Clients will have to show 'good reason' for not attending a telephone medicals- 'i) Claimants may have their claim disallowed if they fail to attend or participate in their telephony assessment, however we are taking a number of steps to ensure that no individuals are unfairly penalised. Claimants who fail to attend or participate in a telephony assessment will therefore be contacted in the first instance to establish the reason and rearrange the appointment where possible. This recognises that there may be situations where, due to circumstances outside their control (e.g. health conditions or disability) claimants may be unable to attend or participate.
ii) Healthcare Professionals will continue to make recommendations based on paper-based evidence where possible for those claimants who have already returned their PIP2 and have a scheduled assessment. Where this is not possible a telephony assessment may occur. They will be of a similar structure to that of face-to-face assessments and provide the Healthcare Professionals with an opportunity to gain further evidence from the claimant about how their health condition or disability affects their daily life and mobility needs. DLA to PIP reassessment claimants will not need to return a PIP2 at this time, form unless their needs have changed.
B. Where appropriate, it is possible for an appointee and/or companion to join a
telephony assessment even if they are based in different locations.'
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The government has previously said- 'Effective from 24 March, a decision was taken to suspend all review and reassessment activity unless an individual reports a change in their needs, including existing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claimants who have been invited to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Activity has been suspended on the majority of cases and work is ongoing to suspend activity on any remaining cases identified. Recipients of DLA who have already been invited to claim PIP, and have not yet been invited to an assessment, will continue to be paid their DLA and will be contacted in the future about their PIP claim. Recipients of DLA who have been invited to claim PIP and have already been invited to an assessment, will be required to take part in a telephone assessment where possible as this will help us process their claim.'
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