ESA and Fibromyalgia CFS-

Hi all,
I have Fibromyalgia, and long term anxiety problems including social phobias. I live a life of pain and exhaustion.
I have had IB for 22 years and DLA for 5 years. Now I have this ESA form to fill in. I'm so worried as its a very physical form. It seems as though if you're not paralised from the eyelids down that you'll be sent out to work.!

Also I do some work from home under the 16 hour rules. I do the work to suit my pain and exhaustion. are they going to look at this and penalise me?

If anyone has any experience of the ESA who is living with chronic pain/fatigue and mental health probs I'd be very grateful to hear from you

Cinders wrote:

Hi all,
I have Fibromyalgia, and long term anxiety problems including social phobias. I live a life of pain and exhaustion.
I have had IB for 22 years and DLA for 5 years. Now I have this ESA form to fill in. I'm so worried as its a very physical form. It seems as though if you're not paralised from the eyelids down that you'll be sent out to work.!

Also I do some work from home under the 16 hour rules. I do the work to suit my pain and exhaustion. are they going to look at this and penalise me?

If anyone has any experience of the ESA who is living with chronic pain/fatigue and mental health probs I'd be very grateful to hear from you

Hi cinders,

We do have members who suffer with Fibro/CFS, and I am sure they will offer support when they come online.

In the mean time have a look in the orange Members Only section on the left, at ESA Guides.

You can also put Fibro/CFS into the search engine at the top of the page, and lots of previous threads regarding this will come up.

After looking at the guides if you have any further queries feel free to come back and ask.

cheers

bro58

Thanks Goedon,
What I do is dye knitting yarns in my kitchen and sell them online. I'm allowed to work under 16 hrs and earn less than 20 hours a week.
I'm not sure whether to mention this on my ESA50 form as I dont want to be penalised. I woek usually only 4-6 hours a week and often dont do any for weeks on end if I'm not well enough. Do you think I should mention it as an exmaple of how the Fibromyalgia affects me and that I only work to suit me or should I just keep quiet and fill the form in purely as the questions are asked?

Don,t worry I have fibromyalgia and I have been put in the support group for esa. The person I saw at my medical put me at ease and I just explained fully about my day to day life. She only did a minor examination as she said thats all she needed to do. Hope this helps!!