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Localtion of PIP medical assessments
Yet people in Barnsley are being offered medicals in Wakefield, Sheffield and Chesterfield! Anywhere but Barnsley for many clients. If the system for allocating medicals was used for a logistics company it would go bankrupt with those wasteful jouneys.
OMG, you’re getting Chesterfield? We’re actually here and can’t get one for love or money.
Yet people in Barnsley are being offered medicals in Wakefield, Sheffield and Chesterfield! Anywhere but Barnsley for many clients. If the system for allocating medicals was used for a logistics company it would go bankrupt with those wasteful jouneys.
OMG, you’re getting Chesterfield? We’re actually here and can’t get one for love or money.
Yes. Barnsley folks travelling to Chesterfield and vice versa. I am sure there is a logic there somewhere.
Our worst offer from Capita for someone with mobility problems was either Birmingham (44 miles); if they could wait for it, an as yet unopened centre in Rhyl (98 miles); or Swansea (95 miles).
Call me shockingly cynical, but there’s always been a perverse incentive to make the assessment centres as difficult to travel to and as inaccessible as possible.
The harder the location is to get to, the more evidentially damaging the fact of attendance is to the claimant. When they have no choice but to attend no matter what pain or distress it causes, for the DWP it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
People in Newcastle have to go to sunderland, and people in sunderland go to durham for PIP assessments.
Durham is a doddle to get to from Newcastle but difficult to get to from Sunderland
A cynic may say that this is intentional….......
Call me shockingly cynical, but there’s always been a perverse incentive to make the assessment centres as difficult to travel to and as inaccessible as possible.
The harder the location is to get to, the more evidentially damaging the fact of attendance is to the claimant. When they have no choice but to attend no matter what pain or distress it causes, for the DWP it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Yes, it’s certainly been one of the issues for clients of ours who have been made to travel to Slough.
I’ve also come across quite a few PIP decisions now where the ER of the MC has been refused on the basis that according to the HCP it is ‘approximately 50 meters’ from the car park to the assessment centre and the client has managed to make it from the car to the building.
Yet people in Barnsley are being offered medicals in Wakefield, Sheffield and Chesterfield! Anywhere but Barnsley for many clients. If the system for allocating medicals was used for a logistics company it would go bankrupt with those wasteful jouneys.
OMG, you’re getting Chesterfield? We’re actually here and can’t get one for love or money.
Yes. Barnsley folks travelling to Chesterfield and vice versa. I am sure there is a logic there somewhere.
I didn’t even know there was a PIP assessment centre in Chesterfield. We’re told there isn’t one. If possible could you get me the address. I’m assuming it’s the medical centre they use for ESA. Is it New Beetwell Street?
Sorry Sharon, I don’t know where in Chesterfield it is; just that clients ring up saying they can’t get to Chesterfield so I advise them it may be a longer wait but to ask for a medical in Barnsley.
Sorry Sharon, I don’t know where in Chesterfield it is; just that clients ring up saying they can’t get to Chesterfield so I advise them it may be a longer wait but to ask for a medical in Barnsley.
If you ever hear it again would you ask the person for the address they are being sent to? Sorry to be pushy, but when we are told they don’t have one here any bit of proof to counter that would be great. Thank you.
Will do Sharon
This is now a regular problem for clients of ours. As Atos try to bring the backlog down it will only increase. Ours are being offered Liverpool. (It’s also happening with WCAs - Preston’s WCA centre is “not safe” if you report a walking difficulty. Alternatives are Liverpool and Burnley - much more accessible if you have a walking difficulty!). We’ve had some success by ringing Atos more than once - getting a different Agent who seems to have access to late cancellations - notice is v short tho - often within a day or two.
Frustratingly, the small advocacy service offering support at assessments - and set up to address this need - can only do this if the assessment is in Preston.
[ Edited: 28 Aug 2014 at 10:11 am by Mark Buckley ]Sorry Sharon, I don’t know where in Chesterfield it is; just that clients ring up saying they can’t get to Chesterfield so I advise them it may be a longer wait but to ask for a medical in Barnsley.
If you ever hear it again would you ask the person for the address they are being sent to? Sorry to be pushy, but when we are told they don’t have one here any bit of proof to counter that would be great. Thank you.
The Atos website lists:
Atos Healthcare Chesterfield Assessment Centre
5th Floor, Beetwell House
Beetwell Street
Chesterfield
S40 1TF
as one of the PIP assessment centres but, weirdly, says next to it that it is not used for PIP assessments! So make of that what you will.
It also lists the next 2 closest ones from that postcode as:
10 miles
Atos Healthcare Sheffield Assessment Centre
1 Hartshead Square
Sheffield
S1 2FD
Click for more details
11 miles
Atos Healthcare Mansfield Assessment Centre
Jobcentre Plus, 4th Floor
Commercial Gate
Mansfield
NG3 1LN
Sorry Sharon, I don’t know where in Chesterfield it is; just that clients ring up saying they can’t get to Chesterfield so I advise them it may be a longer wait but to ask for a medical in Barnsley.
If you ever hear it again would you ask the person for the address they are being sent to? Sorry to be pushy, but when we are told they don’t have one here any bit of proof to counter that would be great. Thank you.
The Atos website lists:
Atos Healthcare Chesterfield Assessment Centre
5th Floor, Beetwell House
Beetwell Street
Chesterfield
S40 1TFas one of the PIP assessment centres but, weirdly, says next to it that it is not used for PIP assessments! So make of that what you will.
It also lists the next 2 closest ones from that postcode as:
10 miles
Atos Healthcare Sheffield Assessment Centre
1 Hartshead Square
Sheffield
S1 2FD
Click for more details11 miles
Atos Healthcare Mansfield Assessment Centre
Jobcentre Plus, 4th Floor
Commercial Gate
Mansfield
NG3 1LN
The one in Beetwell St, Chesterfield is an ESA assessment centre, and have been told by Atos is not used for PIP, so we can’t have them there. The Sheffield one is one we use, the Mansfield one must be an ESA as well, because that area is Capita for PIP and not Atos as far as I know.
Hmmm, I wonder if any of the Barnsley claimants ever actually return from this top secret medical centre? Julie?
I understand that ESA and PIP assessment centres are being kept separate, irrespective of how convenient or inconvenient it may be to attend.
And if they get there….well, you made it so you’re just fine, aren’t you poppet?