BBC television to investigate problems with ESA - email from Benefitsandwork.co.uk - want to get involved?
As a benefitsandwork.co.uk I received an email with this request that I am passing on.
BBC
television to investigate problems with ESA
The BBC's current affairs department is investigating the difficulties people face when trying to claim ESA, for a television documentary. The programme aims to highlight claimants' experiences with the new system and to investigate why people with genuine illnesses and disabilities are being declared fit to work. Do you, for example, believe the results of your Atos assessment are wrong? Or perhaps you do not think they reflect the answers you gave to the doctor at the time.
“If you've had a problem claiming ESA and would like to discuss your experience, then please contact Liam McDougall as soon as possible on 0141 422 7559 or liam.mcdougall@bbc.co.uk
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Hi
If you look at the final page of an Incapacity to Work Questionnaire you have to sign away your rights in terms of protecting your healh records. This contradicts assurances I have obtained from my NHS trust that any information on medical records wiil only be accessed with express premission from me - so the Atos run DLA assessment is blackmailing people to give up their rights
A good web site is called Work and Benefits which provided detailed professiona advice on how to deal with Atos. For example it claims Atos refuses any writing or recording of interview ! I will send you the details of the Decaleration you have to sign later
Cheers
i have major spinal problems and cervical spondylosis in my neck and have been claiming esa since may, two weeks a go i had a medical and have now been told i have to go to work, i cannot sit for long and walk with a frame or stick, i cann ot even put on my own shoes and socks without help from my hubby yet apparently i am able to work, who is going to employ me when i need to sit , stand and lie down during the day, its not that i dont want to work its just that i cant, i have worked since i was 16 and am now coming up to fifty, i know people claim for having a bad back but mine is full of titanium rods and cages.
It seems to be the 'default position' that if you have a Work Capability Assessment you are placed in the Work Related Activity Group. You can ask the Jobcentre for a copy of the medical report on you. The medical report is document ESA85. You can also ask your doctors that provided medical reports for a copy of form ESA113 which is the form the DWP/ATOS send to them to be returned with you medical details.
I always recommend that people are aware that they can complain & appeal if they believe they have not been treated fairly or the decision is not correct.
It does seem as if Job Centre Plus decision makers are still, even though this is supposed to have changed, rubber stamping the ATOS medical report decision.
You have a time limit for appealing the process and copy of the leaflet GL24 is here
I would urge you to get in touch with a welfare advisor, your Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to help here.
In the mean time it may be useful to you to lodge and appeal, make a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act to get the information held on you by the Department for Work & Pensions and seek help.
A subject access request will reveal ALL the information connected with your decision, sometimes this can demonstrate sources of evidence not aquired by ATOS/Job Centre Plus and/or information you weren't aware of such as opinions and other information. This will help you challenge.
If you have any consultants involved in your care I would ask them to write a report on you and send it to Job Centre Plus as part of your appeal.
You can ask for a statement of reasons as to how the decision was made. This will be in the leaflet that came with your decision letter.
Finally please note that when you appeal, the Job Centre Plus will first review the decision to see if it was wrong. Only if they stand by that decision will it then progress to an appeal. This is known as 'recondiseration".
I hope this helps, and thank you for leting us know about your experience. It all adds to the evidence base.
My husband also had his medical 2 weeks ago and has been advised he is fit for work!!!
Well I am sorry but do these people actually see what I see, a man wincing in pain everytime he moves. He has degenerative discs in his back which are unoperable as confirmed with several consultants. He takes significant painkillers which make him drowsy. He has to use a stairlift, a rise and recline chair. When he has to walk he uses his walking sticks. He too needs me to help with his socks and shoes.
When the letter arrived he got on his mobility scooter and went to the Job Centre Plus office, who said it was not them!! When he left a member of staff quietly told him that he was one of thousands in the same predicament.
I think these need to be brought back into the limelight, the govt is walking all over the disabled in society. My husband would love to work but let's be realistic who would employ him? Maybe a group needs starting up.
There are many groups campaigning on the issues here. There have also been two UK wide marches "The Hardest Hit" this year. However it is about govermnent listening and acting.
I am sorry to read about your experience but it is not unique but more typical.
It may not be the responsbility of the individual at the Job Centre Office but it is the responsibility of the DWP Job Centre Plus organisation of which the office and its staff are part.
It maybe worth explaining the internal operations here. Every claimant here will have an office in the UK that deals with there claim. This office will not be the local Job Centre Plus office on the High Street.
When you make a claim or are being migrated from Incapacity Benefit. Your claim goes to a Benefit Centre. If required, they will then send information to ATOS for a Work Capability Assessment to take place. ATOS in turn will pass this information on to a local ATOS medical examination centre. Once your assessment is finished. ATOS then pass the assessment back to the Benefit Centre for a decision maker to consider the evidence and reach a decision.
If you are found fit for work or place in the Work Related Activity Group. The Benefit Centre will arrange for your local Job Centre Plus office on the High Street to call the claimant in for a Work Focused interview.
So yes, the local Job Centre Plus office isn't where decisions are made about claims. They may collected information concerning your claim but this will be assessed at your Benefit Centre.
You will find your Benefit Centre on the top of the letter sent to you. There will also be a telephone number 0845 603 63 47.
If you call have your National Insurance Number handy.
This number puts you through to the Call Centre. They maybe able to deal with a general enquiry but for a detailed equiry on your claim they may have to pass your issue on to the Benefit Centre who will call you back.
Glad to hear Someone can get any info from SAR because I have waited three years with a Parl. Ombudsman formal complaint and still the DWP dont cough up - what they do they have totally in mayhem and yet refuse to correct it!!!
I was awarded DLA after an intitial refusal then reconsideration that gave it to me, thereafter just 2 weeks and totally removed!!! Two letters same day saying reconsideration underway and the other totally refused go to Appeal!
Esa two years in process of appeal when I find a point of law for upper tribunal, they withdraw from giving leave to appeal and say they will cancel the last esa decision and have a new tribunal.
Dla seem to use atos drs who cant speak English since for every yes I gave she wrote no and vice versa - a commode I have too apparently! Incredible, lies upon more lies.
My wife has had to endure two medicals in two months. Her D.L.A application was turned down using a medical report 17 months out of date and had many errors on it. She was on Incapacity Benefit but had to have a new medical, this has just arrived and had even more errors than the first. She has Chronic Fatigue ( M.E) Fybromyalgia, depression and anxiety attacks. She has got so bad in the last year that she only goes out with me in the car. She is a prisioner to her conditions but acording to the Benefits office she is fit for work. The latest medical was conducted by a Registered nurse! not a Doctor.
Will some one explaine to me how a short medical can overide the evidence of her Doctor, Consultant in Chronic fatigue and Pain Management teams who all say she is too ill to work. The nuse stated she was on "standard" medication - Matazapine is one of them and i accidentally took one once , i was a happy gnome for 24 hours!
This is not a recent illness , this has been going on for twelve years! The Medicals and associated letters back and forth cause extreme anxiety , she was in pieces after opening the new medical, some of the answers were so "off" that you would swear they weren't in the same room. We took the Benifits agency to tribunal last time and had a lawyer present, we won but it looks like it's round two now they have changed the rules and moved the posts.
I have contacted my local MP but got the " hundreds are in the same boat" answer.
I feel so sad and angry, we just want a quiet life and some one to accept what the proffesionals have already confirmed, .
My wife would love to be able to do normal things , but like thousands of others she is outcast and thought of as a scronger when she tries to claim anything . I hope this informs and saddens people, we should be caring for those who need help not kicking them!
I am sorry to hear about your experience but thank you for sharing.
Dare I say that, even though living with a disability, some of us several medical issues, is difficult enough but part of the 'key' to 'fighting your corner' is to be organised. It may not help get the outcome from the start but will certain help any complaint and or appeal you may pursue.
I won't dwell on the accuracy of the Work Capability Assessment, we know it is "highly questionable" in its delivery, scope and accuracy.
So, my advice to you and anyone else reading this is to lay the ground work. Get some A4 folders or box files. Keep all your medical and benefits correspondence.
On the DLA, it seems to me that there was 'grounds' for an appeal and for a complaint (that in turn would have informed your appeal). The Decision Maker at the DWP is ultimately responsible for the decision of what award is granted and the process must be fair to you. For example if they used a medical report that was 17 months old and neglected to seek more up to date reports than this would be unfair to you.
Even though unfair, it really helps, when you get the 'brown envelope' on the door mat for a review to write to all the doctors that treat the claimant and explain the situation, asking for them to write a medical report. To send the report to you, to send on. That way you can see if it is 'complete'. You can submit any application in time stating clearly additional medical evidence is to follow - send this to ATOS (if relevant) but always send a copy to the DWP.
You can record ESA medicals now and need to request this. I suggest that you both appeal and complain on the basis that the WCA wasn't accurate, specifying by example where it is "so off". Also state if you wish to withdraw your appeal you will only do so in writting.
As for your MP, its not really a matter of how many are in the same boat. They represent you and your wife and need to be reminded they need to get involved.
Alas, for some years now the "direction of travel" for benefits has been to reassess more frequently.
Last august i'd an emergency colostomy (hartmanns procedure). The following November i'd a medical at Caronna House, Glasgow. It was carried out by a 'nurse' not a doctor and the result of the 'medical' that was decided by a DECISION MAKER proves to me that he/her has as much knowledge of the human body as i have in quantum phisics. It was decided that i had complete control of my bowels, which i obviously have none at all. In January i was back in for a reversal operation but unfortunately it couldn't be done and i was given an ileostomy which is ten times worse than a colostomy (i've got to plan any outings so as they are always near a toilet). I'm going in for a third operation in July and i've since been told that due to the volume of appeals mine will not be heard until at least August
yours
Stewart Carroll