Brown emvelope has arrived!

Katathome
Board wrote:

Hi Derek,

I thought I'd let you know that we've just posted our ESA50 questionnaire back to ATOS at last.

We used the brilliant advice given on here to answer all the questions, in excruciating detail, which took us 4 weeks to complete, as neither of us can write by hand.

I recorded my husband's answers via voice-recognition software, onto a Word document and, as we weren't sure whether this would be acceptable to ATOS, I phoned them to find out. The lady I spoke to was very helpful, and she agreed that, as long as we attached the original questionnaire to our documents, and made sure that every page had my husband's name and NI number on it, then it will be acceptable to them!

We've just sent 23 A4 pages of closely typed-up answers to them, along with a brilliantly detailed medical report from our doctor.

We don't know how long the wait will be but, because the advice written on here was so well thought out, we are at least confident that we've written everything we can to make our circumstances clear.

I'll let you know the result as soon as we know ourselves and, no matter what it is, we are grateful to all the B & W team for all their hard work in assembling the advice we used - the subscription to this site is well worth the help you've given to us!

Best of luck Kat, I sincerely hope you gain the correct assessment.

Best wishes

bro58

Hi Katathome

Good luck with your husbands claim. I hope he gets a positive result.

Derek

I thought I'd let you know what's happening so far with our claim. We received a phone call, then a letter, from Atos, telling my husband that he had to go for a medical assessment on 30th September - this after us requesting a home visit on the ESA50 form, as my husband is my full-time carer, and has health issues of his own, so is unable to travel far.

We were told that he would have to go to the assessment, and the chap talking to us was very abrupt, almost rude, with us but, after I insisted that it was our right to ask for a home visit, he changed his mind, and told us that, provided we can get the medical evidence of my husband's problems faxed to them from our doctor, they would deal with our request - this despite the fact we had included what they wanted in the ESA50 form (do they even read them, I wonder?) !

As we hadn't heard anything from them by yesterday, I phoned them, only to discover that they hadn't received our doctor's fax!

I was fortunate to speak with someone at Atos resources, who actually seemed human, and he immediately changed the assessment date to 30th October for us - the furthest date he could make it - in order to give us time to get in touch with our doctor, and get the fax sent out again.

We phoned our doc straight away, and he insisted he had sent the fax the same day we had asked for it but, fortunately, he always keeps a copy, so he promised to send it out again immediately.

So I'm gong to be on the phone to Atos first thing Monday, to make sure they received the fax this time, and then we'll be keeping whatever we can crossed that they allow for a home visit!

We can neither of us see the sense in them insisting on this assessment. My husband is paid Carer's allowance for looking after me full time and, although it's not much - especially considering they take it away again from our income support - they would have to pay a stranger a lot more money to look after me, if they insist my husband goes onto JSA, or even the work-related ESA!
I think common sense has definitely gone out the window with this government!

I just thought I'd let you know that my husband didn't need to go to his appointment on 20th October, as I phoned up the one friendly ATOS worker we'd found, when we hadn't heard anything about our request for a home visit by a few days before the appointment, and he immediately pushed the date back again to 4th November.
ATOS are really dragging their heels about awarding a home visit and. if they decide against it, then we are definitely going to be contacting our local MP for help with it all!
My hubby has gone from sickeningly worried, to despair, and is now bouncing back with anger at the way they are treating us.
It's only because I've been able to get such good advice from here, that he's been able to climb out of his depression, and gain the anger needed to keep on fighting, so I'd like to thank you again for the help you give to so many of us fighting this rotten system

Hi there

I just thought I'd let you know that, after having the medical last November, we've finally heard from the powers that be, and we have been awarded the Support Group for ESA!

If we hadn't had all your excellent advice to use when preparing for it all, I don't think we'd have been awarded this without a fight, so Thank you so very much for all your help!

With the DLA changeover to PIP to cope with next April, I'm just so glad we're members here

Many thanks

Katathome
Board wrote:

Hi there

I just thought I'd let you know that, after having the medical last November, we've finally heard from the powers that be, and we have been awarded the Support Group for ESA!

If we hadn't had all your excellent advice to use when preparing for it all, I don't think we'd have been awarded this without a fight, so Thank you so very much for all your help!

With the DLA changeover to PIP to cope with next April, I'm just so glad we're members here

Many thanks

Hi Kat,

That really is good news.

Thanks for making us all aware of it, and thank you very much for your kind comments regarding B&W.

bro58