ATOS Medical

[Empusa]

Link here

A report from the select committee on work and pensions has been published about welfare reform. Specifically work capability assessments (WCA) as they move people on to ESA from income support.

My personal experience is that the WCA is a farce, and although they are reporting huge numbers of people being deemed "fit for work", a huge amount of those are later overturned at tribunal.

Finally this awful practice of taking people off benefits when their health isn't enough that they can work is being taken notice of.

But what will they do about it?

For all of those who I'm sure will come on and tell us about their friend of a friend who is claiming fraudulently, that's a different issue.

We are talking about those who are genuinely disabled who are finding themselves not only without financial support, but also under suspicion. In my own experience the whole process took over 6 months.

That's 6 months of stress on top of the daily stress of disability. Stress and fear.

Surely we all agree that the most vulnerable in society should be protected? Not treated like criminals?

Can anyone link me to the descriptors needed for neurological issues? Let's just say I have a personal interest.

TIA.

I can't believe we are paying these people over £100m per year to do these assessments!
And all your stories........
Good luck everyone. Fight the bastards!

carernotasaintTue 31-Jul-12 01:01:36

My GP refused to do me a supportive letter to send with my ESA50 saying "iwill do one if you get asked to attend a medical. Im sure Atos will be perfectly reasonable.
i get my appointment letter and inform my GP who then said he would write a letter but Atos insisted on a fax explaining why i needed a home visit (i have bad stomach issues)
This is the letter i recieved back from Atos.......
Dear Ms Carernotasaint
Im writing to you in connection with your request for a Home Visit for your ESA assessment
Unfortunately a home visit or taxi could not be authorised on the medical evidence we have received .
An assessment is therefore still required by the Department for Work and Pensions at our Medical Centre.
If you choose not to attend this appointment your benefit may be affected.

Note the use of the word CHOOSE.
They really think people choose to be ill!

My friend 'chose' not to attend her ATOS medical. Mostly because she was in Status Epilepticus being helicoptered to the specialist Neuro at Queens as we don't have a Neuro at all in our PCT.

She lost her ESA, and it took 7 months for her appeal to be upheld. The stress of it all meant she was hospitalised 19 times in those 7 months for her epilepsy.

It has ever so slightly put me off reapplying and trying again...

Im sorry to hear that Couthy. I hope shes better now.
Im actually a bit suspiciious of my GP. When he was going on about Atos being reasonable there was something not quite right . I could sense it over the phone. it did make me wonder .......

Oh jesus Couthy :( That's awful and yet not surprising

Seconded. What they are putting people through is INHUMANE!

Epees - the reasons you state are why I haven't bothered applying again. I was unlucky enough to be in the very first wave of people transferred from IB to ESA. I was getting severe disablement allowance. Under ESA I was given zero points, whereas I had automatically got 15 under IB. I asked by telephone to appeal. I was told that the decision had been upheld.

It wasn't until a year later that I found out that I had ACTUALLY been given a 'reconsideration', rather than an appeal, and that it was also too late to appeal.

Another year down the line, and my health has deteriorated further. Yet for a whole year I have been putting off reapplying for ESA, as I know the stress of it will make my epilepsy worse.

Yet I have already been told that when my 18mo DS3 turns 5yo, I will not qualify for JSA as I am not fit to seek FT work. Right now, it's purely the fact that I have an under-5 that means I can claim IS and have any sort of income for myself.

I am about to bite the bullet at the end of August, and put myself back on the roller coaster, by putting in a fresh ESA claim, despite the stress. But ONLY because I have finally found a charity that can support me through the application AND I still have the protection of having an under-5 enabling me to claim IS as a Lone Parent.

I was also in the unfortunate position whereby my DLA claim was due for renewal about 2 weeks after my ESA transfer failed. And DLA took ATOS's flawed medical assessment into consideration, and I lost all my DLA too, going from HRC, LRM to bugger all.

All in all, I lost a significant amount of money every month. I didn't lose my fucking disability though. Wish the DWP would take THAT away too...

Having a bad time right now, epilepsy far from controlled, getting worse not better, meds constantly being upped and feel like a zombie and an insomniac in equal measures, and apart from school runs and food shopping, am often housebound. Am also having no option but to rely on twatty Ex-P far more than I would like as Adult Social Care won't spend any money helping me until I am 60+. Still no shower of any sort in my house, so am resorting to strip washes in the sink as it's too dangerous to have a bath. Just bloody FED UP of epilepsy, no money,needing to payout for new special anti-suffocation pillows without the money to PAY for them, I haven't had a MedAlert bracelet for nearly two years now as i can't afford the subscription, and am now officially registered as partially sighted (no peripheral vision) due to old epilepsy meds, and I need TWO new pairs of glasses that are going to cost me £200 for each set as I have to have the twisty titanium frames because I break the others when I have seizures. And I. JUST. DON'T. HAVE. THE. FUCKING. MONEY.

Sorry. Massive rant. The need for extra money to pay for things I wouldn't need to spend that amount of money on if I wasn't disabled is why I am about to put myself through the stress caused by ATOS once more.

For good measure, I ought to include the fact that they can't medicate my fibromyalgia due to interactions with my epilepsy meds. Great, that one.

She has been a lot better for the last 5 months, since she win her appeal. However, this morning, she got her next WCA letter. So she is back on the merry go round again.

Why they can't leave her the fuck alone is beyond me. I noticed that while Chris Grayling (btw, is it just me or does he look like Gollum from Lord of the Rings?!) said that they were working on leaving 'a reasonable time period' between assessments, he DIDN'T say what 'a reasonable time period' actually IS...

Of course, though, I am fit for work. Not that I can find anyone totally devoid of ANY business sense whatsoever daft enough to actually employ me...

I have to admit that until I had first hand experience I had no idea how bad it was.

My dh was also refused a home visit and had his ESA suspended even though he was in hospital and making the journey could have put him at risk of brain damage or paralysis!

My dad has been refused ESA, he has a terminal heart condition and has lost the use of one arm and one leg. After falling down the stairs of his pub he finally realised he was too ill to work. The "young lad" told him at his home visit that he "better get down the job centre" to which my dad replied "how". One leg was in plaster, the other doesn't work and with only one functioning arm he couldnt use a wheelchair. Apparently the guy left looking rather sheepish.

My dad is 56 and resigned to being on jsa for the rest of his days as he probably won't live long enough to see his pension :(

Couthymow if I could wave a magic wand one thing I would rid the world of would be Epilepsy it is evil I don't have it but 2 DC's do it rules our lives.
I would like ATOS to put up with it for a month and see how humilitating it is!!

6:30AM BST 31 Jul 2012 Back-to-work tests expert to step down after saying system needs to be more humane : 'But the Department of Work and Pensions denied that he had been forced out, saying he had only ever been due to carry out three reviews, the Daily Mail reported. "'We think it would be a good idea if a fresh set of eyes looked at it for the final two years.'" >

No polite comment: blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100173256/the-disability-rights-lobby-should-think-twice-before-opposing-necessary-reforms/

These two short clips from Dispatches are enlightening. Whether or not your cancer is deemed to affect your ability to work, appears to depend on your treatment.

Christina Odone is a disabilist.

Couthy your post of 1.34 this morning is a bloody good example of how it costs more to have an illness or disability.

Heres another shock from the BBC. they are actually reporting on how articles like Odones (linked above) are inciting disability hatred.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19059299

carernotasaint - Typical Odone tripe [sorry for posting it really] but there are some good reader comments

The weakest are being attacked, the powerful are growing more powerful. Those at the 'front line' see this every day.

And 'niceguy' is on here every day as the cheerleader.

I liked how there was an emphasis that those deemed fit to work would then get advice from Jobcentre Plus.

Has anyone ever been given help from these people? If they did their job properly then fair enough but they are outstandingly incompetent in every single aspect - they should really be focussing on gutting the organisation and starting again from the inside out.

I have ME, I received no help from OH at work, no help from the ESA people so I'm having to try and rearrange things to work from home. I would be skip-happy if I could go to somewhere and get the advice and assistance I need and I am sure there are many more out there who have been written off by their employer but do not want to not work for a living.

He is noticably absent from this thread though. I bet he went out of his way to avoid watching these programmes IF he knew about them because they dont suit his agenda.

"Niceguy" please feel free to spend a week working with my 3 adults with DS no 1)clear up the piss 3-4xweek when he has a seizure, sort his hearing aids out (revolting) getting him to work etc etc
no 2) sort out heart drugs, teaching her employer to use emergency drugs for poorly controlled asthma and cardiac drop attacks (has been assessed fit for work)
no 3) heart defect pulmohary disfunction Reynauds Syndrome the list goes on,
Then the 2 youngest one deafblind CP epilepsy ,other one Emanuel syndrome
future unknown but not good on work front.
You state that the bill for disability is unsustainable OK if we had left these children in care and not adopted them and 3 who sadly died it would have cost this bloody country £7,000.000, people like you "niceguy" make me wonder if I should end it all for all of us. At least that would save you money

Couthy do you know if you have a CLAC or a CLAN in your area? Local council would know, when SS were trying to solve all my issues with a 'magic trolly' I was granted legal aid for a specialist lawyer to complain on my behalf. You should be entitled to a disabled facilities grant for the adaptations to your property, if it's unadaptable/LL won't agree you should be eligable for priority on the local LA housing list (not that that is always great) as well as other social LL's who will allow for the adaptations. Makes it sound easy I know, but over about two/three years I've been abel to go from washing on my bed living in one room struggling to get to my wheelchair and out the door to use of most of a house and a wet room, I've had to fight every step of the way (and prepare to go bankrupt ) which is totally unreasnoble but appears to be the norm stupidly.