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New PIP application - Telephone assessment

Hi so I applied for PIP for the first time a couple of months ago and received a call with a date and time for my telephone assessment. The assessment was supposed to be at 9.15 this morning.
I was ready by the phone waiting for the call this morning. I normally go and make my breakfast around 9 but I didn't want there to be any chance of me missing the call and having to wait weeks for another one so I thought I would eat after the call.
Nearly 2 hours after the appointment I still hadn't received a call so I decided to phone the enquires number that was included in the multiple texts and letters received reminding me of the appointment today.
I spoke to a guy and he was unsure why I hadn't been called. He up looked who was supposed to ring me and placed me on hold while he called them. A few minutes later he came back to say that he couldn't get hold of them and doesn't know why no one contacted me but could see that no one had tried to contact me at all.
He then told me that for whatever reason todays appointment is now cancelled and I will have to phone back next week and book another telephone appointment.
Has anyone else had issues with not being contacted? It is just annoying that what is already a long process is now going to be even longer because they can't stick to appointments that they made.
Replies
It sounds like you have had a frustrating morning and there has been a real breakdown in communication. It will be interesting to see if any of our other members have experienced similar.
Just to add - I hope you have had your breakfast now!!
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I hope you get a new appointment soon it is very frustrating when you are all prepared and it doesnt happen
The world hasn’t ended here. You applied for PIP. Such things are subject to all sorts of random delays at present. You may yet have further and longer delays. Apologies if this seems harsh but it strikes me some significant perspective is required here.
1 - no-one said the technology didn’t exist to text. The issue is whether the person who would normally operate it is able to access it when they’re most likely not working from an office. My experience is that is most unlikely not least because many of the licenses for such things are location based. To say that the pandemic is being used as an excuse for a lot of issues is appalling. You have no evidence of that and unless you’re prepared to give multiple examples I suggest you drop such a dreadful assertion. It’s a cheap shot and an insult to thousands of people literally doing the very best they can in difficult circumstances. I’m sorry for your minor inconvenience but whatever sympathy anyone might have had for your issue evaporated right there for me.
2 - even if the person was in an office my point about sickness, which appears to have completely evaded you, is that most employers have relaxed reporting conditions. The HCP may have been sick; may have had a family emergency etc. but it may also currently be legitimate that whatever this issue was did not have to be reported to their employer immediately. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
3 - there was almost certainly no appointment before yours. Telephone assessments can take up to 2 hours. I doubt anyone had one scheduled for 7:15am and wherever you got that idea from it’s patently nonsense. The earliest a HCP appointment starts is 9am. I stand by everything I said about waiting 2 hours. That’s just an excuse for inaction. Frankly if a person were so tolerant of a delay they would wait 2 whole hours before querying it’s rather odd to then go on a forum to complain about it.
Sadly this isn't uncommon and we had similar reports even before the pandemic. I've even known it where claimants have travelled to face-to-face assessments, waited for quite a while and then been told the assessor is unable to see them. As you said, it's understandable these things happen and they will likely have a good reason, but it doesn't lessen the frustration at the wasting of your time.
Assessments are very stressful anyway and I know some people need to really build themselves up for them so going through that and for the assessment not going ahead can be really difficult.
I'm sorry you felt you had to justify waiting two hours to call them and I wanted to add that I would be the same (if not longer). Even when I'm having a repair done, I'll often leave it until the next day as part of me hopes they'll still show up and I don't like to feel I'm bothering them if they're simply running over.
I hope you are able to get some answers today and that a new appointment can be made for you ASAP. I think we can all agree it's a long (and frustrating) process anyway and these extra delays certainly don't help!
Scope
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