Some questions regarding ESA medical assessments

Hi there I was wondering if somebody might be able to help with some questions I have. If somebody is able to offer any advice I'd be very grateful to hear from you. Though if it's not appropriate for me to bring the below up here and I should take this up with an advice agency please let me know.

Before continuing with the first question, just going to mention I'm not referring to my current situation. It's more I can see this is a situation I'm going to end up in later this year, and I'm really worried
about what it's going to mean for me should this happen.

If you've already been on ESA for some time because of mental health problems, and having to (essentially) reapply periodically for ESA through an ESA50 form whenever an Atos Medical comes up, and it happens one of these occasions
coincides with a time your health condition may have improved enough to no longer meet any (or enough) of the ESA50 form criteria that would allow you to be counted as having limited capability for work by the DWP, but at the same time your health condition still disrupts your ability to work regardless (for example, if you had a phobia/anxiety type condition that was most problematic specifically in work situations though not so much outside work) and because this is not included in the ESA50 form criteria for allowing points it could damage your claim if you tried to explain this to the DWP/Atos/ to an Independent Tribunal later what do you do? What's the best way to go about sharing this information so this won't happen? Maybe I'm wrong here. But the impression I'm currently getting is that
anxiety problems that don't fall under the category of severe agoraphobia or social phobia (or any anxiety problem that primarily disrupts a persons ability to hold a job down but doesn't affect them as badly in other every day life areas)is not accepted by Atos/DWP as valid reason to be entitled to this kind of claim. Assuming I'm correct there, and not getting the wrong idea, surely this can't be right?

Another thing I was wondering, is that if you've previously told Atos Healthcare/the DWP at an earlier stage that for the majority of the time you don't socialise/cope well with socialising, but since that time you decide to try something like going to a social anxiety support group to try and help yourself with overcoming this problem, and then next thing you know you're being asked to fill out and send back another ESA50 form to Atos and attend a medical, can this get you into trouble if you share this information? This is something I'm currently really worried could damage my claim at a later stage, should I decide to try to pursue this as a means of self help.


Many thanks in advance for taking the time to read this. Is much appreciated.


Emma

my daughter applied the exceptional circumstances and her form and we have been told just because she has anxeity,social phobia,depression and panic attacks dwp/atos will not be applying the rules even though her health would get worse if she was found fit to work. evenher GP has stated this in a supporting letter and dwp/atos took no notice as they did not want to apply the rules.
my daughter is unable to leave the house on her own,suffers panic attacks but they dont care.

Hi there Gordon. Many thanks for taking the time to read my post and reply. It's very helpful to have that information clarified.

I do have one further question. Though again, if this isn't the appropriate place to ask it please let me know.

Would it be a good idea to contact my MP, or any other other person i.e. the Prime Minister/another MP to speak to them about
ESA and the ways the standard criteria is decided? (in the event of the MP route not working out) Or would these things be bad ideas?

Many thanks for reading again.

Hi there Sandra. I'm incredibly sorry to hear about your situation. I can really relate. I've had similiar experiences from Atos/DWP. They're incredibly stressful experiences to be put through. I don't know if this would help you, but is there a local branch of Mind near you? It may be worth getting in contact with them about your experience and seeing if there is anything that you can advise. When having to go through an appeal between late 2009 and early 2010, my local branch were able to give me alot of help - within the tight time constaints being given by the DWP. Admittedly, when going through the start of another appeal last year, they couldn't do the same. Because they were so overwhelemed with the number of cases they were taking on, they couldn't take all of them on. But that was just my local branch. You might have better luck.

I'm really sorry to hear about your experiences again. It really is an awful thing to have to go through