The process has started!

The dreaded brown envelope landed on my doormat today.

It was the letter explaining the change from IB/IS to ESA and states I will get a telephone call soon and then the assessment form will be sent out.

What is the point of the phone call?

The telephone call was introduced as a part of the 'improvements' as recommended by the Harrington Report into the (dys)function of the ESA process.

Personally, I think it's a complete waste of time and money as the vast majority of claimants probably would not welcome a call about their impending transfer to ESA.

It does strike me as a waste of time and money. What do they actually say/ask in this call?

All they do is read from a script, most of which I had forgotten by the time I'd put the phone down! But the gist was "we're moving everyone from IB to ESA and this is how we're going to do it". It's completely pointless and just adds to the stress and worry levels which are high anyway, but apparently it's supposed to make us feel reassured that we are being treated as individuals by real people
One good point though is you can ask questions if you want about the process, not that I did though, I couldn't wait to put the phone down!

Pompeylass wrote:

One good point though is you can ask questions if you want about the process,

but will you get reliable answers?

never answer unidentified callers.so what can they do if you don't answer.