Home Assessment? Capita say NO...

My Partner has asked for a home assessment for PIP because her various debilitating conditions have worsened since the last assessment. As a result, having provided substantial irrefutable supporting evidence, we received a letter from Capita saying that she had to attend an assessment in Cardiff, which is a 160 mile round trip from where we live.

I am her registered Carer as well, so, on receiving their letter, I immediately sent a letter to our local GP Surgery and they prepared a letter in support stating, amongst other things, the fact that she needs to always be near a toilet. I forwarded this onto Capita, along with, for the second time, a huge pack of various Doctor's letters, Hospital Reports and a three month Diary to inform them in no uncertain terms that it was too far a destination for my Partner to undertake based on the unquestionable evidence that was twice supplied. They replied with a new destination... Aberystwyth! A 70 mile round trip...

Not good enough. She deserves better. She needs a home assessment and she has an absolute right to it.

Her problem is that not only does she have disc space narrowing at L5S1, retrolisthesis at L3 and L4, Scoliosis, achilles tendinitis, severe anxiety with panic attacks, depression, borderline personality disorder, suicidal thoughts and self harm, she also suffers from both IBS and severe Diverticular Disease. These two conditions alone cause her repeated, severe episodes of abdominal pain, including nausea and vomiting, and she is literally doubled over in pain, crying out, even screaming out in agony. In addition to this, she has daily episodes of diarrhoea which happen with only seconds warning. She literally has to get to the toilet immediately or she will have a very stressful, very embarrassing accident. And on other occasions she has constipation which, if she 'pushes', can cause her to bleed from behind. It is so unpredictable. She lives by the toilet and is virtually housebound as a result (that's before we even get to her back problems).
IBS and Diverticular Disease together means that she cannot eat either high fibre OR low fibre foods, because eating either type of food sets off inflammation in either condition. She is not eating properly because of the pain, but she is also in fear of the consequence of putting food into her mouth, to the point that she can go days with virtually no food intake, which is hardly surprising when she's had for example 13 episodes of diarrhoea in a single day. In the last two days she’s eaten one small bowl of noodles, a slice of cheese and half a tomato. She is absolutely suffering and she's extremely stressed, angry and frustrated. Now throw borderline personality disorder into the mix... The pain she suffers is off the scale and that is several times a day and/or week, day and night. It's debilitating and she has no quality of life. She is not taking in enough nutrients and is gradually losing weight. It has an extremely damaging effect on her already very unstable mental health.

But the problems she has in her bowel does not in any way dilute the severe pain she suffers in her lower back. Her mobility is substantially diminished, to the point that she cannot even walk from an adjacent room to the bathroom, a distance of 4 metres. I have to hold onto her, lift her up, hold her up while she tries to get to the bathroom. In these moments, she can't even take a step forward on her own or she will collapse. She has weakness in her pelvic core muscles and weakness in her legs because of the conditions in her lower back. There is always a risk that she will go down. All the pain that she suffers, and the lack of food intake leaves her physically and mentally, completely exhausted.

After I sent all this evidence to Capita and they came back with their ridiculous response, I contacted our local MP's office and sent them exactly the same evidence.

They were very nice and said they would help, by contacting Capita on behalf of my Partner.

So now we wait and see what their response will be .

Does anyone else have a similar experience of having sent a bundle of clear cut, unequivocal evidence, looking for a home assessment, only for this evidence and a person's individual needs to be so seemingly and so blatantly ignored?

Cheers