2 WCA's back to back and no advocate to help

BlackfoxCadara

So we're with a local organisation, but Unforutnaly our Advocate is on leave, and DWP have decided that while she's on leave to book a now can not be changed WCA for both PIP and ESA in that time. this has now left us with out someone who can speak on behalf of my partner, and disturbingly there is a lack of advocacy these days. This is all made worse with it being almost impossible for us to get to town to visit our GPs and such as we live in a rural lotion with Now no public transport since the local council decided to cut the twice a day school run bus in and out of the village meaning our health conditions are going unmonitored and unmaintained and sometimes even unmedicated.  i feel like I'm reaching my limit mental with this, as i feel like this has been done to make my partners mental health worse, and my mental health because i'm a cycs female, get largely ignored by my GP when and IF i can even see them (appointments with them are crazy as well, 1+ months at times). Anyone know where in south devon people can get help with these WCA's in such short notice and day after each other. literally 26th feb PIP WCA 27th feb ESA WCA

BlackfoxCadara

ps sorry about my spelling i also suffer with dyslexia

poppy123456

The advocate wouldn't be able to speak on your behalf anyway. If you have an appointee then they would be able to speak on your behalf. Other than that you need to speak for yourself. You can of course take anyone with you for extra support. 

It's unusual now to get any advice agency to attend an assessment with you, purely because of lack of funding. 

Are the assessments in person or by telephone? If in person then you can ring them to ask for a telephone appointment instead and this will save having to travel to them. 

Albus_Scope

Hi @BlackfoxCadara and welcome to the community! 

Please don't apologise for the spelling, there's no worry at all.  
We have some information on advocates here which may be able to point you toward someone who could help?  Or there's Devon Advocacy Consortium?

 I'm just going to move your post to a different category, so more people in the know will be able to see and hopefully offer some support. I hope that's ok? 

BlackfoxCadara

Albus_Scope said:

Hi @BlackfoxCadara and welcome to the community! 

Please don't apologise for the spelling, there's no worry at all.  
We have some information on advocates here which may be able to point you toward someone who could help?  Or there's Devon Advocacy Consortium?

 I'm just going to move your post to a different category, so more people in the know will be able to see and hopefully offer some support. I hope that's ok? 

Albus_Scope said:

Hi @BlackfoxCadara and welcome to the community! 

Please don't apologise for the spelling, there's no worry at all.  
We have some information on advocates here which may be able to point you toward someone who could help?  Or there's Devon Advocacy Consortium?

 I'm just going to move your post to a different category, so more people in the know will be able to see and hopefully offer some support. I hope that's ok? 

Thank you, i wasn't sure WHERE to post it to be honest. 

BlackfoxCadara

update:
in the end we could not get any support and ended up with 2 phone assements, back to back of each other. my partner got rewarded his ESA and they assessed that his issues had in fact gotten worse (they were mostly interested in his mental health) 
Meanwhile PIP dropped him completely it's like they ignored EVERYTHYING and i mean EVERYTHING gave him 6 random points, ignored everything else and told him he's fine.
obviously  this has thrown us into chaos. they are asking for proof of things totally unrelated to his claim. they know our area dosn't have half of the therapists they are asking for and they also know it's been said many times we struggle to access any of these things 1 lack of transportation 2 the post code lottery of who get's what care 3: lack of home appointments 4: all hospitals are on code black in the area, so even if it was life and death, you'd probably pass away waiting to be seen.  

poppy123456

If part of the reason for refusal of PIP is because they don’t attend therapy then this will be a standard copy and paste reason for refusal. 

They can of course challenge the decision by first requesting the MR, if they haven’t already.