I applied for PIP back in March I was prepared for it to be a long drawn out process but 8 months on I have just received a letter today from Atos.
I got very excited thinking at last an appointment BUT the letter only says your claim was referred to us on the 17th March we will need to see you for a consultation and we’ll write to you again when we have an appointment time!!
AAaagh!!! How about you guys have you been waiting a ridiculouly long time for an assessment too?
Come on Atos get your act together, 8 months just to acknowledge you’ve received my claim, honestly!
I applied for PIP in July I think it was. I readied myself for a long wait but was surprised at the speed of Capita and had my home assessment a couple of weeks ago. The assessment took joust over 2 hours and after going through a DLA process including Tribunal I made sure that I had all my evidence clearly documented to support the assessment. It sounds like ATOS have got a major backlog!
I also applied for PIP in March and was told last week that I had been awarded the enhanced rate, but because of my postcode and the fact that I was already in receipt of DLA at the lowest rate, that I would be paid from the end of November.
My advise is to keep calling DWP and then when it is all sorted, complain about the length of time this has all taken.
I have contacted my local MP about this, and she is now also on the case.
If enough people call the DWP into question about length of wait for awards, you never know, something might get sorted for future claims!!!
LM24 - Complain to ATOS and contact your MP re the length of time, etc. I did both after waiting about 7 or 8 months - and boy does it make a difference once your MP is involved!
Thank you all for your replies. It has urged me to call ATOS again today but to be told yet again it’s a long process and they cannot tell me when my assessment appointment will be. The only ‘positive’ I can take from this whole frustration is that my mobility as worsened over the past 8 months so I should qualify for more points now that if they’d assessed be back in March!!