PIP Assessment problem

armindvd

Hi
My friend living in Birmingham and she claimed for PIP, today she received a letter about appointment time. unfortunately appointment place is on Stoke-on-Trent , Is it a usual thing that they ask someone with mobility to go another city ? it is 50 mile away from home. What she must do ? We need your advises.

Thanks.

rogerblack

This is not uncommon.
How long would it take her to get there on public transport?
Contact them and see if it is possible to rearrange to a more local venue.
It would seem extremely surprising if there were no assessment venues in Birmingham.

armindvd

thanks.
is there any special reason that they choose different city for assessment ?
she couldn't use public transport. but nearest train station is about 20 minutes walking for usual people. maybe 10 minutes with bus.
so If we ask it could be possible to change place to Birmingham. this is what I offered to her , she was a little worry about this type of changes make situation complicate.

tomtontom

Capita has an assessment centre at Birmingham.

jamiesnan

You could ask your doctor to give a letter saying that you need a home assessment, as i did myself and got my assessment at home. The rule is that you must be willing to travel up to 90 minutes to the assessment centre, so if it would take more than that to get there ring them and explain this to them, oh and that's 90 minutes one way not the whole journey there and back again, alos be careful because if you can travel to another city for that amount of time they may see that as you having nothing much wrong with you and say you have no mobility problems, but this may not make a difference with the daily living component. Hope you get sorted. Best of luck.

50Twuncle

When I started on DLA - 9 years ago - I was required to attend an assessment 50 miles away
I struggled to get there and when I arrived - the doctor was surprised that I had made it - took about two minutes to check me over and sent me home again - this was after another joke session when a "medical professional" had done a home visit on me and assessed me as being entitled to max care and max mobility - which was reassessed as being incorrect 2 months later - and I was classed as being not entitled to ANY DLA
ATOS ARE A JOKE !!