Fail to attend for medical.

Gordon wrote:

It's not a problem

First thing to go is the spekking.

Gordon

NW my spillin is awful

When I spoke to an Atos adviser as spouse was too ill to travel, I was told that the day after the medical they send you a form asking why you did not attend. Your benefit will be stopped if they decide your reasons are not sufficient. Then you have to reapply for benefit.
Also told that you have one chance to reschedule the appointment. (if you phone to cancel one they send you another appointment - last chance!)
Our surgery faxed the doctors letter spelling out the problems AND QUOTING THE NATIONAL INSURANCE ,(they claimed several letters never arrived), and Atos phoned to say he did not have to attend the medical and was in the support group. We have not heard anything since. The stress has taken its toll on us.
good luck with your claim.
cemac

I too have been told by Medical Services that you can only rearrange an appointment once. Presumably Atos thinks that being flattened by a bus is not good cause for cancelling an appointment if it's your second arranged appointment, or it's just another way of saying that they're not very happy about you rearranging your appointment, and rather you didn't to it again.

An illness of any description which prevents a claimant from attending an assessment can constitute good cause, but it would need to be backed up by a doctor's medical statement.

The fact that Atos say that you can only rearrange an assessment once is irrelevant if you can prove on the balance of probabilities to the ESA decision maker, that illness prevented attendance. For example, a claimant may have required an emergency admission to hospital following a heart attack, which may prevent him/her attending an assessment for a prolonged period of time. In this case, it may not be appropriate to constantly rearrange appointments because of the nature of the illness. It is not for Atos to decide whether a claimant has or has not shown good cause for failure to attend the assessment, as they play no part in the decision making process. All they can do is inform the DWP that a claimant failed to submit for an assessment.

The ESA decision maker will have to decide in the light of all the (medical) evidence whether good cause for non-attendance has been shown, and subsequently decide whether ESA entitlement should continue in view of mitigating circumstances?