ESA Medical-Anxiety & Depression

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i'm not going to skip around the bush here and hold back key points you would need to know this may frighten you and is not my intention but i feel you should know.

i doubt very much that you would get a home visit from ATOS, but there is no harm in asking, you would need a letter from the GP stating why you would need one but they can over rule your GP and still request you to attend a center.

failure to attend will mean your either sanctioned by ESA or that your completely suspended from it.

do not worry so much about who is taking the atos assessment, you can have someone with you throughout the whole process if it eases your anxiety, and make sure you tell the assessor why this person is with you rather than assume they are there just take you and pick you up.

what i would do, is ask ATOS to make provisions to you MH, it it would ease you to sit in a room of your own with your OH, then tell them that before you attend or ask your OH to ask them, all you need to do is confirm you are who you are overe the phone and say i give authority for my OH to speak to you and that will be fine so he can explain you situation to them and ask the if you can be placed in a room of your own instead of the waiting area to ease you anxiety.

please dont put a brave face on in going in the center when all you want to do is bolt for the door, show your condition in its entirety and full swing, looking as if your coping will suggest to them that your completely fine.

there no tribunal in the making as of yet, so put this out your mind.

if you wish to submit more evidence, then you can obtain past reports that were sent to your GP simply by asking the receptionist for copys from your medical file, try and have approx dates you seen these people as this will cut time they take to get them from your notes or the system they have.

once you have copies, photocopy them and send off the copy either via the jobcenter via thier internal mail and ask for a itemised receipt. or via recorded mail, if sent the latter, it will get to the benefit delivery center and it can take 10 days from there to reach the relevant department, and then upto 7 working days to be put infront of a decision maker and on the system.

this will bear no brunt to a atos assessor though but after his/her report is complete (esa85) the report and evidence is then put before the decision maker to make a decision of what group you will be placed in.

i must ask, have you updated ESA of your conditions as and when you have been, and in the esa50? if so these will have to be taken into account, if not then they will only assess from what you have put in your claim pack and esa50, so if you havend done an update with them now would be the time to do it.

stigofthedump

Not wishing to add more gloom but being able to use the internet and phone i.e. communicate, passes you fit for work.

tommix

patd1967 wrote: »

what really winds me up is i put a report in from GP and also a consultant at the hospital what happened.
The DWP and ATOS both said they dont read them as it isnt relevat to your case.who knows more about your medical problems than your medical professionals who see you regularly?

Eh? How is a GP and Consultant report not relevant to your case? If that is the case why do they bother giving you the option to send in supporting medical evidence with the ESA50?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

tommix wrote: »

Eh? How is a GP and Consultant report not relevant to your case? If that is the case why do they bother giving you the option to send in supporting medical evidence with the ESA50?

often they are looked at but ignored for the favour of the atos report because its seen as the most recent report and medical assessment to the GP one.

mynameistallulah

stigofthedump wrote: »

Not wishing to add more gloom but being able to use the internet and phone i.e. communicate, passes you fit for work.

This is not true.

There is some very good advice on this thread, but also some that is downright dangerous. People do others no favours by exaggerating and making sweeping generalisations.

shackalak

I suffer with anxiety and had my ESA medical last October. I was scared as hell and I went on my own (I did my hair and took care of my appearance as normal) and was still classed as not being fit for work and placed in the Work Related Group.

I answered all my questions truthfully and yes, I did break down and cry, shake quite a lot and take about half an hour in the waiting room after the medical trying to compose myself to be able to face the world and make my way home, but that's my condition and how it affects me. The reason for my anxiety was because I had been the victim of a crime and was (and still am) going through a nasty police investigation. I took with me some documents in relation to what had happened and the lady copied them and placed them with my case.

My ESA stopped last May after I had received it for a year and I'm still not back at work yet. I have a good employer who is still paying me some sick pay (my ESA was deducted from my prolonged sickness benefit) and they are holding my job open for when I am better. They are also supporting me along the way.

I would say be yourself. Be honest with your answers and if you are genuinely not fit to work, they will appreciate this. I've now started on a course of CBT therapy arranged by occupational health from work and it is so beneficial. May be worth checking with your GP if this would be anything you may benefit from.

Hope everything goes well for you.

chris1973

Not wishing to add more gloom but being able to use the internet and phone i.e. communicate, passes you fit for work.

I used to think that too. Some time ago I used to read MSE, and see people making 10k posts in a relatively short period of time, and think "If you are fit enough to spend 6 hours per day making 30 or 40 detailed posts on a forum, then you are more than capable of doing some kind of seated paid employment like data inputting on a PC"

Then I realised that there are many other factors in that equation, ones which perhaps aren't immediately obvious. The main one being that the Environment in a workplace is totally different to a controlled environment at home

Oh and before you come back with some cute reply, for the record I've worked full time for the same company for the last 21 years, and have never claimed ESA, so I have no bias or personal vested interests in stating my opinion!.

I also echo the earlier post that I made, in that unless you actually have suffered anxiety of the levels experienced by the OP (and other sufferers) then you have no personal experience, at least not enough to pass judgement on them.

I have several deep seated phobias, all of which trigger intense anxiety. Fortunately non of them stop me from working, but are still serious enough to encroach into other aspects of life, and the anxiety from those phobias are enough to make me extremely sympathetic towards those whose fear triggers the minute they step out of their house.

We all have different coping mechanisms, and we all chemically deal with and process fear, stress and anxiety in different ways. So it would be wrong to assume that just because you deal with anxiety better than some people, that they are the same as you, anymore than its deemed logical to assume that just because its raining in your back garden, its raining in the gardens of several million other people too.

Pinkylouloubell

Hi OP,

Just wanted to say good luck.

Make sure you check the assessment to , to ensure they have recorded the information correctly.

My sister had hers over the phone as she couldn't face attending and spent days in a full blown panic attack beforehand.
It one of the only times in the last few years shes spoken on the phone and only because she knew shed have to go out otherwise.

They asked her loads of questions that she answered as honestly as possible and then when the claim came through she was rejected and having read the assessment they had recorded loads of things wrong.

She appealed and won.

It wasnt an easy time, but she got through it.

Graudually getting better after lots of CBT and counselling and step by step progress.

XXX

zippy1969

Can it not be argued that if you are 'well', this can be attributed to you being on ESA and not having to work. Then if you are forced to work, your condition may return and you would therefore need to stop working and claim ESA in order to be 'well' again.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19370200