Incapacity Benefit to ESA

bro58 wrote:

penthesilie wrote:

Apologies to the Mods if this is out of line and not usually allowed but,
Found an ATOS Assessment Locations and facilities list.
Mod Edit : See links below

Hi P,

It appears that the page from the link that you have provided is broken or does not exist.

Can you try reposting?, and I will check it.

cheers

bro58

Hi, see active link here. :

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/atos_asse...tion#incoming-209526

And here. :

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/82874/res...l/2/Details.xls.html

bro58

That's it, YAY! Well done.
Pen.

Hi, thank you all for your kind replies (and yes my wife is a diamond and sometimes very frightening!).
The Atos letter states that "The centre can be accessed by lift but if an emergency evacuation of the building is required....the lift can not be used. There are 42 steps to the ground floor..."

For me the number of steps verses public transport is a no brainer, I'll take the steps any time. 42 steps may equal lots of pain but being battered and bruised by "the travelling public" who make a bee line for me and my stick is miles worse.

s1aughtered.

Hi, I had my Atos ESA medical yesterday. My wife attended with me. We arrived at the centre 10mins before time and reported in then sat down. The time of my appointment came and went and went for 20minutes (cynical people may say that was on purpose!). When the lady appeared and asked us to follow her, we ended up going down this corridor all the way to the end eventhough offices were empty (again cynical people insert comment here...). The lady was a Physiotherapist. The assessment was questions then a little physical. I thought it went ok but as I and you have read in these forums nothng is what it seems. Basically I came away thinking "not too shabby" although as usual (like with my O'levels) when you think about it after the fact, I think I could have answered a little differently to some of the questions!

Mod edit - Paragraphs deleted.

Ihope everybody is as well as we can all be.

s1aughtered

Edit-Received decision Letter
Receieved the decision letter which stated that I am being put into ESA WRAG as of 1 March. However no reason was given as to why I'm not in the support group. So a bit dissappointed as I thought I had explained in detail how I meet the incontinence and mobility part on the ESA50 & face to face with ATOS.

I am going to ask for a redecision and appel however I dont know why I was not put into th SG. How can i then argue in the appeal if I dont know what Im appealing against.

I also am finding it difficult to ring the JC+ number.

Does anybody have any advice re the above?

Many thanks.

Claimants called for a DLA medical, be it for ESA or DLA must be offered an accessible venue, If they don't have one, then an alternative Medical Examination Centre must be offered, if that's not possible then insist on a home visit.

A failure to provide an accessible MEC is a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

In addition to imposing obligations on employers, the Act placed duties on service providers (which includes the DWP and Atos) and required "reasonable adjustments" to be made when providing access to goods, facilities, services and premises.

The duties on service providers were introduced in three stages:

Since 2 December 1994 – It has been unlawful for service providers to treat disabled people less favourably for a reason related to their disability;

Since 1 October 1972 – Service providers have had to make 'reasonable adjustments' for disabled people, such as providing extra help or making changes to the way they provide their services.

Since 1 October 2004 – Service providers may have to make other 'reasonable adjustments' in relation to the physical features of their premises to overcome physical barriers to access.