Where do I stand legally

Hi I was hoping someone could advise me regarding a legal position,i have just finished my sons DLA to PIP form and will be ready to send it off shortly,i`m his appoinntee as he is subject to the mental capacity act.When we are called for F2F i will need to take an extra carer with me because my son is violent,aggressive to both himself and others,even through evidence and documents have been supplied to this fact,do i still need to legally inform the assessment centre of this due risk to staff and other people who will be attending appointments.Or put basically who has the legal responsibilty in this situation is it myself or the examination centre?Any advice anyone could give would be welcome,otherwise i`m going to have to take legal advice from a disability lawyer many many thanks.

Hello Michele

Before I start to (try to) answer your query, are you aware that your full name is showing? Here's how you can stop this, if you want to;

My full name is showing, how can I stop it?

I'll leave this open for other members of the Forum, because no doubt some of them will have had experience of the issues you're enquiring about; but given that you have provided the DWP with the facts of his illness/mental health issues I can't see that you need to do anything else.

I would certainly phone the DWP and explain the situation fully, following your phone call with a letter reiterating the facts of his condition; and the fact that there are safety issues involved. Other than that I can't see that you have any need to put yourself to the expense of involving a
disability lawyer; you will have made everyone who needs to know aware of the situation and if they take the risk of 'inviting' your son into a situation where he is liable to be a threat to anyone else's safety then that's the responsibility of the DWP, not yourself. You are his parent and his appointee; you can't be held responsible if someone else puts him in a situation that YOU know, and have explained, is liable to be potentially dangerous.

I hope that (for all your sakes) someone out there has the common sense to avoid the situation in the first place. Good luck with the PIP application.

Thank you for all the adivce,yes i don`t think it would be productive writing to the DWP,because as you said they don`t do the assessment,all the documents have been included with the pip form and on the actual form it`self But as they don`t bother reading any of it, including the form and just book appointments I will have to inform them again either before hand or on the day, thanks again everyone.

I agree with Gordon and think its VERY IMPORTANT that you write to the Assessors informing them by registered letter of the problems. The DWP will not pass specific information like this, they are not doing their jobs properly as it is.

In view of the amount of people going to assessments where the assessment is not carried out because of staff shortages, assessments stopped because of lack of time. Am just envisaging the possibility of you going to an assessment for no reason, which would make the whole thing pointless.

You should be aware that the ASSESSOR COMPANIES you are going to have bad reputations
for customer service and I agree with you that you should get MORE ADVICE from a disability specialist or have a look at sites like MIND and maybe follow up with a phone call to see what can be done.

My own opinion is that it is UP TO YOU ALONE to try and extricate your son from this process
as I do not actually believe if he shows any signs of aggression which given the pressure he is under that is more probable than not, THE ASSESSOR could stop the interview and the whole process starts again.

It would be worth going the extra mile as the assessor could be just an RGN nurse anyway
who does not even understand your sons issues.

GOOD LUCK