Awaiting face to face appointment

debrandall68,

Unfortunately benefit awards and how long they last don't stop the DWP from reassessing people. They can do this at any time regardless of how long your award has to run! In any case, the DWP often review you about a year before your award is due to end, so this looks pretty standard I'm afraid. 

As to how long the assessment should last, I would definitely expect it to be an hour and in fact, a longer assessment usually means it is a more thorough one. If it's going to really wear you out then I would consider whether the assessment should be provided in a way which is more accessible for you, for example, with a break in the middle. The system really shouldn't work in a way that makes your health any worse, so do mention this to the assessment company if it is a concern.

As for the lateness, it sounds as if you had an assessor who was particularly thorough and therefore perhaps slow...? Again there's not a huge amount you can do about this in advance but I would suggest that you explain that timeliness is important to you for all the usual reasons (any other appointments you have, rest you need to take, stress you might be caused etc).

Taking a bit of control of the situation may help. If you ring, write or email the assessment company to make these points then keep a note or a copy of your contact with them, so that you can use it to make any subsequent complaint even stronger. However, let's hope they will be on time and not take as long! Because it's a review, you may find that they'll just be able to confirm what they found last time, assuming nothing has changed - and that will speed things up.

Will