Birmingham Five Ways Assessment Centre

Hi all

Just thought I'd let you know about some issues at the Birmingham assessment centre for ESA at Five Ways house.

There appears to be staffing issues at the premises and people are having their assessments either rescheduled or cancelled after waiting for over an hour. This has been an issue for the past few weeks, apparently.

I attended my ESA reassessment yesterday so witnessed it first hand. 3 medical staff had rang in sick, and the reception staff were fantastic at advising people of the situation. You could reschedule as soon as you arrived, or wait for an hour and then reschedule if your file hadn't been collected. Advice was given that a new appointment letter would be sent out within 10 days but that you might have the same problem when you re-attend.

One poor lady said she would wait and 90 minutes later she was advised that she needed to be assessed by a doctor and that the only doctor there was fully booked so they ordered her a complimentary taxi home.

I waited nearly two hours for my assessment and was in the room for about 30 minutes. She only focused on my PTSD and said she had enough information to make a decision.

Please ensure you still attend your assessment and don't take this message as a reason not to attend. It may be a wasted journey, but you can still reschedule if they are having issues when you attend. Play by their rules and you'll be fine.

On a separate note, when you send in your ESA form it would be worthwhile notifying your GP. My GP sent in supplementary information that was incorrect and luckily the health assessor agreed it was incorrect (my GP said I was shortlisted to join the army, when in actual fact my PTSD was caused by being in the army 12 years ago and they don't accept overweight alcohol dependent ex soldiers with PTSD and back problems!!)

Thanks for the update Jonny.