ESA/PIP/DWP Harrassment

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Annabelle26

My name seems to have suddenly come to the top of the ESA & PIP piles for harassment.  I have been claiming DLA for years with no problems A few weeks ago I got a letter asking me to apply for PIP.  I had my F2F Assessment a couple of weeks ago.  It was rubbish.  The person was ok but did not introduce herself or tell me what qualifications she had.  The session lasted 1/2 a hour.  During that time she just read questions off a laptop screen & typed in answers.  When I tried to explain my problems she just interrupted with the next question.  She told me she needed to do a physical & mental assessment.  The physical consisted of me putting my hands across my chest, touching my knees & standing on alternate legs.  She also asked if my walking stick was was own as it was coloured. The mental assessment never happened.  She suddenly said she had got everything she needed, told me I would get a decision in 4-6 weeks & thanked me for coming.
I have been in the ESA Support Group since losing my job through voluntary redundancy in 2011.  I have a mixture of physical/mental issues.  In July I received a letter asking me to go for a Health Assessment.  I could not go on the date so it was changed to one at the beginning of August.  On the day the Assessment Centre cancelled it because there was problems with the Doctor & said they would send me a new appointment.  On 31st August I received a letter asking me why I did not attend an Assessment on 28th August.   I sent the form back saying I had no notification of this appointment.  A couple of weeks later I checked my bank account to see if my benefit payment had arrived.  There was nothing.  I rang JobCentre plus to see where it was & was told my claim had been cancelled as they did not believe I had not received the appointment letter.  I got the confirmation letter a couple of days later in which the dates were completely wrong.  I did the Mandatory Review & waited.  I had heard nothing by 9th October so I rang JobCentrePlus to see what was happening.  The person I spoke to was nice & checked & found that they had received my letter but had done nothing about it.  They contacted a Manager who rang me back a couple of hours later & said my appeal had been allowed & my claim reinstated & backdated & all the money was in my account in a couple of days.  I thought that was the end of it.  However at the end of October I received a letter asking me to go for an Assessment at 9 am 7th November.  I had to change it as it was too early as I had to go on the bus.  They re-arranged it for 21st November at 11:30am.  The end of last week I rang up the JobCentrePlus to ask did I still need to go as I had been to a PIP Assessment.  They said yes.  I asked could they not use the information from the PIP Assessment but apparently they cannot because it is a different section.  I also asked why do I need to go for the Assessment as my problems are the same as they were before but they said I needed to go & if I did not turn up I would get my benefit stopped.  If anything the harassment by the DWP has made my problems worse as I have had major anxiety attacks & depression which has made me feel really bad.  I have managed to pull myself together slowly & am feeling a bit more of my normal self.  However until the DWP have finished harassing me I am still having problems sleeping, eating etc & really worrying about what they are going to do to me.  I am already just about making ends meet & if any benefit is cut I am not sure what I am going to do  I have been in contact with some nice helpful people at the DWP & there are some real jobsworth people.  I just wish the DWP would let me get back to the life I had before they started harassing me.

CockneyRebel

Hello Annabelle and welcome

Have you asked for a copy of the PIP assessment report ?
This will give you an indication of the points you scored .

CR