Autism Assessment Expenses - Help!

Legwax
Legwax Community Member Posts: 198 Empowering
edited October 7 in Autism and neurodiversity

Hi everyone,

Asking for a friend - their young adult child has an autism assessment at last - referred by their GP. The assessment is two parts, one online and the other in person. The location is 250 miles away. They will have to take the train. Coach is too difficult for 9 hour round trip and no car. We have checked the Turn2Us grant website but nothing suitable/applicable. The local council will not give an emergency payment for travel expenses. The assessment center gave them 24 hours to confirm attendance and threatened with a longer wait if not heard so they had to say yes. It is so expensive and feels quite cruel to have been sent so far for a one hour appointment face to face. Any ideas please. At this time, they are scrambling for fares which is over £100 and they have disabled rail cards.

Comments

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 6,234 Scope online community team

    Hi @Legwax

    I'm not sure if there would be any grants of funding available for this I'm afraid.

    Would they be able to request a fully virtual second assessment? Or request a transfer to a more local clinic?

  • Kimi87
    Kimi87 Community Member Posts: 9,160 Championing
    edited October 7

    Is the young adult eligible for a travel refund?

    https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/help-with-health-costs/healthcare-travel-costs-scheme-htcs/

    The second person might not be eligible, they can be quite strict on payment for a companion unfortunately.

    I was once refused a second persons travel fares even though it was after an endoscopy with sedation and the clinic wouldn't have let me go alone before 4 hours had passed. However the refund office were kind and switched to petrol milage which almost came up to the cost of both train tickets.

  • Legwax
    Legwax Community Member Posts: 198 Empowering

    Hello @Mary_Scope and @Kimi87 , Thank you both for responding.

    The assessors admin told them that the second appointment had to be face to face. It's for a diagnosis rather than ongoing support, they're not sure where that exists or if it would be offered.

    Kimi87, that must have warmed your heart! It is nice to be dealt with kindly and with common sense! I haven't heard of that link before so I will have a look. Thank you for that.

    Unfortunately, the GP told the young person yesterday that they (yp) had chosen to travel so far - even though the address isn't on the list provided by the GP. I overheard the conversation and it was embarrassing, a GP arguing with a young person who is obviously struggling. Anyway, I will post back if there is news of use to anyone else re: travel support.

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