Please help: PIP visit despite psychiatrist letter

Further update: I called Capita today to confirm my appointment time. Good thing I did! Having been initially informed my appointment was at 10.30 this Thursday I have now been informed it is in fact at 11.30!

While on the telephone I asked again if the letters, faxes etc from my doctors and consultants had in fact been read. To which I was told, "I have no idea what you sent or whether we have received it or whether it has been read and I don't have jurisdiction to check!" So that isn't encouraging. I mailed everything recorded delivery to the DWP and Royal Mail's Track and Trace tell me they received it so now that is concerning me as I sent wadge of reports.

Secondly, I asked the Capita rep again why the need for a face to face and he told me they did not have enough information!!! How can he say this when he isn't even sure if my information is with them?!

Finally, I have now asked two consultants and my GP if, as Capita tell me, they have been talked to at all by Capita and all again inform me they have not been, yet Capita have now told me twice that they have been. The guy today said (and I quote directly), "I am not in a position to tell you who is lying or not" which struck me as a very strange comment! I know my consultants haven't got together and for some conspiratorial reason chosen to all independently lie to me about Capita talking to them!

Anyway, on the upside, I did hear back from my psychiatrists office and it seems that they are trying to not get either my consultant psychiatrist himself or one of his team to be with me on the day. Despite the short notice they are concerned enough about the impact on my health that the meeting will cause, as well as the fact that my psychiatrist's requests for this not to happen at all have been ignored/denied is significant enough for them to switch their busy schedule around to accommodate me. I hope they will be able to, and I am hearing back from them later today. They are stunned by this and a comparison was fleetingly made to concentration camp selection!!

Sooo,,, this is the state of play but it isn't looking great I have to say, apart from the fact I may be able to have a qualified member of my health team with me.

Just wanted to update and again, as said in mt previous post, I will let you all know how it goes on Thursday. Thank you again for your help with all of this.

Thanks for the update. The people who deal with the appointments at Capita will not have access to details of your claim. I would expect them to be simply 'call centre' staff who are employed to deal with appointments, answer the phones and nothing else.

Gordon and Mrs HB,

Is there nothing under the terms of EA 2010 to help Sheryle? It sounds rather like asking a claimant suffering from paralysis to run at speed to an Atos assessment centre. So cruel.

Sending Sheryle every good wish,

MW

Ah, thank you Gordon and Mrs Hurtyback. That explains it.

As well as posting here, I decided to call the DWP on the advice of the lady who does some of my caring. This was to determine if in fact the DWP have forwarded my supporting information to Capita. The man I spoke with was patient and pleasant, which was entirely different to the attitude I have thus far received from Capita. In fact, to be fair, on all bar one occasion, when I have spoken with the DWP since my PIP paperwork was sent off, the staff have had a good "bedside manner", which I wasn't really expecting.

The chap I spoke to spoke to his supervisor and apparently they sent "all relevant documents" (not sure what was meant by "relevant", they were all relevant imo) onto the "benefit office"(? - that rather confused me too, but I didn't get into it!) who then would forward what were referred to as "tasks"(?) to Capita and he was, so he said, lost as to why the Capita man said he would not be able to tell me whether anything had been received or looked at as Capita should have had access to it on their system. Your explanations clarify that situation.

That said, the DWP man also told me that Capita have moved off like racing greyhounds on my case for some reason (the whole thing from application to home visit has been only about two weeks when he said that the DWP expect it currently to take around 12 - 16 usually, apparently) and it may be that the paperwork may not been forwarded to Capita by the "benefits office" yet because the "benefit office" simply haven't had time to do it what with everyone else's applications as well. He did say it was all irregular and told me he would re-send the relevant parts advising the "benefits office" but was not sure if this would make a difference in view of the timescale. He advised me for my peace of mind to have a copy of all the paperwork I had sent to them available if needed at my assessment, along with my repeat prescription list and the letters from my medics requesting a paper based assessment. So not sure what this all means, but he was helpful enough to explain, as you have here in these forums and to me, that the assessor is only a part of the determination process, and the final decision is made based on all the evidence, which they do have at the DWP and he could confirm receipt of this. So I do think I got somewhere. Still confused in some areas, but glad I made the call nonetheless.

Still waiting to hear whether I am going to have a sit-in psychiatrist (still can't really wrap my head around that potential, but here's hoping!) or someone in his stead from his department at my interview with me, but hopefully will know tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Thank you again for taking the time to respond and clarify things for me. It is so greatly appreciated at a time when my anxiety is high as a result of this process and I am deeply grateful both for you guys and indeed for this whole site. I have no idea what condition I would be in, or that of my claim form (would have not understood how to complete it at all) , had I not found the site (random googliing) but I know everything would be worse than it is - so huge thanks . Will let you know how the assessment goes

P.S. Gordon, I would love to make a complaint to Capita. They have caused me to have anxiety attacks with the way they have spoken to me. As in actual panic attacks I have needed to call the crisis team about and which are recorded in my files at the shrinks. I will make my official complaint after the results of my PIP application though. I think doing that any time soon would be enough to flip me over the edge stresswise, but I am certainly going to do this. And yes, I certainly do intend to raise the issue about being informed by Capita they had spoken to all of my doctors when none of them have heard anything from them whatsoever. It doesn't even make sense that they would know this if, as they tell me, on the other hand they are unable to access the information on my files. I do hope this isn't something standardly being said to claimants, though it would be strange if it were just me I would have thought. Thank you for the idea, and a complaint, after all this pallava is done with, will be made.