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Carer Watch.com / Testimonies / Mental Health / ESA is scary - our life is in their hands

Name	Your Story
Seb	# Posted: 19 Jun 2009 08:47 Reply Well I have been kicked off IB and have to go onto JSA, I scored 9 I'm in shock tbh it's quite apparent the doctor has marked me a 0 to questions I should be getting a point in at least 7 more. Copied from my blog for how I felt it went the day after: Quote: "one thing I did notice I was given very little manovering space to answer the questions he asked compared to the last medical I had, he seemed to want a either a yes/no answer, while on the first medical even tho the same questions were asked I felt more able to fully answer in detail, which reflected how I am more accurately. Might be just down to his questioning style or a harder approach to get people off benefits? Will have to wait for the results, I took an online test with the same questions (I found the link to it on here somewhere a few weeks ago) and I scored 18 (over 10 is unfit for work), will be interesting to see what score I get if I fail the medical." Well I have next to no support network in place so guess I'm screwed!
Jay	# Posted: 19 Jun 2009 08:58 Reply Ask for a reconsideration. Get a letter to them straight away giving as many reasons as possible why you think they should reverse their decision. Get your GP to do the same. the fact that you only need 1 more point means you should be alright. When did you hear about this decision?
Seb	# Posted: 19 Jun 2009 08:59 Reply I got the letter his morning ...why do they always leave the bad news letter's for towards the weekend when you can't do anything about it? I doubt I will get far with my GP its complicated, he appears to have given up on me since I left a therapeutic community nearly 2 years ago and was discharged by my local MHT after 3 home visits and moved onto a community restart scheme. I'm in the middle of getting myself sorted out with a new GP and have a appointment next Wednesday, my support worker from the restart scheme is coming to see me this afternoon about it, he mentioned getting in contact with welfare rights on the phone, we were meant to be going to the gym for the first time today but I have cancelled that.
Jay	# Posted: 19 Jun 2009 09:01 Reply the same thing happened to me about 6 weeks ago. the sad thing is they make these decisions without getting any info from your gp etc. all is not lost. get your new gp or even your support worler to fire off a letter. the fact that you only need one point means it shouldn't take much to get them to change their mind. send your own letter anyway and state on it if they don't reconsider, you would like a full appeal. that way they know you aren't going to accept this and a full appeal will cost them more in the long term. And the time it takes them to give you an appeal date, gives you more time to develope a relationship with your new GP. If you are getting DLA, this is safe. which means you will not only be getting £60.00 a week. A fact i read on a link from this thread said that 50% of people win their appeal , but this goes up to 70% with representaion. ie your support worker, cpn etc. the first thing you must do is get that letter off to them as soon as. remember you only need one more point. i think they are hoping that a healthy percentage of folk just accept this. that way get can try and reach their target in reducing the governments benefit bill. seriously. get writing your own letter as soon as you can. if you can get it in the post at least by monday. List all the things about yopur health you think they haven't taken into account. remember use your worst days as an example. i don't know how to post links but, go on-line and look for a sire 'the edinburgh coalition against poverty' phone them and they will be able to guide you through this. (you don't have to be from edinburgh). i hope this gives you something to go on. remember you only need one more point.
Seb	# Posted: 19 Jun 2009 09:02 Reply My support worker has been and agrees that is the wrong, he easily got 15 points with what he knew about me and said they will get it reversed, he will get on to Welfare Rights on Monday and will go see them next week with me. I was in a therapeutic community. The diagnosis put on my DLA claim from the consultant there was: recurrent depressive disorder with attempted suicide and preoccupation with suicide ideation. I also have social anxiety, the symptoms I went to my GP and MHT team where a lot to do with my problems leaving the house and had turned into a recluse for over 12 months when I left the therapeutic community.
Seb	# Posted: 19 Jun 2009 09:03 Reply Jay thanks again feel a bit better about it than I did this morning, but does show I need to fight more for the support I need.

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