ESA Meets the Threshold

Hi Martin

Similarly, I received a letter saying i had met the threshold without any reference to descriptors/being exempt or anything and that my next review would be in six months.

Mine however was relating to IB, and six months on from that six months, am still waiting to be migrated to ESA. As a year has gone by perhaps i will get the brown envelope as a Christmas present! I had previously been exempt for three years so extremely distressed to be told i would be reviewed in six months.

I did query the meeting the threshold issue, amongst other things which i won't go into here, and the only explanation i could get, was that it is a computer generated letter and it doesn't always meet the needs of all our customers, or something to that effect!

You mention that your psyciatrist's report refers to some of the support group descriptors. Is it made clear that they apply to you? I'm asking because you also mention your psychiatrist's unwillingness to actually state you should be in the support group.

However, if the report is clearly supportive of you meeeting the support group criteria - part of me is wondering if it is worth going through the hassle of gettting additional reports from your GP surgery, which is clearly proving problematic from what you write in a different thread?

Having said that i know a lot of people recommend collecting as much evidence as possible.

Best wishes

catherine

my psyciatrist dictated a letter in front of me on his machine for his secretery to type. i had went to the bother of printing off the descriptors i felt i met & my reasons why. he wouldnt accept this & hardly even glanced at it. all he said into the machine was "i can confirm mr xxx is a patient of mine, his diagnosis is xxx, his medications are xxx & these may affect his everyday activities. he has problems with...." & then he read out the 5 descriptors i had written down with no explination of why i fitted the descriptors.
when i pushed him into reading the exceptional circumstanses rule & why i fit that, again he brushed it aside & didnt say anything about it.

so i was pleased he did what he did because i didnt think he would even agree but it probably wont do any good because he didnt go into detail.
im just trying to gather as much evidence as i can to help my appeal but it seems i just keep hitting brick walls, i dont know how much longer i can fight all this especially if by the time i get through it yet another ESA50 will land on the mat to start the whole process off all over again

cheers

martin

Hi Martin

It does sound like your psychiatrist has listed the support group descriptors that apply to you, which hopefully is just what is required.

The isssue regarding constantly reassessing people has been challenged on Channel 4 news tonight so let's hope something will be done about it.

Best wishes