consultant's letters

Hi,

When asking consultants for a support letter, are you supposed to only ask the ones whose conditions affect my mobility etc.

I have bad crohns disease, among other severe conditions, but I have not asked for a support letter because I thought that it would not be relevant to the esa form and its descriptors. (maybe incontinence issues but that all) - Am I right to not ask for one?

Thanks.

pjd wrote: Hi,

When asking consultants for a support letter, are you supposed to only ask the ones whose conditions affect my mobility etc.

I have bad crohns disease, among other severe conditions, but I have not asked for a support letter because I thought that it would not be relevant to the esa form and its descriptors. (maybe incontinence issues but that all) - Am I right to not ask for one?

Thanks.

Hi pjd,

Any letters from any source that may help to show that you suffer limitation sthat may qualify you for an award of ESA should be presented as evidence, where possible.

If you are not sure that it is pertinent, and as long as you are sure that there are no negative aspect to it, I would say, use it anyway.

bro58

Thanks bro58,

I'm just struggling to see how a support letter from a consultant for my crohns disease would be relevant to the esa form. Also what do you mean about the negative aspect to it?

Sorry if Im being a bit dim, its been a rough day.

pjd wrote: Thanks bro58.

I'm struggling to understand how a support letter from my crohns consultant would show limitations that would be relevant esa form descriptors, and what would be a negative aspect to requesting one.

Sorry if Im being bit dim but its been a rough day.

There are two aspects to supplying medical evidence.

The first is in relation to you having a diagnosed condition, this allows the ATOS assessor and the DWP Decision Maker to consider whether your limitations are reasonable, as a trivial exampe, if someone had a broken leg then it would be reasonable to assume they would have problems with walking.

The second aspect, which is often much more difficult, as these reports are usually written for medical reasons and not for benefit ones, is to show limitations with specific reference to an ESA descriptor. Again as an example, the claimant suffers from acute agina which is aggravated by exertion as a result they would not be able to walk or propel a manual wheelchair for more than 10m, without severe risk to their health.

I'm afraid I don't know too mush about Crohn's Disease and a quick Google didn't really help but I would imagine there may some connection to the Incontinence descriptor and I notice body sores can also be a problem, these ight limit your ability to walk or to sit, forgive me if I have misunderstood the symptoms.

A negative report might be one that describes your condition as mild or manageable, etc.

I hope this helps

Gordon

pjd wrote: Thanks bro58,

I'm just struggling to see how a support letter from a consultant for my crohns disease would be relevant to the esa form. Also what do you mean about the negative aspect to it?

Sorry if Im being a bit dim, its been a rough day.

Hi pjd,

Any evidence that proves that you suffer from a particulr medical condition that results is limitations should only help, in that you have documented proof of the medical conditions.

Ideally, any written evidence should detail the resulting limitations, but if you can not obtain this type of report, then you should draw reference to the limitations yourself, whilst citing any such report.

My comment regarding "negative aspects" is with reagrds to the fact that sometimes G.P.'s or Consultants who are not fully aware of the actual qualifying criteria regarding a certain benefit can make what they feel is a quite "run of the mill" comment, which may actually prove to be negative to the claimant.

This is why I would always advise a cliamant to obtain any such reports and check them before providing them as evidence, rather than just letting the HCP send them without the claimant first viewing them.

bro58