Help with ESA and pip assessments for autistic son

Hi all. Have a 27 year old son at home. Nervous breakdown and moderate to severe autism. Trying to claim pip and ESA for him. Both want a face to face assessment. Have cancelled both and sent a dr note to say why he can't do face to face. Still they send appointments. Am tearing hair out trying to sort. Any ideas? Have written to local MP too. Thanks Carol

Hi Hydon and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

I'm afraid that this is a very difficult situation Your son's claims can only progress once the Assessment Provider has made a recommendation to DWP. Whether or not the claimant needs a face2face assessment is entirely at the discretion of the AP - if they want more information they will not make a recommendation without it.

You say that you have already involved your MP. Has this brought about any change of attitude?

The only other thing I can suggest is that you contact the AP (Capita or ATOS of PIP and Maximus for ESA) and ask what additional information they need in order to move on. However, I'm afraid that members who have tried this have not had much success.

May I suggest that you bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future? This will allow you to return with further questions or comments about your son's claims without having to start a new topic each time. We ask members to keep everything relating to the same subject in one topic as it makes our 'job' very much easier - and I hope you will find it useful too

Thanks for that. Only contacted MP today , so early days with that. Will try the AP route. Terrible treatment of autistic adults, shame on the government for this ridiculous system.