Feeling a bit uneasy

Hi all

Again a bit of advice needed.

I have an appointment on Monday for my assessment but had to ring today to change it, the lady accepted my reasons for cancellation and only had one appointment available to offer which was about 40 miles away, I explained why I couldn't travel that far, she took notes to everything I said and then told me to leave the appointment booked for Mon and then when I don't attend the dwp will be informed two days later with my reasons and they will accept that no appointment could be made in a local assessment centre and will reissue a request to atos to book an appointment.

Once the request is in the computer will then generate a new appointment which I can change to a closer centre when I receive it.

Being a wee bit distrustful I rang the dwp, told her all of the above and was told that yes this was correct and that I would not get in to trouble for not attending and the lady took down the reasons I gave her and said that yes another instruction to atos would be issued to book an appointment.

I am very dubious about this, I am a dla to pip transfer and always thought that they will stop the dla if I don't attend.

Has anyone heard similar?

Any thoughts on what the mods think would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Bubbles,

Hmmmm, I understand your unease! It is always better to get things sorted out in advance rather than try to appease DWP afterwards. If your case file gets returned to DWP, as I understand it the next step would be to send you a form asking you to show 'good cause' for the failure to attend. It is down to the individual Decision Maker to decide what they will, and won't, accept and it seems that some are more reasonable than others.

Of course, it is possible that we are both being unduly distrustful and everything could go perfectly smoothly...

As a point of fact, the claimant gets the opportunity to rearrange only one appointment. I don't know what would happen if you failed to attend the first and then wanted to change the second.

I expect that Gordon will have come across this kind of thing before and will comment when he is able.

Thanks for both of your replies.

Unfortunately though Gordon I did get the written notice, I just can't attend on Monday but they couldn't offer another appointment and are not allowed to just cancel without booking another.

Both ladies told me same information as to what would happen. Lady at dwp said her notes and notes at atos would go to the back office and they would send out another request to book me an appointment. Neither of them said about it going to case manager????

So stressful

Aaaahhh, I am with you now Gordon, sorry, very tired and stressful day.

Thanks so much Gordon and Mrs H