Incapacity to ESA letter

John_Clark

Hi,
Looking for some advice please
I have been on incapacity benefit for 8 years and have just received a letter from the DWP
it says;
QUOTE FROM LETTER... we need to assess you for Employment and Support Allowance.....
We need to telephone you you to talk about how this change will affect you and to answer any questions you have. We currently do not hold a telephone number for you so please call us on the number above in the next seven days. This is a local rate call.
We will ask you some questions to confirm your identity. After the call we will send you a questionnaire to complete with details of your illness or disability. This questionnaire is called Limited Capacity for Work.

The thing is the number they have given me is an 0845 number which I know from experience is far from the local rate call they claim it to be. In fact an 0845 number costs about 30 times as much per minute from a BT coinbox as a normal number.
The other thing is, from reading this forum, people seem to have had so many misunderstandings and disputes with them I would feel safer keeping as much as possible of my dealings with them in writing.

So my question is - should I phone them? and if so is there any limit to the amount of money I have to keep feeding into the phone box?

Dekota

1) Is the letter from ATOS or DWP?

2) What is your medical condition/disability?

John_Clark

Sorry, I should have said
The letter is from the DWP - the first I have heard from them for about 4 years
My main disability is disc degeneration in my lower spine which is shown on MRI Scans

dicky_dunock

Don't give them a number,they don't really need one,but thats up to you.Write to them and tell them you don't have a phone.Then they will have to put everything in writing in a letter/s.And send all letters/forms etc recorded delivery or if you can't afford that get a proof of posting at post office when you post it,its free.Try and copy everything you send and receive from the DWP and Atos.

Cpt.Scarlet

John_Clark wrote: »

Hi,
Looking for some advice please
I have been on incapacity benefit for 8 years and have just received a letter from the DWP
it says;
QUOTE FROM LETTER... we need to assess you for Employment and Support Allowance.....
We need to telephone you you to talk about how this change will affect you and to answer any questions you have. We currently do not hold a telephone number for you so please call us on the number above in the next seven days. This is a local rate call.
We will ask you some questions to confirm your identity. After the call we will send you a questionnaire to complete with details of your illness or disability. This questionnaire is called Limited Capacity for Work.

The thing is the number they have given me is an 0845 number which I know from experience is far from the local rate call they claim it to be. In fact an 0845 number costs about 30 times as much per minute from a BT coinbox as a normal number.
The other thing is, from reading this forum, people seem to have had so many misunderstandings and disputes with them I would feel safer keeping as much as possible of my dealings with them in writing.

So my question is - should I phone them? and if so is there any limit to the amount of money I have to keep feeding into the phone box?

All they are doing is trying to confirm that they have contacted you, if you don't contact the,then the next stage is for ATOS to send you an ESA50 questionnaire in about two weeks, this will still happen even if you don;t phone them, if it doesn't then you definitely need to contact them as there is a fixed timescale to complete and reuturn this form.

Muttleythefrog

Scarlet will be right. Following from that there is a pdf version of the ESA50 form you could take a copy of and get a head start on. I advise having at hand the descriptors (statements of disability) for ESA's two groups WRAG and Support group so that you understand what is being assessed and what information is important.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@money/documents/digitalasset/dg_195544.pdf

If you can get any supporting medical evidence relevant to the ESA criteria (the Work capability assessment descriptors) then that could be useful to send with the ESAS0 come the time.

Good luck.

dicky_dunock

Two helpful forums

http://dwpexamination.org/


http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=showcat&catid=10 this one you can only post between 2-4pm and 8-10 pm monday-friday

John_Clark

Thanks for the replies.
Funny they should ask for a phone number now - they have never phoned me before, everything has been arranged by post, or face to face assessments. Apart from when I rang them from a phone box to check a payment, and found out how expensive the phone call was from a coinbox to their 0845 number :eek:

silv.surfer

Just out of curiosity what is the situation with Alcoholics that were on Incapacity - one 8+ years another 4+ another 4+ years Alcohol and Prescription drugs after 7 months in Rehab. last year and has been hospitalized recently.

How do Atos asses those under the Rules. There are lots around in similar condition.

Muttleythefrog

silv.surfer wrote: »

Just out of curiosity what is the situation with Alcoholics that were on Incapacity - one 8+ years another 4+ another 4+ years Alcohol and Prescription drugs after 7 months in Rehab. last year and has been hospitalized recently.

How do Atos asses those under the Rules. There are lots around in similar condition.

If the question is how do they assess alcoholics... then the answer is simply using the same process as for everyone but there are some specific things to consider.

The work capability assessment (WCA) manual is here
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wca-handbook.pdf
... it has the criteria in it too. But it does have specific mention of the following which is of pertinence.

.... deleted...

I have to head off.. but scanning for alcohol in the manual reveals plenty information relevant.

ETA: I've deleted the quotes from the manual as I'm having frustrating formatting problems. Sorry.

John_Clark

PS: I have found out a little more about BT payphone charges. It wasn't easy as the information is not in the payphone, or even on the BT website. It appears that their 0845 number is 20p per minute with a 40p connection charge. Wheras normal numbers are 60p for 30 minutes.
So whilst your 60p would last only one minute phoning the DWP instead of 30 minutes on a normal number (which is 30 times as much as I said), a 30 minute call would be £6.40 instead of 60p, which is only a little over 10 times as much.
But nevertheless makes a mockery of their assertion in their letter that their number is a local rate call.
Which makes me wonder how much I can trust them