DWP & Capita questions

HI all, I had an appointment for a face to face assessment back in November, this was cancelled by capita the day before, no reason given. I had a phone call in the New Year saying my new appointment has also been cancelled, just as well as I knew nothing about it & the letter arrived 5 days after the said appointment date. The lady on the phone said not to do anything & they would be in touch with another date. So last week a letter came from the DWP saying that they have decided to extend my award for DLA & carers allowance & if this changes they will be in touch. I have been away at a relatives as I've not been too good & had a nasty virus so stayed there & my son contacted me this morning to say a letter had arrived from Capita so I told him to open it & he read it to me & it said that I was to attend a assessment at 9am this morning
It was now nearly 9.15am so the letter arrived after the appointment anyway. My stepdad has gone to my house to get the letter & now I've seen it I can see that it says the appointment was to be at my home address. My confusion is the letter from capita is dated 11.01.16 but the letter from the DWP is dated 19.01.06 so wouldn't the DWP letter over ride the capita one & maybe there's been a communication lapse (again). I have spent nearly an hour trying to ring capita today but to no avail I remain on hold listening to, thank you for holding, your call is important to us we will be with you shortly! I gave up as I can't afford that phone bill so I have emailed them instead & had an automated reply back saying, someone will be in touch in two days.. It did say at the start of the capita phone call that they have had a technical error with appointment letters going out so I am hoping this is all another mess up by capita & I stick with the letter from the DWP! Its really rather stressful all this which is not good on top of already not great health! Any help or advice or if anyone else has had this would be very gratefully received.
Thank you & good luck

Hi Gordon, the first I knew anything about today's appointment was when the letter arrived this morning & that came after the appointment time. I have only been at a relatives for a few days, every appointment I have so far had with them they have cancelled so I haven't missed or changed any myself it's all been done by them.
I have just had a phone call off capita via my mobile & the lady said 'I am just ringing to inform you that today's appointment has been cancelled as the assessor is unavailable' this was at 3.15 which is absolutely crazy for them to inform me now 6 hours after my supposed appointment!
I'm just about at the end of my tether with all this & feel like just saying to heck with it all, I have health & mobility issues which I have the backing of medical professions yet I feel like i am waiting to be scrutinised by some random stranger & its not helping at all!

Thank you Gordon.
I did ring the DWP this morning & thankfully they answer their phones! The lady said the letter I had from them was just because my original award would have ended in December 2015 so it is just to say I will continue to get my money till I have my assessment.

I am aware of major staffing issues with capita in this area so I wonder if that may be the issue with all the cancelled appointments as I believe the appointments are made somewhere else.

Can you confirm for me that they do need to give so many days notice in writing for an appointment? This is so far something they have not done as any letter's I have had from them have all arrived late one 5 days late.
Thank you for the links
Hagsbird