The dreaded phone call...

Thanks, Gordon. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anyone available close to where I live. I tried the local volunteer service before, and the driver came from so far away that the cost was twice that of using a taxi (the cost of the volunteer's petrol is reckoned from their front door and back).

On another note, I'm so flaming p'd, I could spit (I'd throw my wheelchair too if I didn't lack the energy). I've just received the decision letter from the DWP and I see I got zero points - much less than I got in my first assessment in 2009 when I was just as ill as I am now.

The real insult is the explanation for this - based on the (comprehensive) answers I gave in the questionnaire and the description of a typical day given during the assessment, the 'Healthcare Professional' (a State Registered Nurse and not a fully qualified GP or a specialist) 'concluded that there was no evidence that Mr X would have a significant functional restriction mobilising, etc.' That's about as good as telling me I'm a liar and that medical evidence going back to 1997 as well as general evidence about the effects of ME/CFS are also worthless. No wonder ATOS's 'success' rate is so bad (it seems to me that 40% of decisions reversed on appeal provides ample evidence that ATOS has a significant functional restriction of its own ).

I've just looked properly at the Decision Letter, and it's dated 13-Feb-2012. They didn't tell me until 20-Feb that I had 'failed' the assessment and I didn't receive the letter until yesterday, so I don't really get a month to lodge an appeal, but just under 3 weeks. That's enough time for me, but I can't help thinking this could be just another DWP dirty trick!

We often find it difficult to discern a "standard process" by the DWP for managing an ESA claim.

Unhelpfully inefficient is probably what they are.