ESA assessments - this may be of use to you

Thank you I’ll work on that over the weekend:slight_smile:

I don’t see that icon? I just grabbed an image from Google and put it in the bbcode :angel: (IMG)URL(/IMG) and replace () with [ ]

Just as in I have been using bbcode since I was like 15? :wink:

Oh he looks quite nice. Think I’ll see if he’s free for my trip to Canterbury tomorrow! Yes, I am leaving Norwich for a trip “down South” for a few days with Mum as I’m going to a conference to give a paper. The wonders of Steroids that have got me on my feet - and the wonders of steroids that have now given me the body of Pavarotti. I feel SOOO uncomfortable! See you in a few days folks!

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Hope it all goes swimmingly darinfan!

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Enjoy Canterbury. It’s lovely and warm in the South East and sunny too.

Thank you. Surviving so far!

Meanwhile, how is the mtx this week, poo? Or not taken it yet?

When I visualize what the report states, how on earth could you go to work? I agree with you: the assessor is hallucinatory!

Let’s have an impromptu rendition of O Sole Mio then!

Told not to take it this week, Darinfan. And the nurse is to call me tomorrow to discuss what happens next. I’m very glad of the break too. Hope Canterbury is treating you well.

Well. Finally got an answer from the DWP regarding my appeal. And it appears that I have won, and will be put back into the support group. I don’t fully believe it until I have it in writing (or the back pay in my bank!) as they have got it wrong on the phone before, but from what she was saying I think the woman on the phone had got it right.

If so, my next step is to make complaints and make public that the guy who did the assessment of me lied about what I told him. I’m not going to let that stand - it shouldn’t be happening. And when someone who works at the job centre tells you it was because you were the last appointment of the week and the quota for the support group would have already been met, hence why I was marked down, you know something has to be done.

Here’s someone training to do assessments filming undercover. This is what we are fighting against!

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@trust_level_0 Check out this great story of persistence ona disability claim not to mention a “HAPPY ENDING” Sorry about the beets yesterday. Trying out a new feature I just installed. You guys are my usual Guinea Pigs for this sort of thing because you are so patient with me!

TJ

I can relate to this. Just before I was 60 I applied for DLA as it was then. Someone actually came to my house to do the assessment. He asked loads of questions could I cook a meal from fresh veg etc. I said due to my rheumatoid arthritis I couldn’t peel veg and couldn’t lift heavy pans. I got turned down and when I saw his report he lied and said I could cook a meal from fresh veg. People told me to appeal, but my pride wouldn’t let me. Wish I had as now I am 68 an amputee and can’t get Motability because of my age. So, I had to buy my own adapted car. Really annoying so just keep appealing. Someone told me that more often than not they turn you down first time.

The quota factor is well-known, yet to my knowledge it has never been successfully challenged except by means of individual appeals. It is what makes appeals so essential and, so often, successful. The thinking is that only a relatively small percentage of people will bother so the true quotas probably take account of that possibility. You’re up against the carefully cultivated and widespread prejudice towards ‘benefits scroungers’ + austerity. I’m not sure what you’d be taking on by complaining, but I’d be very interested in how you proceed with this. And interested in supporting in any way possible.

My understanding from reading around is that around 12% of decisions get overturned at the “Mandatory Reconsideration” phase - which is where you ask the DWP to look again. This is the stage where mine has been overturned. I had a doctors letter to back me up, but even so that doesn’t always seem to do the trick. I sometimes wonder (and I don’t mean this in a cocky way at all) if having a “Dr” before my own name on a letter I write has an effect in these kinds of things. I don’t normally use it, but I do on this kind of thing - I wonder if adds clout in the most shallow way possible. They also, of course, don’t know what I’m a doctor of! They might think medicine - when in fact it’s film-related!

Had I lost at that stage, the next one would have been the tribunal. Staggeringly, around 50% of claims are overturned there - which shows just how crooked the system is. But the problem is, a lot of people haven’t got the health or know-how or energy to take things that far. And, to be fair, I probably wouldn’t have done.

On the plus side of this, the woman on the phone today told me the decision was for 24 months - whereas the last one was for 18 months, so I’ve gained there too!

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I fail to see how that is a happy ending. Im depressed now

Well done Darinfan. And yes if you have the energy and the will - you should take it as far as you can too.

hello, sorry but i hve been in a different world off late. Have not had the inclination to share my thoughts. So thanks for the promt. re; ESA chat. to the best of my knowledge the distance that a body can walk before having to stop due to pain etc was reduced from 50m to 20m. so check before filling out forms. the CAB should provide customers with a list of the criteria for each question in the form. if you cannot take someone with you as a witness. you may request to have the interview recorded. however this will not protect you from the ineptitude of DWP processes. ps it may help to warn people that eating large amounts of beetroot can turn your urine blood red! I can still remember the fright i had the first time i found this out, ha ha thought my kidneys had given up. good luck to all

Laura, the reduction in distance was for PIP and not ESA. Which makes even less sense and PIP is meant to help us pay for the extra costs we incur for being disabled, and I’m not sure walking 20 metres means we don’t have extra travel costs, unless bus stops, shops and doctors are all within 20 metres of where we live!!