DLA to PIP. Fastracked? Or railroaded?

Hi

Having sent off my PIP2 (complete with 58 pages of detailed medical evidence, consultant letters, Carer's statements, etc...), I had a letter back from Capita confirming that they were now looking at my application, just 16 days after posting off my application.

A further 9 days later, a second letter arrived from Capita summoning me to a face-to-face consultation. Disappointing given the immense wealth of additional information that I had supplied, but not wholly unexpected.

What stunned me with this second letter (which arrived on Saturday 29th July), was that Capita have summoned me to Birmingham city centre at 8.00am on Tuesday 1st August. That's just 4 days from receiving their letter, to having to prepare for my medical. This I think, is less that the statutory notice period?

Annoyingly, this second Capita letter is dated 10 days ago, even though it only arrived on Saturday. The dates don't add-up,

I'd value your insight and opinion as I can't attend tomorrow's medical assessment. My Carer cannot get time off work at such short notice and I cannot get there on my own.

Thanks Gordan.

Yes, based on the date of the Capita letter, it complies with the 7 day notice period. I imagine then that the date of the letter dropping onto my door mat is irrelevant? That the 7 day notice period also includes 'transit time' for the letter to arrive?

It's just that I found the date on the Capita letter suspicious. Given the national average waiting time, I was surprised that they were able to review all of my evidence so very quickly, given that there was so much of it.

Further, I was also surprised by the incredibly quick turn-around-time for being called in for an assessment, given that I was placed in the ESA support group only 6 months ago (I appreciate that the descriptors are very different). My suspicion is that they haven't looked at the immense amount of supporting evidence before calling me in. I guess that there's nothing I can do about that.

I shall telephone the DWP and request an amendment to the date of the assessment. Figures crossed that by doing so, I don't end-up with an even worse appointment time or venue.

Thanks again as always for your prompt response. Appreciated.

Kind regards
Leed46