ESA Assessment

I just wanted to ask about my ESA assessment as I had it today and came out wondering why they didn't ask things I expected them to. I have sicknotes for labyrinthitis but my ESA form also mentions anxiety, depression, curvature of the spine causing lower back pain, stage 4 endometriosis and I am also partially deaf. I went in and the assessor said she would ask about my typical day and so on and I said that was fine, I mentioned I had recently been to see a specialist and had a hearing test done and they found my hearing had deteriorated and I was now 'very very deaf' yet I can still hear some things and can lipread if the person is facing me, the specialist thinks this is connected to my balance issues and has referred me for hearing aids and also to a balance clinic for further tests. The assessor at the WCA asked if I could lipread and I said yes providing the person was close to me and I am familiar with them (or at least this helps), she did a hearing test from behind where she said a few words to repeat and I didn't hear any of them. She concluded the assessment by saying she had to get info from my gynae re my endometriosis and yet said she would base her report on my hearing/balance issues as that was my 'main condition' ... I had to tell her further info re getting referred back to gynae for incontinence issues as she never asked anything about that or the pain associated with the condition, she also never asked anything about pets/mobility/pain or asked me to do any tests aside from the hearing one. The WCA concluded with her saying she had to 'call someone' to ask if any further info was required from me and said she would get in touch with the audiology dept in the next few days, I was then told to go back out to the waiting area whilst she 'called' whoever she was referring to and 10 mins later that was it, all in all I was in there for an hour but we didn't seem cover anything I expected them to... is this weird or do they tailor the WCA's dependent on the issues at hand/focus on one condition?? Sorry for the rambling..... it's just I came out of there thinking I had no idea whether it had gone ok or if I was dismissed from the word go!

Hi missouchalot,

The assessor will particularly be looking to get further information in areas where things are not clear. They will be looking to see if you score the 15 points needed to qualify for WRAG and whether you meet any of the Support Group descriptors.

The assessment will be stopped when it is clear that the claimant qualifies for the Support Group, there is no point in taking more time once this has been done.

The most common reason for an assessment being terminated early is because the claimant has met one or more Support Group descriptors.

We have given up trying to guess the outcome from the way the face2face was conducted!

Once the face2face has been done, it will not be long before the file is returned to DWP with the assessor's recommendations.

ESA decisions usually take just a few weeks after DWP have got the file back.

Thanks, it was just so odd because I was expecting them to ask about how I got there, how far I could walk, what I did in a day and she just seemed to focus on my hearing and said it sounded like it was getting progressively worse, as yet I don't have hearing aids but I did tell her I was being referred for them... I guess I will have to wait and see what they say but I am not holding out much hope .... along with most people these days! I thought that hearing issues weren't really something you got ESA for?