New tactic from DWP Contact centre staff?

Here is something I just experience from the Work capability assessment team. My wife has been waiting for over 18 months for a Work Capability Assessment. She is blind, limited use of one arm, mobility issues and the GP writes her 12 months "Fit notes" so a relatively simple case.

When we contacted the helpline for a date for the assessment. You could tell that he had not accessed her records because he was not referring to any details. The handler seemed to be deliberately rude and uncooperative. Then we when we pointed this out and asked for an apology, he refused. But not like you would noramly, like he was following a script.

Then he went on to say that we were engineering a situation because he could not provide any information. The way the person was handling the call, was so scripted it was obvious what they were doing:

Perform the basic checks, tell people we will write to them.If they complain turn the conversation around onto the caller and accuse them so they end the call.

Really sounds like another ploy to hide the delays in assessments

Hi,

Yes we have always found the DWP staff extremely helpful. We even had one member of staff tell us we were not claiming enough entitlements and we should apply for UC - which is where this all began 18 months ago.

However, we have an interesting update. Today Saturday 31st we received an appointment letter for a UC telephone assessment. Interesting that on Tuesday allegedly there was nothing on my wife's records. Yet the appointment was booked, letters printed and then sent 2 nd class post to arrive on Saturday. Most remarkably the appointment is within the next 10 days!

I have the suspicion that because of the backlog, staff have been told to not even looking up clients records and just dismiss the calls with a "we will write to you when we are ready" message.