Been called for medical - not happy

Mupette

sarahg1969 wrote: »

And we should also expect them to provide evidence that they are sick, rather than allowing them simply to languish on benefits for tens of years without any questions.

you'll find that they do!

I don't know where you got the languishing bit from, but unless you have had to be on sickness benefits the last few years it is far from languishing as you put it.

I can only speak for myself but having an inexperienced doctor ram a needle several times in my back to perform a lumbar punch not something i would do for fun so i could languish on benefits.

we all had to give our permission for the dwp to have a good look at our medical files, our treatments, the drugs we take, now if dwp dont know what to do with all that information that is not our problem.

DWP have a long way to go with understanding illness/diseases/hidden disabilites,

I've recently returned to work after allowing myself a few years to learn to live and cope with my disability, the whole thing is zapping the little bit of engery i had, once i have finished work i am fit for nothing, not even enjoying family time, but who cares about that, i'm no longer sucking the tax from you personally am i!!

krisskross

Mupette wrote: »

you'll find that they do!

I don't know where you got the languishing bit from, but unless you have had to be on sickness benefits the last few years it is far from languishing as you put it.

I can only speak for myself but having an inexperienced doctor ram a needle several times in my back to perform a lumbar punch not something i would do for fun so i could languish on benefits.

we all had to give our permission for the dwp to have a good look at our medical files, our treatments, the drugs we take, now if dwp dont know what to do with all that information that is not our problem.

DWP have a long way to go with understanding illness/diseases/hidden disabilites,

I've recently returned to work after allowing myself a few years to learn to live and cope with my disability, the whole thing is zapping the little bit of engery i had, once i have finished work i am fit for nothing, not even enjoying family time, but who cares about that, i'm no longer sucking the tax from you personally am i!!

I thought you had returned to working not because you no longer meet the WCA requirements but because you have married and presumably are no longer entitled because of the 365 day rule. So hardly the DWP's fault.

Had you not married I expect you would still be claiming the benefit.

Mupette

krisskross wrote: »

I thought you had returned to working not because you no longer meet the WCA requirements but because you have married and presumably are no longer entitled because of the 365 day rule. So hardly the DWP's fault.

Had you not married I expect you would still be claiming the benefit.

I had returned to work on the permitted to work scheme way before i married, once married i was still entitled to the 365 rule. I was still in the support group, when i moved from (i) esa to (c) esa i was only claiming for myself and my son, always within the rules of DWP

I have always said that i would try to return to work once i had sufficient time to learn to manage and cope with my disability (you might want to dig back several years to find that quote), it is still there, it will not go away, it will get worse, but that isn't going to pay the bills.

It's only last month i got a proper job, still part time, which works around me so if i am ill during the day i have time to rest and recover before making the decision if i am able to attend work,

Had i not married, would i still be on esa, who knows, i was just fortunate that after applying for several jobs that this one came up, i was interviewed and i informed them from the start about my disability, it is not a worry for them (my employers). they have several disabled staff we are all treated with respect, worked closely with to ensure we have any extra equipment to help us with our jobs.

your point being?

Jennifer_Jane

MUMZ2BEE wrote: »

I totally agree that medicals should be fair.

But the stories I have seen about ATOS deliberately given false information to the DWP after a WCA to get a person's benefit stopped is quite shocking.

Aparently I have been told my WCA is being carried out by a female GP!!

I just hope it goes smoothly with no problems, but I do have difficulty in explaining things, so hope I don't get tongue tied!!

Would you mind explaining why you have two exclamation marks for the sentence I have put in bold? Just curious.

krisskross

Mupette wrote: »

I had returned to work on the permitted to work scheme way before i married, once married i was still entitled to the 365 rule. I was still in the support group, when i moved from (i) esa to (c) esa i was only claiming for myself and my son, always within the rules of DWP

I have always said that i would try to return to work once i had sufficient time to learn to manage and cope with my disability (you might want to dig back several years to find that quote), it is still there, it will not go away, it will get worse, but that isn't going to pay the bills.

It's only last month i got a proper job, still part time, which works around me so if i am ill during the day i have time to rest and recover before making the decision if i am able to attend work,

Had i not married, would i still be on esa, who knows, i was just fortunate that after applying for several jobs that this one came up, i was interviewed and i informed them from the start about my disability, it is not a worry for them (my employers). they have several disabled staff we are all treated with respect, worked closely with to ensure we have any extra equipment to help us with our jobs.

your point being?

My point was that I remember distinctly that your upcoming wedding made it a financial imperative for you to find a job.

I remember thinking at the time that if you could work why weren't you anyway. The only answer was that you had no financial need to do so.

I never disputed that you have an illness. However it obviously does not prevent you from working which surely is the whole raison d'etre of the WCA.....to ascertain whether it is indeed possible for people to work despite having an illness or disability. Much better than allowing people to consign themselves to the scrapheap and living in fear of government changes to their existence.

Muttleythefrog

krisskross wrote: »

My point was that I remember distinctly that your upcoming wedding made it a financial imperative for you to find a job.

I remember thinking at the time that if you could work why weren't you anyway. The only answer was that you had no financial need to do so.

I never disputed that you have an illness. However it obviously does not prevent you from working which surely is the whole raison d'etre of the WCA.....to ascertain whether it is indeed possible for people to work despite having an illness or disability. Much better than allowing people to consign themselves to the scrapheap and living in fear of government changes to their existence.

Not quite. The WCA is designed to do something a bit different... to detect who it is reasonable to not expect to work (or take part in activities to help them return to work). That subtle difference is quite dramatic when you come to trying to understand what plays out. I don't doubt for a moment that there are many jobs I could do... but I'm in support group. I could for starters spend the day entertaining old folk... not something I haven't done before. Nobody is incapable of work.

Tottyshouse

Not all illnesses or ailments are disabilities that preclude people from work for years though. I'd be interested to know what the average time spent on IB was. I also have scoliosis and regularly suffer from prolapsed discs (the last one was September where I put in a days leave to cover the initial day of agony and then I went into work dosed up on codeine). I am lucky that I don't have a physically demanding job that would absolutely prevent me from working when my back goes - however many people with bad backs take sick notes and then keep getting them filled month after month. Believe me my previous GP would have signed me off work without a second thought and just kept doing it without checking I was actually doing anything to help my situation. So no I personally don't think a sick note from a GP is proof. I don't see what is wrong with putting the onus on the individual to actively take steps to help themselves whenever possible and look for work that can accomodate their problems. Many claimaints seem to confuse being unfit for any work with A) being unable to find work being unable to find work that fits around their home life and C) pays enough to deem it "worthwhile" in their eyes to work. Disability payments are there to help those who genuinely cannot work, not to give a £30 premium to those who really should be on JSA.

Mupette

krisskross wrote: »

My point was that I remember distinctly that your upcoming wedding made it a financial imperative for you to find a job.

I remember thinking at the time that if you could work why weren't you anyway. The only answer was that you had no financial need to do so.

I never disputed that you have an illness. However it obviously does not prevent you from working which surely is the whole raison d'etre of the WCA.....to ascertain whether it is indeed possible for people to work despite having an illness or disability. Much better than allowing people to consign themselves to the scrapheap and living in fear of government changes to their existence.

oh don't get me wrong, i HAVE to work, we can't survive just on the husbands wage, it doesn't matter how ill i am, as far as people are concerned that is just tough, each day i am forcing myself to go to work, there is no choice for us, if i dont work, bills don't get paid, we are not entitled to hb/ctax discount, apart from the disabled bit,

working breaks even to what i got when i moved to esa (c)

i am worried sick that when i deteriorate i wont be able to work, we will lose our home, we will go under.i hope that when i get worse it will be when i am retired.i've had this disease for 12 years, and i have noticed the decline, but there is no choice for us, husband is looking for better work, he has a very good job but it is a contract and its running out, he gets no holiday pay, no sick pay, no bank holiday pay, so he will try to get a job which will be less pay but with sick pay/holiday pay. until then our future is uncertain, but i still married him knowing all this, i love him.

i am just very fortunate that i have found a company that is very diverse with it's staff, has someone working for them already with the same disease as me, so they know what i could be like, they accept and acknowledge, help me where i need it, in return you work hard, but are rewarded.

Tottyshouse

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Completely agree with everything you write in this post but feel it necessary to point out that it all depends on the type of work you do as to whether it's possible to continue working in such a distressed state.

In my case, I was responsible for other lives and when my mental health caused unnecessary death and suffering I knew it was time to quit. Had I had an office desk job with little to no real responsibility I might just have managed to blag it day in day out.

I am a project manager dealing with contracts of 2 million gbp and upwards. So no lives were at risk - but I would say the responsiblity and stress in my role is immense and the possible financial consequences of me making errors were considerable for my employer. If I had messed up maybe there would have been a different outcome, but it wasn't loyalty or a sense of duty that kept me at work. It was my need not to let go of my last grip on reality. All people are different - everyone's breaking point is different. My best friend's daughter died at the age of 2 and a half. My friend went back to work after 12 weeks. I have no shame in saying as a mother with a 2 year old girl now, that would finish me. I cannot see me recovering from that. However in a situation where we are having people with terminal illnesses put through the same hoops as the shyster with mild - to non existent depression - we have to start applying some common sense and raise the benchmark of what consitutes a disability that truly prevents work.

Muttleythefrog

Tottyshouse wrote: »

Not all illnesses or ailments are disabilities that preclude people from work for years though. I'd be interested to know what the average time spent on IB was. I also have scoliosis and regularly suffer from prolapsed discs (the last one was September where I put in a days leave to cover the initial day of agony and then I went into work dosed up on codeine). I am lucky that I don't have a physically demanding job that would absolutely prevent me from working when my back goes - however many people with bad backs take sick notes and then keep getting them filled month after month. Believe me my previous GP would have signed me off work without a second thought and just kept doing it without checking I was actually doing anything to help my situation. So no I personally don't think a sick note from a GP is proof. I don't see what is wrong with putting the onus on the individual to actively take steps to help themselves whenever possible and look for work that can accomodate their problems. Many claimaints seem to confuse being unfit for any work with A) being unable to find work being unable to find work that fits around their home life and C) pays enough to deem it "worthwhile" in their eyes to work. Disability payments are there to help those who genuinely cannot work, not to give a £30 premium to those who really should be on JSA.

I actually think what is confused is people's understanding of what the WCA and ESA is testing for. The idea that someone cannot work is nonsensical. The system looks at whom it is reasonable to expect to work... everyone has limitations in their ability to work (and obviously not solely linked to health)... the question is are they sufficient... and the WCA sets two benchmarks in relation to that. In terms of evidence.. there'll never be proof of anything... the system is evidentially poor in my view in that it seems to favour efficiencies over accuracies. For example... I had face to face medical at my initial assessment and that only lasted just beyond half an hour... with a stranger... in a strange place.. and that medical or at least the resulting report seems to have governed my entitlement in the years since. The quality of that report is poor and I would think that anyone who spent a day with me at home would question many of the things within it... for example it describes poor rapport.. but if you come to my house it's unlikely you'll find I have poor rapport. Reports I otherwise have from specialists... taking into account the greater time I spent with them... are arguably just as poor in terms of accuracy (and when I use the word accuracy I mean to what is my normal experience). The sicknotes I was supplying during the first months of claiming ESA said anxiety.. I think maybe depression on one or two... and agin.. this isn't particularly useful or accurate. So in terms of evidence all I can do as a claimant is complete the ESA50 form fully and accurately as I see it... and supply reports I feel may be helpful to reaching judgement on my capabilities in relation to the WCA. Whether I am actually ill and whether I should actually pass the WCA are questions for other people ultimately... I can only hope they reach sensible conclusions.