Multiple health problems

Hi - my husband is 61 and is self employed. He has osteo arthritis in his knees and displaced discs in his back, he is also exceptionally depressed after a truly horrendous year. He has to make a claim for Esa tomorrow - the GP has put osteo arthritis on his fit note and has given it for one month initially. I know he has to make his claim over the phone so should he mention all his health problems or just what the doctor has put on the fit note,
Thanks

worrywart wrote: Hi - my husband is 61 and is self employed. He has osteo arthritis in his knees and displaced discs in his back, he is also exceptionally depressed after a truly horrendous year. He has to make a claim for Esa tomorrow - the GP has put osteo arthritis on his fit note and has given it for one month initially. I know he has to make his claim over the phone so should he mention all his health problems or just what the doctor has put on the fit note,
Thanks

Hi ww,

Welcome to Benefits and Work

When he calls to make his : ESA Claim they will fill in an ESA 1 Claim form with him over the phone.

The ESA 1 includes only basic information about his medical conditions and is mainly used to capture his personal information to initiate his ESA claim, so there is no need to go into detail regarding all his medical conditions and resulting limitations at that time.

They should then send him copy of The ESA 1 Form to sign and return if he agrees with the content.

Around a fortnight after his claim has been accepted and initiated, he should receive an ESA50 Questionnaire through the post to fill in and return.

It is within the ESA50 that he should go into more detail, as well as providing any supporting medical evidence that he may have.

See : ESA Claims Guides

&

ESA FAQ’s

You may find the following helpful in anticipation of receiving The ESA50 :

Using The PDF Version Of The ESA50 Questionnaire

Whilst referring to the guides on this page, 2nd & 3rd links down :

ESA Claims Guides

See also :

How long do I have to complete the ESA50?

ESA50 too big for the envelope

&

Sending Documents to the DWP or Maximus. (CHDA)

You might want to Bookmark/Favourite this page in your browser, you can then return to it easily to post any further queries that you might have.

bro58

Thank you for your helpful reply. Having had a quick read of the guides it's hard to understand how you can get the required points when there are multiple problems, the docto has out osteo arthritis on sick note but he suffer from high blood pressure, displaced disc, high blood pressure and now depression. he is not confident with from filling and has never been off sick in all his working life - I can see he is out off already and owing this depression is already giving up. I will read the guides again and if anyone has any tips on best way to proceed I would be very grateful, I'm on Esa as I'm recovering from perforated bowel amongst other things, bad year for us ,

Hi WW

You need to concentrate on the activities and descriptors and how your husband can do them or not as the case might be. The important thing is the effects of your husbands health on his ability to do these things and the evidence you submit to prove it.
Best thing is to get your GPs support with a detailed letter confirming how your husbands health affects him doing the activities. Get cnsultant letters as well if you can. Make a detailed statement yourself. Keep a diary of how you manage dy to day with all your husbands problems. Get carer statements, therapist statements, everybody you can think of connected to your husbands care and treatment.
The points for the various activities accumulate so you need a total number of points for each level of benefit in the two categories. Keep a rough tally of what you think your husbands points should be relative to the answers you give. Always send copies of letters etc with the claim and keep the originals.

Hello - my husband is off sick for the first time ever . He has osteo arthritis and is suffering from depression. In a way the depression is more disabling - it goes back t an incident when he was a police officer and he has had treatment ever since. However the doctor has signed him off owing to severe OA in his knees, the doctor has just put OA on the fit note, looking at your very helpful guidance I can't see it's going to be easy to get ESA based on either condition but to maximise his chances we obviously want to include both conditions .
On the basis depression is not n the fit note, can I still mention this on the esa50 ? - he has lots of old psychiatric evidence to back this up plus of course he is on anti depressants etc.

I think I read somewhere the Dwp will only take notice of the main health condition as detailed on the fit note,

Thank you very much

worrywart wrote: Hello - my husband is off sick for the first time ever . He has osteo arthritis and is suffering from depression. In a way the depression is more disabling - it goes back t an incident when he was a police officer and he has had treatment ever since. However the doctor has signed him off owing to severe OA in his knees, the doctor has just put OA on the fit note, looking at your very helpful guidance I can't see it's going to be easy to get ESA based on either condition but to maximise his chances we obviously want to include both conditions .
On the basis depression is not n the fit note, can I still mention this on the esa50 ? - he has lots of old psychiatric evidence to back this up plus of course he is on anti depressants etc.

I think I read somewhere the Dwp will only take notice of the main health condition as detailed on the fit note,

Thank you very much

Hi ww,

I will refer you back to my previous response : Here in your other associated topic which I have now merged.

Please try and keep all your queries to this topic as it helps Mods with continuity.

As I mentioned previously, you might want to Bookmark/Favourite this page in your browser, you can then return to it easily to post any further queries that you might have.

Now to your query :

"On the basis depression is not n the fit note, can I still mention this on the esa50 ? - he has lots of old psychiatric evidence to back this up plus of course he is on anti depressants etc."

Yes you can !

You can also mention all and any other medical conditions that your husband suffers with. All medical conditions do not have to be cited on a Fit Note.

Remember, whilst it is important to provide evidence that he suffers with medical conditions, X, Y, Z, etc, it is more important that you go into detail of how the limitations that he suffers as a result of the medical conditions, either score the requisite minimum 15 points cumulatively under : The Functional WRAG (LCW)Schedule 2 Descriptors. for being placed into The WRAG, and/or fulfil at least one of : The Functional SG (LCWRA) Schedule 3 Descriptors. to be placed into The SG.

This is because The ESA Works Capability Assessment (WCA) assesses his "capabilities" and whether or not they are "limited" by his medical conditions.

"I think I read somewhere the Dwp will only take notice of the main health condition as detailed on the fit note,"

No, as advised above, all limitations caused as result of all his medical conditions should be noted in his ESA50 and should be taken into account in his WCA.

You may be getting mixed up in that the first part of The ESA50 deals with limitations suffered as a result of physical medical conditions, and the the second part deals with limitations suffered as a result of mental health conditions, and DWP have stated that you cannot fulfil any of the physical health descriptors as a result of limitations suffered by mental heath conditions and vice-versa.

However, I would still give details of all limitations suffered in any questions that are applicable to limitations that he suffers.

If he suffers with both physical and mental health issues, you should refer to both our physical and mental heath ESA Claims Guides whilst filling in the ESA50.

bro58