My ESA Medical Assessment Experience

I have only just joined this site after receiving a phone-call for Jobcentre Plus informing me that I had received no points from my medical assessment. I now realise from this site that my assessment form was completed poorly and was totally inadequate – I wish I had joined this community earlier. I shall be appealing against the decision but I fear I may have left things too late.

Anyway, I have to say I was not very impressed by the way the female Atos assessor conducted my medical assessment. She appeared too busy using her computer to actually listen to what I was telling her.

Here are a few highlights of how it went:

One of the first questions she asked me was had I worked during the last 5 years. I replied that I hadn’t worked for nearly 11 years. Seemingly unable to work out if an 11 year period is longer than a 5 year period she asked “So have you worked during the last 5 years then?”

She asked me if I went out much and I said no and that I try to avoid bumping into people so I basically stay indoors. I did say that my girlfriend was dog-sitting for a couple of months and because she is at work all day, if I feel up to it, I try to go to her house to let him out. She looked up from her computer screen and said “so you have a dog then?”

She then asked me if I drove my car much. I replied hardly at all and mentioned that my insurance policy limits me to driving no more than 5,000 miles a year and I doubted if I drove anywhere near that amount so she replied “OK, so you drive about 5,000 miles a year then?”

I also told her that I suffer from hypertension so she decided to take my blood-pressure. However, she couldn’t undo the valve on the blood-pressure gauge so she asked me if I could undo it for her. I find it worrying that a doctor is unable to operate her own blood-pressure monitor. Perhaps she should award herself a point!

Before I left the assessment I showed her a letter from my former employers confirming that my frozen local government occupational pension had been brought into payment early on the grounds of permanent ill-health. She didn’t seem in the slightly bit interested. When I asked her if she wanted to take a copy for her records she replied “Not really.” She then had a change of mind and said “Oh, I suppose I might as well.”

I have to say than in my opinion the medical assessment is a complete and utter sham. It’s obvious that the decision has been made before you even walk in the room.

Regards and good luck,
Keith.

Sorry to hear that your medical assessment was unsatisfactory and that you failed the ESA work capability assessment.

As you have indicated that you intend to appeal the adverse ESA decision, if you have not already done so, please see How to submit an appeal.

Hi Keith Although you have just suffered at the hands of ATOS which is a distressing experience many thanks for sharing your story, somehow it just seems to help us all knowing we are not alone in this and this great website brings us all together to find support and the excellent advice. Like you Keith I wish I would have joined the site sooner as the guides and links are great on here. But as they say we all live and learn or better late than never
I know in your post you mentioned that you had your pension brought forward due to grounds of permanent ill-health. I was wondering if you had copies of any Independent Occupational Health Reports from your Employer from the time that was sorted out. If you have there maybe information in those independent health reports that may help you in your Appeal.
I involved a CAB Advisor in my Appeal after being advised by my GP that our local CAB have a GB Outreach scheme, my CAB advisor sees me at my local GP practice and is really helpful and taken a weight of stress and worry off me dealing with forms and copying relevant paperwork and also requested a up to date report from my GP. Not everyone likes using CAB some find them useful some don’t, all I know is mine is really good. He also photo copied and used my Independent Occupational Health Reports from my Ex-employer that had been used to terminate my contract under the capability policy. So it may be worth looking at any past independent medical reports.
I`m still waiting outcome to appeal
Dont forget to try and write to MP about your experience.
Best of luck with it all keith
Meg.

When somebody is filling in things on a computer they cannot listen to you at the same time, it's not possible no matter how good they think they are. If I realized that the HCP was making wrong assumptions through not listening to me properly, then I would in no uncertain terms tell them they had the wrong idea and correct them. In fact, I would probably fall out with them if they wouldn't listen.
Regards
Peter

Hi Meg,

Thanks for the reply and the kind words.

You have a good point about the medical reports that initiated the early release of my occupational pension. I'll be sure to look into it for my appeal.

Cheers,
Keith.

You should address complaints to Atos in the first instance and your MP second. The address for Atos is on this site (mods?) and you can find details of your MP here findyourmp.parliament.uk/
It occurs to me to wonder if her asking you to attend to her equipment was part of the test in that you demonstrated some manual dexterity in doing what she asked.

BB