Incapacity benefit, esa assessment!

julie59

bikeit
My husband has changed his work pattern so that he finishes at 1.30pm, my daughter calls in at 8.30am to check on me and comes at 1.00pm lunch time.
The doctor wrote I can make a cup of tea, and cereal in the morning and wash the cup up. my husband gets everything ready for me and sometimes i just put the cup in the sink. and she said I am fit for work. Have a wonderful CAB person helping, so hopefully, all will go well. I am getting DLA yet I can work?

princessdon

I am getting DLA yet I can work?

People who work DO claim DLA, the two are not inherrently connected.

bikeit

I dont know anyone who has went through this process that has not said it is very stressful on the whole family unit, my wife like all who claim the benefit would rather be going out to work so they could be earning their own money and have some sort of living standard.

Muttleythefrog

julie59 wrote: »

Just reading the threads on here aand I'm scared, my medical assessment failed, I scored 0 last year i had 15 points.
I rung them and they sent me the report, I couldn't believe what the Doctor had written, the lies, To cut thing short I have 4 disc in my back gone, I also have lots of other medical problems, I am on 16 tablets a day, I have had 2 nervious breakdowns. i do not go out alone, and do not like being left alone. i do not like meeting new people as I cannot talk easy to them. If i have to go anywhere I have to sit at the back of the room facing front. This is just the tip of the iceburg. i have been like this for years, but ashamed to admit it. Not all the questions for these problems came up , but most did, yet I scored 0
Now i am on appeal with the help of CAB but am terrified I will have to go in front of people I don't know, How can these people at ATOL not write the truth, I cried most of the time in the interview, yet she put was dressed well and sat for 30 mins in chair, which was a lie.

sorry i'm rambling but am really scared, my doc has given me a medical cert

Sorry to hear of your situation. Sadly what you describe is all too common. But anyway.. onward looking to the tribunal... see it as a chance to tell it how it is (make sure you make every effort to go.. the short term suffering is countered by significantly improved chances of success).. focus on the descriptors.. focus on those ones that will qualify you for the benefit. This link below is the Ministry of Justice video for those who will have an ESA tribunal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbWXG6Ho4i8

MUMZ2BEE

Out of curiosity, can I please ask you what questions were you asked at your medical as I have got a medical on the 26th October!!??

Muttleythefrog

MUMZ2BEE wrote: »

Out of curiosity, can I please ask you what questions were you asked at your medical as I have got a medical on the 26th October!!??

The questions will depend upon your circumstances but commonly reported ones seem to relate to describing daily activities, hobbies, and often first of all the friendly 'did you enjoy your journey here today'. The idea of the questions they ask is to generate facts that can be used to determine applicability of descriptors. So if they ask if you have any hobbies and you reply gardening then they could draw inferences from that on ability to stand, sit, move arms, mobilise etc. The main problems that seem to arise from these medicals are that such obtained facts are wrongly recorded or misleadingly recorded and therefore incorrect inferences are made in relation to the descriptors.

MUMZ2BEE

Just been given the information by a friend who is on a forum.

Aparently you get asked questions like "Do you go to nightclubs", "Do you have pets", that sort of thing.

I thought upon reading this the questions seem very very personal!!

I know for a fact that ATOS try and trip you up, so I shall write my answers down before I go!!

Muttleythefrog

MUMZ2BEE wrote: »

Just been given the information by a friend who is on a forum.

Aparently you get asked questions like "Do you go to nightclubs", "Do you have pets", that sort of thing.

I thought upon reading this the questions seem very very personal!!

I know for a fact that ATOS try and trip you up, so I shall write my answers down before I go!!

lol... if you think that's personal you should have met my last psychiatrist who made some quite forensic inquisition about my sexual thinking. If you ever have to go for therapy or assessment for MH problems you're likely to face far more personal questions than if you like going to nightclubs or have a pet... the sorts of questions a stranger might ask you at a bus stop to be honest.

The reason for these questions is to generate facts. For example if you have a pet dog then they may infer from that (rightly or wrongly) that you can mobilise, move your arms etc. If you go to nightclubs then it may be inferred you have no problems relating to others or getting about etc.

The tripping up is something many feel... it's probably because of the indirect nature of the questions. For example.. instead of asking if you can sit for an hour in comfort they may ask if you watch films on the TV or at the cinema from which it could be inferred you could sit comfortably for over an hour. Problems often arise in that the facts recorded are incorrect... so for example you may say at medical that you love watching films but due to recent accident have found it difficult to sit down for long without pain... the HCP may simply record you love to watch films... and it is that kind of behaviour that is unacceptable and unethical.

I would say though that writing answers down to questions is probably largely a waste of time and largely because they'll be quite different person to person... this isn't like an exam with set questions and correct answers... it's about generating facts and determining the applicability of the descriptors... many of which may be completely irrelevant to you. The questions won't likely be difficult to answer or require preparation... it's just important you give full facts... so if they ask if your journey to the assessment centre was okay and you suffered from paranoia and wanted to punch a co-passenger for looking at you funny then the wrong answer is 'it was fine.. thanks for asking'.

Raksha

It's very difficult to try and anticipate what questions you will be asked, I've had two assesments and they were both very different. One was based around the several different possible descriptors, when this led to a condition the assesor wasn't qualified to asses, I had to attend a second one, which centred on one descriptor (and this wasn't the one which had caused the first appointment to be terminated)

Mojisola

Muttleythefrog wrote: »

The tripping up is something many feel... it's probably because of the indirect nature of the questions. For example.. instead of asking if you can sit for an hour in comfort they may ask if you watch films on the TV or at the cinema from which it could be inferred you could sit comfortably for over an hour. Problems often arise in that the facts recorded are incorrect... so for example you may say at medical that you love watching films but due to recent accident have found it difficult to sit down for long without pain... the HCP may simply record you love to watch films... and it is that kind of behaviour that is unacceptable and unethical.

The questions won't likely be difficult to answer or require preparation... it's just important you give full facts... so if they ask if your journey to the assessment centre was okay and you suffered from paranoia and wanted to punch a co-passenger for looking at you funny then the wrong answer is 'it was fine.. thanks for asking'.

This was my son's experience. Half of his answers were noted but not the qualifiers so, in her summing-up, the nurse made it sound as if he had a wonderful social life and spent most of the week enjoying himself. Even the fact that he was clean and tidily dressed was used against him.