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Moved from support group to WRA group

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6 years 10 months ago #189152 by Sooz
After a truly dreadful f2f, I've been moved from the support group to th work related activity group. The thing is I have epilepsy which is not under control, and also have been put on clonazepam to help my focal seizures and body jerks/spasms... not a fun
medication, they have me in a terrible brain
fog, and my dose is soon to be increased as well :( What should I do now? Would the dss person know what to do if I had a seizure? What if the room is full of tables and chairs with hard edges? I don't know what to do now, I'm very scared :(

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6 years 10 months ago #189169 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic Moved from support group to WRA group
S

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

Welcome to Benefits and Work

In case you are not aware, your real name appears to be showing in the forum, if you want to change this then follow the instructions in the following FAQ

My full name is showing, how can I stop it?


Having epilepsy does not provide a direct route in to the Support Group, claimants need to either qualify via another ESA activity or through the Significant Risk Regulations.

Do you know how you qualified last time?

Your JC+ advisor must take into account any limitations that result from your conditions in assigning Work Related Activity, but you need to be aware that your ESA can be sanctioned if you do not participate in a mandated activity.

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our ESA MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the ESA area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/esa1

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems
The following user(s) said Thank You: Sooz

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