The assessment letter arrives and the family does not know who it is for. An appointee has taken on the claim, the claimant cannot follow it, and nobody has said who must be in the room. The DWP’s guide to its own assessors answers each of those questions, and it is more generous to appointees than the letters make it look.
Who the letter goes to
The DWP’s assessment guide says that where a claimant has an appointee, the invitation to assessment letter must be sent to the appointee only and not the claimant, because the claimant has been deemed incapable of engaging directly with the DWP (PIP assessment guide, part 1, checked 1 November 2026).
The guide describes an appointee as someone authorised to become fully responsible for acting on the claimant’s behalf in any dealings with the DWP.
A letter that goes to the claimant instead is an error. The guide does not say what happens to the date on a misdirected letter, so treat it as live: ring the number on the letter, say there is an appointee, and ask for the invitation to be reissued to them.
Who must attend
The guide is unambiguous: a consultation cannot go ahead if the appointee does not accompany the claimant, and appointees are required to attend assessments (PIP assessment guide, part 1, checked 1 November 2026). Where the appointee is an organisation, a corporate appointee such as a council or a care provider, the person attending can be anyone within that organisation.
That is different from a companion. The guide says claimants have a right to be accompanied to a consultation if they wish, and that companions should take no part in examinations. A companion supports; an appointee acts. A claimant with an appointee can bring a companion as well.
When the claimant need not attend
The guide says a consultation may go ahead with the appointee only as long as all of the following are satisfied: the issue relates to the claimant’s health condition, it is medically reasonable, and it is not due to choice or convenience (PIP assessment guide, part 1, checked 1 November 2026).
A claimant whose dementia makes a strange room and a stranger’s questions distressing, or whose mental health condition makes the journey unsafe, meets that test on the condition itself. Say so when the appointment is made, in those terms, and ask the assessment provider to record it. Convenience is the ground that fails.
Who answers
The appointee answers for the claimant, because the guide describes them as fully responsible for acting on the claimant’s behalf in any dealings with the DWP. Where the claimant is present and can answer, both can speak. The appointee’s job is the one the claim form set: describing the claimant’s bad days as well as their good.
How often, for how long, and what happens when nobody is there are the details the assessor needs.
Our Attendance Allowance wording checker was built for a different form, but the four things it checks for are the four things a PIP assessor listens for. Take the copy of the form that was sent in; an appointee who describes something differently from the form will be asked why.
If there is an attorney or a deputy instead
The guide covers those too. If the claimant attends on their own, the assessment can go ahead if the claimant has capacity; if capacity has been lost, the claimant must be accompanied by the attorney, and a claimant with a deputy must be accompanied (PIP assessment guide, part 1, checked 1 November 2026).
Where the claimant has told the DWP they want an attorney to act, the attorney’s details are on the system and the invitation goes to them.
An attorney is not an appointee, and our do I need an appointee page explains why a claimant with a registered power of attorney cannot be given one.
At a tribunal
The rules of the tribunal that hears benefit appeals say a party may appoint a representative, whether a legal representative or not, to represent that party in the proceedings. At a hearing a party may also be accompanied by another person who, with the tribunal’s permission, may act as a representative or otherwise assist.
That is rule 11 (Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Social Entitlement Chamber) Rules 2008, rule 11, checked 1 November 2026).
The rules do not give an appointee a separate status; the appeal is brought in the claimant’s name and the appointee, who signed it, represents them. The appointee can name a welfare rights adviser as representative instead and still attend. A claimant who cannot attend a hearing is a matter for the tribunal to decide on the evidence, and the appointee should say in the appeal form why.
Payment
GOV.UK says the benefit is paid directly to the appointee, to be spent in the claimant’s best interests (GOV.UK, Become an appointee for someone claiming benefits, checked 1 November 2026). An award that follows the assessment goes to the appointee’s account, and our appointee page covers the duties that come with it.
If the person’s money is being withheld, our removing an appointee page covers the DWP’s power to end the arrangement. Where the award itself is wrong, our PIP scored too low page and PIP tribunal page cover the challenge, and the PIP hub what happens at State Pension age.