ESA and Avoidant Personality Disorder?

Chorlie

I phoned the helpline and they filled the form in over the phone, took about 30mins.

But you need to speak with your GP first, they will have to sign you off (sick note) and you have to send these in while you're being reviewed for ESA (takes about 13 weeks), you'll have to go for a medical and an interview, then if you are awarded it you'll be place in either the Work Related Group or the Suport Group (you won't be in the latter).

The money side is the same as JSA for the review period and will increase to over £90 a week if you are placed in the Work Group, you'll then need to attend 5 work related interview (not hard pressure stuff) over the next few months.

So it's not a quick process, I started my claim on the 1st of April and have got the 4th of 5 interviews later this week, so should be complete by December that's 8 months...

So start with your Doctor, get signed off (3 months if possible, cover the review period) and then phone up the ESA claim line, then do the thing I wished I now did, speak to the CAB before your medical and first interview, see what they can advise you.

Its a long and at time hard process, just take a deep breath and take it one step at a time, the worst that can happen is the claim is rejected and you're where you are now, but if you don't try to claim you'll never get it....

Good Luck

NorthernLights_2

This happened to me, been off work for a while struggling (not with this problem I want to add, something completely different), got a sicknote from my Gp (plus an emergency referral to a specialist) and then I rang the DWP on their normal number (don't know if I can post it here? It's the 0845 one anyway, you can find it online) they arranged a callback to take my claim by phone, and I had a payment for a half week into my bank account within 10 days. they paid that because they were waiting for their sicknote and can only take you "on trust" for 7 days, and they don't pay for the first 3 days of that.

I tried to claim online but it didn't work for me, and I'm a (sometime) IT professional for crying out loud, the phone system is best BUT check your statement they send you, I thought I was doing okay because the chap who called me se3emed fine, but he put a huge load of incorrect info in....

GlasweJen

Have you ever actually applied for lab work? Just that most of the labs I've had placements with have required you to wear one of those paper hats when you're in the lab which would mean you'd only have to take your hat off to put their hat on and you could do that in a bathroom surely?

I don't see how you couldn't work in a garden over the summer with just one t-shirt on, we live in the UK so it's not exactly the warmest climate on the planet, I wear jumpers all year round!

Also most companies have a policy that allows Muslim women to wear a different uniform which looks like everyone elses but takes into consideration the fact that women who follow the stricter types of Islam need to keep their arms and heads covered and they wont necessarily be comfortable wearing "normal" trousers, they allow long sleeve t-shirts under our normal shirts (also available in long sleeves), baggy trousers (and I have a colleague who wears leggings under hers for religious reasons) and head scarves. I'm sure if you weren't in a customer facing role it would be fine to wear a hat of some description as long as it doesn't interfere with your job.

Claiming ESA for something like this makes a mockery of the system, you said yourself you were able to complete a degree just by wearing a hat! There are people out there who have life threatening medical conditions and they manage to get a job.

Mr_Falling_Star

I know who the Groke was! If you feel like that you probably are better off on ESA for the meantime