Help please!!!! Incapacity

cazza35

Hi everyone, please can someone tell me how to deal with this problem. I went for the IB medical and waited over a month and was getting really upset with the stress so I phoned and was told I'd passed then a month later I got a letter saying I hadn't!!! I'm really confused now, I suffer from mental health problems and extreme fatigue and just a week before I got the letter my doctor prescribed anti depressants and valium.


I lost an appeal before and was in a real state having to go to it so I noticed that you could reapply if your illness changed or got worse, although my old problem of fatigue is still there i have had a few serious panic attacks recently so i'm applying under that, am i doing the right thing? I feel so alone in this and when I got the letter to go for a work based interview I phoned them to tell them i hadn't been out the house in years on my own and my partner works, i ended up in tears with it all and they were really nice about it and cancelled the interview for now but i feel it's looming over me and can't stop thinking about it.


I feel there should be a separate claim service for people with mental health problems as i don't feel able to deal with all they throw at you and as a result my illness has worsened.

Thanks for reading, any help would be much appreciated as i don't know where to turn.
Cazza xxx Happy Christmas

dmg24

Hi Cazza,

Sorry to hear about this, have you taken advice from a Welfare Rights Specialist?

Alternatively, do you have a MH Support Worker that could help you with the forms? x

cazza35

Hi dmg24, thank you for taking the time to read about my problem. I've never heard of a welfare rights specialist before, are they stationed at the job centre? It sounds worthwhile looking into that, thanks again.
I'm re-applying as a week before the letter came my doctor prescribed me with anti depressants and diazepam for panic attacks so hope they understand this time.
Cazza

dmg24

Probably best to speak to CAB rather than the Jobcentre. You'll be able to find details of your local office here.

There are a few other posts on here about mental health problems and applying for benefits, and they are certainly worth a read (ignore any trolls that have posted). The general consensus is that when applying you need to focus on what you can't do, and not what you can do (crazy I know, when you are trying your hardest to have a positive outlook on things).

It would also be worth getting a referral to your Community Mental Health Team if you have not already. There may be a wait for assessment, but at least then you are in the system.

Anything else you need to know, just ask x

relay

Mental health can be a tricky one with IB medicals because so much of it depends on the written word of GP & psychiatrist reports - it's not always as easy to see emotional issues from the outside because they have no physical symptoms as such so you can understand the examining Dr's dilema in such cases i guess.

I think any future claim or appeal you make needs to be backed up with as much medical evidence, reports, medications & letters as you can lay your hands on from the relevent people. I am sure (i know from experience) that mental health workers are very helpful when you need written back up as such - perhaps that's a route worth looking into so that you can present whatever evidence they didn't seem to think you had enough of last time round?

To be honest i wouldn't take it too personally as (call me cynical!) but i honestly believe they need to fail so many people in order to reach Government targets in being seen to be getting people off IB & into work and from what i have heard a lot of appeals are usually successful if you only failed by a tiny margin so i would certainly follow it up as the reality is they do make mistakes sometimes (as you have found).

healy

relay wrote: »

Mental health can be a tricky one with IB medicals because so much of it depends on the written word of GP & psychiatrist reports - it's not always as easy to see emotional issues from the outside because they have no physical symptoms as such so you can understand the examining Dr's dilema in such cases i guess.

I think any future claim or appeal you make needs to be backed up with as much medical evidence, reports, medications & letters as you can lay your hands on from the relevent people. I am sure (i know from experience) that mental health workers are very helpful when you need written back up as such - perhaps that's a route worth looking into so that you can present whatever evidence they didn't seem to think you had enough of last time round?

To be honest i wouldn't take it too personally as (call me cynical!) but i honestly believe they need to fail so many people in order to reach Government targets in being seen to be getting people off IB & into work and from what i have heard a lot of appeals are usually successful if you only failed by a tiny margin so i would certainly follow it up as the reality is they do make mistakes sometimes (as you have found).

Unless someone is found to be exempt there is little notice taken of GP etc reports when someone has a medical with regard to mental health. The EMP is really only concerned with what the person says on the day and how many points they think that thay score as a result of this.As far as I know there are no targets to fail people for Incapacity Benefit.

relay

My last medical was conducted solely on my medical records and i am not exempt. Still, i suppose you know best.

healy

relay wrote: »

My last medical was conducted solely on my medical records and i am not exempt. Still, i suppose you know best.

If it is was for mental health problems that is unusal as most with mental health problems who are not exempt have to attend a medical. My point was that once someone has a medical it is judged on what they say on the day and how many points they score.

relay

I would prefer not to get into the politics of medical examinations to be honest, but how do you know that medical examinations are judged just on what people say on the day?

Every examination i have had so far (the last of which i didn't have to attend) was followed by a letter informing me that among other things they have looked at information from my Dr in deciding my case.

healy

That is just standard wording and what you say on the IB50 and what Doctors say does come into it but on the day they ask the claimant questions to key into the computer the answers to see if you score enough points so it is down to what is put into the computer on the day. Was your examination for Mental Health problems alone?