What to do if you fail an ESA medical assessment 

I wish i had seen this before I went to my assessment. However I went and got 0 out of 15 points. I have ankylosing spondilitis (incurable and progressive) - my spine is fusing and osteoarthritis. I stopped lorry driving in2003 as I could no longer manage but struggled on for another 3 years with no diagnosis first working mums hours and then trying to work from home and flog stuff at car boot sales. Eventually I sold my house to go private and get MRI scans that the NHS refused to do. My GP was furious screaming at me so the whole surgery could hear . I had large growths on sacral ilium joints in hips and was supposed to be on one week rule for biopsy - suspected cancer. She stole a bunch of the scans while I was behind curtain (supposedly to examine me) and then I got an appointment through for 8 months later to have an x ray before presumably another 8 month wait to see a consultant. I lost my temper and went home to north east. She hadn't been clever enough - there was still enough on the scans i had left for the GP to send me to the hospital that afternoon for another 2 MRI scans (one with a dye ) and a ct scan - I was diagnosed that afternoon - finally after 6 years. They have stopped my ESA plus housing benefit and council tax benefit. My last 2 appointments with the rheumatologist were cancelled (I found out that he did a bunk and there wont be a replacement until at least August. My GP is on holiday so can't see him til 5th July. The nurse specialist has said she will support me but any letters have to be super specific as per the criteria along the lines of "In my opinion this person is unfit for work because..." The seats at the assessment are too low so you can't sit down - i had to lean against couch on crutches for 20 - 25 minutes and the report has the audacity to say that in their opinion I have no respiratory condition that would prevent me from using a self propelling wheelchair and going back to work and apparently I have normal functioning. my ribs are fused and I'm breathing on top 1/5 of my lungs. Depending on what auto immune blocker injection I take I either suffer from sleep deprivation or I am sleeping 12-16 hours a day. My father wouldnt let me sign JSA stuff as it's not just a case of signing in and presenting evidence of applying for jobs you know you cant do. You also have to attend group sessions, appoints, interviews, training, and college courses. If I were capable of that I wouldnt have walked away from university degree place I got in 2009. You are only allowed to NOT attend JSA activities due to sickness 3 times in one year - one period of long term sickness and 2 short term. Since I have no immune system in order to treat my disease its one thing if you are housebound like me and folk know to stay away if they are not in perfect health. The very fact that I would be forced into having so much human contact means I would spend MORE time sick - not less. There's just no way I can hope to fulfill the obligations laid down. The lady at the job centre said she was happy to forward my sick notes. Should I just keep sending them in and refuse to go to the assessment 2nd time round? i am now living on my DLA - £300 a month and I am so scared. apparently I have all this to go through again in september when the DLA-PIP thing comes in. I have no idea how I'm going to support myself - I was struggling BEFORE they took the ESA away and unless I can find a way to work from home I can see me being evicted.

And it has got really worse, I had ESA stopped in the past, although I claimed JSA and now UC, but the benefits system is seriously flawed, which makes it a lot harder as it can be a vicious circle. as some of the comments here demonstrate this - if your ESA stops, your housing benefit stops and may be not be aware that your HB has stopped, until you get a get a letter from council/housing assoc. that they can threaten you with eviction. This is how humanity works.

They have been trying this crap for years now. Don't give you any money while you are waiting on an appeal then say hey but you can always get money by claiming jobseekers. Total crap as it's just a way of fooling people back on to jobseekers as if look they really are fit for work. Absolute joke.

good luck with your apeal my wife is going through the same thing out apeal is currently adjourned but we have been advised to withdraw because she has standard rate. The atos health professional told more lies then I can remember. Please be aware that the tribuneral is not nutral they may say that are not dwp but they are very close to them and they are very underhand.

My P.I.P and ESA as been stopped but since my last assessment in 2014 my condition as worsened.. I have arthritis in spine, knees and ankles I also have to keep regular Doctors and Nurses appointments for other physical illnesses aswell as seeing psychiatrists and counsellors for mental health problems and I'm on a lot of medication.. But none of it seemed to matter to the school girl assesser who assessed me at my assessment she didn't even look at the medical information I gave her.. All she did was complain about the cold she had before asking me a few questions off her computer while wiping and blowing her nose and as soon as she finished asking me her questions.. She got up off her chair and ushered me out the room as quick as she could.. Now I'm stressing out waiting on what they are going to say about the mandatory report I've sent back..

YOUR WASTING YOUR TIME APPEALING.JUST CAUSES EVEN MORE STRESS PLANNED TO KILL YOU OFF

David I feel for you Steven Harris Duston Northampton UK! Inconsistency, I have operations, anxiety, depression, I'm on jsa, the assessors are inconsistent, and tribunals are not much better! Basically I think assessor thinks your better off them, saying they can't be judgemental bollocks!

iv just had one today I have anxiety and agoraphobic and was treated like not even human and asked stupid questions that where not applicable to my condition just gota wait and see which is very distressing in its self I really was treated like scum!!

Yes Mike! Let's here the wa**er's - I have a pip one next week -

yes

there tottally scum mate and there starting to use hefty big docs to intimidate i think ss storm troopers come to mind

Well, they stopped my ESA within 2 weeks of the assesement. My housing benefit also stopped and both without notifications or reasons. They did not write and tell me the reasons, I had to phone up and was told I got 0 out of the required 15. I have had no money in at all for almost 6 weeks now, into debt, no credit on mobile phone and phone turned off as landlord constantly ringing demanding the £ 400 of back rent I now owe for an £ 85 a week bedsit. Let me outline. I was in a psychiatric unit in 2000 for 3 weeks. I suffer from diagnosed clinical anxiety and depression with BLD traits. I also have a buldging L1/S1 lower back disc problem which I've had caudal epidurals injections for. I also had a disc in my neck taken out and replaced with a cage in 2012. This was only one spinal neck level, they wanted to do two but I have nobody in my life to assist me and I would not have been able to cope with a two level ACDF so I had one level done. My work hounded me back to work. I was back into full time work within 3 weeks, usually people take off 3 months for such a major operation. 2 weeks of this time I was off work I had to use as my annual leave entitlement. I only stopped working in April last year. I did not sign on until November as I was hoping to get my body better and had no desire to re-engage with a deplorable mental health and was trying to get myself together whilst mentally dealing with my estranged father who has terminal cancer and may be dead by now. I have a valid doctors note to say I should not be working. Within 30 minutes of seeing people at the MHA (medcial assesement) who told me not to call them 'Doctor' as they are not medically trained they were able to find me fit for work regardless of my previous physical and mental documented conditions. If anyone is in the same boat, I strongly recommened you request a copy of your medical file. You will certaily find many inaccuracies in it. Did I say inaccuracies? I really need to inform you my medical file is full of lies and fabrications. When you pull information out of your arse to gain your department funding, you need to make sure that you don't brand someone a 'bankrupt' when they can easily prove they never had a company closed in such a way. My medical file is strewn with diabolical liberty from the first page to the last. It took me 6 years before I could fully look through it, the demonisation within it severely affected my mental well being. I am current;y trying to find a legal aid lawyer to correct these professionals. It got to a point I lost so much faith in the medical world that an dictaphone became my best friend. It is noteworthy to say their notes in my record do not match up to the actual audio event of it! I have currently been seeing a Crisis team at a local hospital since my benefits got stopped as it made me want to end it all and my doctor was concerned when I visited her for back pain relief prescription. At the Crisis team, I didn't see the same person twice except once, requiring me to constantly repeat myself over and over again to another new person. Within a short time you could see them looking at their watch. I am currently waiting on an appeal, have been informned this can take 4 months and I will likely have to go in front of a panel and justify my already documented ailments. If this is mental well-being of a patient and care in the community then they ought to be ashamed of themselves. What I am going through is nothing less than what I received in the past from a broken and demoralised health service that made me frightened of them that I disengaged to retain my sanity. I would not recommend anyone seek their help. They don't want you and they are unable to help you. If you are severely handicapped physically or mentally they have a duty too however so you may see your life improve, but don't bank on it. I paid into this system handsomely all my working life. I have been disregarded, not listened to and not helped. I've seen (after half a year waiting) people that essentially cover their own backsides and teams writing in reports the 'A4' piece of paper they slip to you in a session with useless information on it just so they can look pro-active in their report of our session that they are doing everything they can. I have no trust with them anymore, they continually let me down. There were a couple of good people, but on the whole many who lost sight they got into the line of work to help people. After 6 weeks of no money and not haven eaten for yet another 2 days these 'services' have no finished and my position has no changed one iota. They are there to help. They have been paid. I have paid my stamp duty and some. Paying for a service and not receiving it is wrong. It some realms this is called fraud or theft. Medical workers are too quick to tell you of the queues of these services and the thousands of people in front of you. I am quick to tell them that as a patient this should not be my concern and I should not be being told this. I have not paid into a service all my life to be receiving this squalid 'help'. My current situation is so desperate and chronic, severely exacerbated by the stopping of any income and making it as hard as possible for me that I believe they really just want you to go away and die. So, seeing the people at the MHA paid their salary. Seeing the 'Crisis' team paid their salary. I'm sitting here drinking water keeping the hunger pains away and looking at eviction. My demise I hold them fully responsible for and I plan to hold people and departments accountable. Finding the strengh to do it is the hardest thing to have put upon my shoulders. My future looks very bleak. I'm not strong enough to have this bs put upon me. It is a human rights violation in my opinion and it is going on widespread. I doubt anyone going for a MHA will pass but of course some do. They have to have a percentage of people who do pass - otherwise it looks too obvious in what they are doing - trying to fill a blackhole of NHS debt by knowingly endangering the lives of sick and vulnerable people. We are living in a country where your own doctor's opinion that you should not be working, and have evidence to prove it, is disregarded by untrained people at a health assesment who make a dangerous and damaging decision that destroys your life further. I am waiting on gaining access to my latest medical files, the ones written by people with professional titles and obligation to their medical field, persons that are supposedly looked upon as responsible, truthful and generally held in great regard. I've got a strong feeling the notes and the audio are going to be inconsitant. Trust me, you are not alone in troubles put on your shoulder making your condition worse. Stay tuned folks. I'm hoping to find the spark and energy to expose what is going on, especially that a medical history and docotrs note count for zero when it comes to an assesement with an organisation employed to disregard human health and look only towards saving money. Peace to you all and may you not be suffering. p.s I could do with some help condensing all of this! I take a long way round to get to the point. I would love someone to assist me right all the wrongs. It won't cost you a penny. I'm after justice and equality for myself, and others, that is all.

15 billion last year

they rang me up threatening that if i dont travel 40 miles to liverpool to give them my national security number they wont pay me i was better off on esa now they have almost destroyed me i suffer from anxitey and depression and i always need someone with me and they wont pay for my dad to come with me

DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE! It will make you lose. PLease see my comment under the video to see why.

no, that was her twin sister

Robbie Spence Or her crossdressing brother. ;)

Hahahahaha

I thought her twin might have committed suicide.

This is fake, its like reconstruction short documentary.

ESA stands for Everyday Supping Alcohol, DLA - Drinking and Living Allowance or "What is green and white and gets you drunk - A GIRO.

WHAT BOLLOCKS, by the time you've bought food and paid your bills you probably just got enough money for a can of fizzy pop

Stupid isnt it.

Wrong. They can claim retrospectively to reconsider their evidence to bolster and reinforce their claim that you are indeed fit for work. Please look deeper into the legislation. You will find I am correct. I won my case. So you can take that to the bank.

If any info you send them is copies of medical records all they can try is the it's old info BS line and your reply is It's still relevant because if you have a condition that won't improve you have that condition no matter what they say their line of saw no evidence of is just BS call then to a tribunal, they won't turn up because all their report is based on opinion, the claimants is based on fact and can quite easily be overturned by asking the tribunal to point out what is opinion and what is fact in the report. I have questions that I would ask the decision maker and HP if they dared to ever turn up but the opinion and fact question would be the last one I would ask after tearing into the medical person on the tribunal some they would be able to answer and others only an opinion

Jonathan Rogers well i cant walk been given 0 points on ESA but because i can use my hands im fit and have no choice to seek JSA because they wont pay me ESA. This is forcing me into employment on severe injury thats not fully recovered properly and gonna affect my mobility more, not even CAB are helping me nor my doctors.

Why was that introduced when it can now trip us up, end up being made homeless as a result of your ESA being stopped.

Tell the jobsworths you want a home interview

Because its a brutal evil system

Phillip Haley never gets better just feels like im under thier radar and on a list underlined in red for my area to target, they done enough since i was 16 to affect my life, affected my health, my employment and family, i have lost count how many times these bastards have caused me to lose my home even lose weight feel run down. For them to change and think about what they are doing, it take somebody to start picking them off one by one, something i love to do.

Not much £320 a Month if that even, government are useless

apply for load of stupid jobs

john cook Or make pointless comments like fucking morons called John Cook do. I bet your padded cell is missing you.

Expert adviser (qualified solicitors) provided by local authority financial office advise NOT to claim JSA and to tough it out any way you can instead. Council will still pay HB and council tax during mandatory recon and appeal, you just need to tell them you are on NIL Income and then again when you are placed on ASSESSMENT Rate of esa for appeal (doesn't happen automatically, you must demand it.)

Look, you're forced off ESA in the rigged test, you have no savings, so you have to claim JSA, even tho you're truthfully not fit to work, or you lose all benefits and would be out on the streets.

@@alanminter4234 not true. You only lose council tax benefit and housing benefits, if you fail to keep the council informed of your situation. The DWP informs them that your situation has changed, they assume you are working and stop the payments. What you need to do is ring the council housing office and tell them your sickness benefits have been stopped, you intend to appeal the decision, and for the time being you are on NIL INCOME. Do NOT listen to the job centre staff who will LIE TO YOU and try to scare you onto universal credit or JSA by claiming that councils will only pay HB with an active benefits claim running. That is a LiE designed to make you claim JSA/UC. HB is paid based on your income, NOT based on whether you claim social security. So once your housing is sorted out, you now only have food and gas/electricity to worry about. Your local council can advise you on how to get help,and may even be able to supply an expert adviser /solicitor to help with your appeal. This is not bullshit by the way. I lived it for 6 months.

I'd like to stick a rocket up his arse! 😈😈

What if you don't have a family? No, your comment is valid 3rk4u, this is how these organisations are designed, or in some cases, we are better off doing something drastic, a lot of human beings end up killing themselves as they won't have to suffer anymore - this sounds stupid, but people have been severely bullied, depressed, mentally treated through no fault of their own, it's a lot tougher now.