POSSIBLE ESA ASSESSMENT PROBLEM

My friend phoned me on Tuesday to tell me that she had just received the brown envelope with her ESA Assessment appointment for 14 June. Early Wednesday morning she phoned me in a panic saying she thought she was having a stroke (which, by the time I got there, she definitely was). She is now in the Acute Stroke Ward at the local hospital and it looks as though she could be there quite a wee while and it looks as though it will be highly unlikely that she will be in any fit state to have an ESA assessment in just over 2 weeks time. I am also concerned that missing the assessment could result in her losing the ESA she currently receives.

She now also has pneumonia, has great difficulty speaking & even more so being understood. Would it be appropriate for me, as she is currently unable to make the call herself, to contact the DWP on her behalf to inform them of her condition or would it have to be her NoK? A further complication being that her NoK, her sister, is in the midst of another family crisis as her husband was transferred to a hospital 30 miles away after having a brain haemorrhage on Tuesday morning and, needless to say, finding it all very stressful to cope with.

Lima,
whilst sorting out permission to speak on friends behalf, how about the hospital? getting a letter to submit from them & keeping copies for future reference.

Managed to speak with Assessment Centre on behalf of my friend. It took a wee while to get them to understand that it was a waste of time to give her another appointment only 2 weeks later than the one she was given as she was most likely months away from recovery!

The person I spoke with said they couldn't give an appointment several months away but would send out a letter with another date and in the meantime would I speak with her Doctor and as them to write a letter to Assessment Centre explaining the situation, I also gave them the phone number of the Ward she was in so that they could speak to someone there.

Yesterday when I went to my friends flat there was a letter with a new assessment date of 24 June but when I went to her flat today there was another letter saying ignore yesterday's letter! They have said they would now be in touch at a later date and her payments would continue.

Needless to say that's now one less thing to worry about, for the time being at least.