without the claimant being available for interview by the DWP- it seems very likely that this person will simply refuse to answer the door to them. Although the procedures in the DMG clearly indicate that the claimant must be interviewed Reg 33 of the claims and payments Regs seem to be silent on the subject.

The reasons why the claimant won’t talk to anyone are not altogether clear, it has been speculated that this is the symptom of a particular mental disorder but so far none of the doctors involved have felt able to state unequivocally that the claimant is in fact mentally ill.

Has anyone had any experience of appointeeships made in this manner, any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully recieved

Having worked for DSS in the distant past (I still shudder at the thought!) and been involved in appointee visits, I cannot under any circumstances see DWP agree to set up an appointee without seeing the person and having a medical diagnosis. It would be unthinkable for this to happen.

Thanks for your reply, as it happens the person concerned now appears to have been detained under s.2 of the MHA and the case is with the relevant NHS trust for the moment.

This is a very interesting matter, the client appears to have fixed delusional beliefs or some type of amnesia about her identity and as there is nothing to back up her assertions about her current identity she has not been able to make a succesful benefit claim. She refuses to concede that she was ever known by another name. Even though we have a well founded belief that we know her original name (and could find her NINo and so forth) until such time as there was some medical evidence that she was suffering from some sort of MH problem we were bound by confidentiality not to reaveal what we knew as she would not consent to us disclosing the information.