What happens now he's failed the esa

Bootsalebargains

My dad had a car accident febuary 2010 and been off sick since, he has was finished in work in march 2011 and been on esa assesment rate.
The letter arrived this morning to say he had scored 0 points and to go on job seekers he's phoned job seekers and has to go on monday to sign the forms. I've told him to appeal as he's got no points for standing over 30 minutes and as he has sciatica in his hip and soft tissue damage in his lower back which has cause pain for the last 12 years he cannot do this,
Also they said he can bend and get back up but although he can bend he cannot get back up without holding on to something and again he scored 0 points

What happens now.
If he appeals does he go back on assesment rate
How long is an appeal likely to take.

thank you for any advice

welshmoneylover

Bootsalebargains wrote: »

My dad had a car accident febuary 2010 and been off sick since, he has was finished in work in march and been on esa assesment rate.
The letter arrived this morning to say he had scored 0 points and to go on job seekers he's phoned job seekers and has to go on monday to sign the forms. I've told him to appeal as he's got no points for standing over 30 minutes and as he has sciatica in his hip and soft tissue damage in his lower back which has cause pain for the last 12 years he cannot do this,
Also they said he can bend and get back up but although he can bend he cannot get back up without holding on to something and again he scored 0 points

What happens now.
If he appeals does he go back on assesment rate
How long is an appeal likely to take.

thank you for any advice

Can you elaborate on what you mean by 'soft tissue damage'?
I thought that meant bruising which should heal in time.

I've worked with people who have sciatica and still hold down a job so not sure that would preclude him from working.

relic

Can he sit down okay?

viktory

Hmmm, sounds like he failed with good reason! Anyway, he can appeal during the course of which he will be on the assessment rate of ESA. The length of time it will take to get to appeal varies - can be up to a year so I hope he has a supportive GP. In the meantime, can he not consider what jobs he can do instead of being dependent on benefits?

Cpt.Scarlet

Bootsalebargains wrote: »

What happens now.
If he appeals does he go back on assesment rate
How long is an appeal likely to take.

If he chooses to appeal, he must do so withing one month of the date on the decision letter using a GL24 form that should have been included with it.

While he appeals he is eligible to receive the ESA assessment rate as long as he provides Fit notes from his doctor that he is unable to work.

Average time for an appeal is approaching a year, but some regions are a lot worse, with the IB to ESA transfer now started the waiting time is only going to get worse.

MrsManda

Bootsalebargains wrote: »

...as he has sciatica in his hip and soft tissue damage in his lower back which has cause pain for the last 12 years he cannot do this,

Do you mean 12 months? If he's had it for 12 years and was working prior to his accident then unless it's got considerably worse since the accident it is not really relevant.

Remember whereas his GP will have looked at whether he can work in his current/most recent employment when deciding whether to sign someone off sick, the assessment for ESA is focussed on what work a person is capable of. Is there really no work he is capable of?

nad1611

Bootsalebargains wrote: »

My dad had a car accident febuary 2010 and been off sick since, he has was finished in work in march and been on esa assesment rate.
The letter arrived this morning to say he had scored 0 points and to go on job seekers he's phoned job seekers and has to go on monday to sign the forms. I've told him to appeal as he's got no points for standing over 30 minutes and as he has sciatica in his hip and soft tissue damage in his lower back which has cause pain for the last 12 years he cannot do this,
Also they said he can bend and get back up but although he can bend he cannot get back up without holding on to something and again he scored 0 points

What happens now.
If he appeals does he go back on assesment rate
How long is an appeal likely to take.

First of all as you've said the letter came this morning, so you've about a month to appeal. You need to get Form GL24 and fill it in and send it off.
Taking the issues you raised, if I'm reading it correcvtly, you obviously feel he should have scored points for not being able to stand more than 30mins, which could have scored him 9 points. He would not for the purposes of the test be expected to stand still for 30mins but could move around, so how's his walking? I'm presuming if he has trouble standing for 30 mins he would have difficulty sitting for 30 mins too or less if the pain is that bad, so he could have scored points there too. Also what about moving between sitting and standing are there any problems with that?

As for the bending and up again, did the assessor ask your father to do this? Did your father do it but had to hold onto something when he raised himself up? These are the things which you will need to challenge. Look at some of the really good sites e.g work and benefit, to see if your father would qualify for the WRAG and you'll get a better understanding of the chances of your appeal being upheld.

Hammyman

Bootsalebargains wrote: »

he has sciatica in his hip and soft tissue damage in his lower back which has cause pain for the last 12 years he cannot do this,

Doesn't stop him from being able to work. I've just reached my 20th anniversary of such pain and apart from a 10 month period, I've worked pretty much constantly.

nad1611

welshmoneylover wrote: »

Can you elaborate on what you mean by 'soft tissue damage'?
I thought that meant bruising which should heal in time.

I've worked with people who have sciatica and still hold down a job so not sure that would preclude him from working.

Actually soft tissue damage can mean many things, for example most people think of Rheumatoid Arthritis being an inflammatory process affecting the joints, but arthritis is a soft tissue problem, the bones being affected are as a result of this damage.

The op didn't say he couldn't work she simply said they weren't happy with the 0 points. They might for all we know have been happy with the WRAG where he could be slowly helped back to work.

nad1611

Hammyman wrote: »

Doesn't stop him from being able to work. I've just reached my 20th anniversary of such pain and apart from a 10 month period, I've worked pretty much constantly.

Whilst your working through with your sciatica is highly commendable, like any physical ailment you can't simply say that sciatica wouldn't stop him working, yours could be more tolerable than his. I had sciatica once and I couldn't do anything but lie down for weeks it was so bad. We're all different and the same illness will affect us all in different ways. Hence the reason why some medications work for some people and others don't.

I might as well say I didn't have pain relief for my children being born therefore every woman should be able to do that, which would be absolutley ridiculous.

The op isn't saying he shouldn't work she's asking about a zero points score, which might mean they'd have been perfectly happy to be in the WRAG.

Bootsalebargains

He had a fall 12 years ago and been in pain with his back ever since the doctor has said it's soft tissue damage and they can't do anything just give him pain killers. He was on the sick for 12 months and got DLA while he was off. This company offered him voluntry redundacy due to his ill health and when he got another job he got extra money in his tax credits due to his injury.
His last job was working in the local recycling site as his job involved walking around telling people which skip to put their rubbish in and helping them lift it, he's been there for about 7 years.
After the car accident on his way to work last year he had plates in his arm and is still waiting for an operaton on his shoulder, as his job involved lifting he was on the sick and has now been finished.
At the atos they asked him can he bend and get back up to which he answered I can bend but I need something to hold onto to get back up they didn't ask him to do it.
His sciatica is ok when he is walking it's just when he has to stand in one spot, he did try working in a factory on a conveyor line just before his job in recycling but had to leave as he was in agony.


I do think he should have got some points for the standing/sitting for 30 minutes & the bending.
we're not saying he can't do any job but at the moment with his shoulder although he can move it any repetative movements is agony