esa support group f2f - misleading questions

Dear Gordon,

I'm currently in the ESA support group for a mental health condition and just had my f2f
at last this wee,k after it had previously being cancelled (see earlier thread...).

Something that concerned me during the interview - which I had not experienced in previous
f2f's - was that the interviewer seemed to be pushing quite misleading or "leading" questions in the course of it.

For example: relating to ' How you travelled to the interview ', this is quite standard of course, and I answered ' I was driven here by a family member ' - which was the case. Then after this was ascertained, I was pushed to answer how I would travel there if said family member was not available, then if I came in a taxi - whether I would come in it alone? etc etc.

I answered that that scenario was purely hypothetical, as I did not and would not do this, but was further pushed into answering that if there was no other alternative in terms of being able to attend I would have to do this.

It seemed the style/ manner of asking questions like the above was designed specifically to make me contradict the evidence I had given in the ESA50 form.

This was the case in at least a couple of other questions they asked.

The interviewer was relatively pleasant and professional otherwise.

The above quite concerns me, and seems dishonest and misleading - though that's
hardly a surprising and not without precedent, even if I have not been on the end of it before.

I have the interview recorded, and the interviewer's full name and details
which I obtained.

Hope you can give some advice and feedback on this based on your experience ?

Thank you for your time in this,
any advice will be strongly appreciated

Kind regards - V.

Thank you for responding Gordon.

It may be the case that I'm over analysing the situation there.
I will call for a copy of the report after the weekend anyhow...

"The ESA assessment is controlled by a computer programme with the assessor having to select from a range of options for each question that they ask, the options often force the assessor to push the claimant in a particular direction for an answer that they can record."

= yes, I was aware of this from reading all your guides of course.

The assessor seemed to be actually 'typing a report' in response to these questions, rather than
'box-ticking' which seemed atypical.

Dear Gordon,

I'd just like to ask one other piece of advice on this.

Would it actually be a good idea for me to call the DWP number now (before a decision is received) and request a copy of the ESA85 medical report from the above assessment?

Just checking this as I'm not sure whether this is only applicable after a decision or not (?)

best wishes, V.