ESA result

I attended an assessment on 25/6/2016 which started 15 minutes late. Preston assessment centre has no car park and is on the fourth floor, only one of the lifts was worklng.
I got the outcome by telephone on 23/7.
Even thought I am in constant pain and can only walk a few yards, can't sit for very long, can't stand longer than a couple of minutes, I am fit to work because I can use a wheelchair! I feel totally humiliated by this. I am going to ask for a reconsideration. The young man who delivered the verdict was very condescending and left me in tears. He asked if I had thought of asking my gp for stronger painkiller! Now why didn't I think of that I wonder?
At the moment I feel like my life is over.

Hello Jeanne

So very sorry you are feeling so upset; we'll try to help. First of all, though, your full name is showing and if you would like to change this, go to

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I think the next step you need to take is ask for a copy of your assessment; once you have this, and are able to see exactly where you have not scored the points you feel you should have, then you can begin to prepare your responses to these unfair comments and unfair decision.. You have one month from the date on your award letter in which to decide whether to go for the mandatory reconsideration - not a long time, so you really will have to get yourself together and decide that 'they' aren't going to get the better of you.

If you look through the guides, especially the PIP appeals etc, it will explain how best to present your objections to the comments made by your assessor. Don't, please, accuse the assessor of lying, because it will probably have the opposite effect to what you hope to achieve; instead try to give a balanced response to any comments that have been made.

The whole question of you being able to use a wheelchair is one that you will have to really think carefully about - aids and adaptations are really only useful if you can use them on your own, so make sure that you consider all aspects of your abilities before you decide whether the aid is really useful to you. You say you can't sit for very long, for instance. How does that work in a wheelchair?

Anyway, look through the guides and take what you can from them; get more evidence if there is any available and send that along also. Keep a diary; get your partner to keep a diary showing how they have to help you - anything that you can think of that shows how you have to struggle from day to day.

If you don't still get the result you need, well you will then have to consider Appeal. I hope it doesn't come to that. Good luck with the reconsideration.

Hi and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

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Further to Shelam's excellent advice - the ESA 'mobility' descriptor is about more than just walking. The assessor/decision maker has to decide whether the claimant could self-propel a wheelchair for the distance stated (ie 50m etc). If they decide that the claimant could self-propell for 200m there will be no score for this descriptor. This is even if you do not have a wheelchair or have never been advised to use one

You need to give some thought to explaining why you cannot self-propel (if that is, indeed the case), you will have to explain this for your claim to succeed. It is all explained in the ESA guide.

May I suggest that you bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future? This will allow you to return with further questions or comments about your ESA without having to start a new topic each time. We find it enormously helpful when everything relating to the same claim is kept in one topic - and I hope you will find it useful too