Employment And Support Allowance (ESA)

[di]

All the best Donna and Jules.

My job know is to see my kiddies fit to either be fat cats or know how to fiddle the system, for I fear, ten years from now, the workhouse will be the only other option!

[di]

.....and they won't be learning how to fiddle the system from me BTW. x

nor learning how to spell....we all Know that knowledge has a 'K' and the present tense doesn't

[donnakebab]

All the best Donna and Jules.

My job know is to see my kiddies fit to either be fat cats or know how to fiddle the system, for I fear, ten years from now, the workhouse will be the only other option!

I traced my family history a good few years ago and there was enough of us that were born or ended their days in the work house. My grandparents had a real fear of going into hospital because most of them were originally work houses.

My grandmother died with me and my sister (an oncology nurse) by her side at home. She pleaded with us not to send her to hospital.

God forbid that the workhouse should return.

[di]

Something really has to change. too many of my friends that are in work and have a family are feeling the need to choose between heat or food.
I'm in a position where, five years ago, I lived with a husband that worked, therefore was at the bottom of the housing list. We rented privately, now, although I'm a single mum, I'm a housed single mum, so still low on the list...my housing benefit is £200 short of rent...dread to think what it will be next month, when I'm working.

I can honestly see me and the kiddies in some homeless family unit, them taken away from their school and friends.....although I'm obviously pleased to have found work, I'm terrified of the month or so where benefits stop and payments are made. Worrying times ahead.

[Helgalush]

I've just recently claimed ESA, it has been really difficult to claim and at every stage there were several gross incompetencies of staff, the whole process of making an initial claim was complicated and several unnecessary barriers were put up to prevent me being able to claim. Luckily none of these were barriers that should have been there in the first place so I managed to eventually get it through but it was a stressful few weeks for me and my OH trying to chase and challenge everything and get repeated copies of documents, make varied phone calls, waiting on hold for 10-15 mins each time etc.

Next stage is assessment by ATOS which I am not looking forward to one bit. I hate not being at work, I hate that my employers dont want to accommodate my disability, I hate having worked so hard for a degree for 4 and a half years and feel that it has come to the point that I am a burden to my husband and reliant on him and handouts from the state. I am trying to do all the right things for my recovery but lots of people with my illness dont recover, or they fluctuate between remission and relapse and I dont know whether I will be one of the lucky ones or if I will always have this condition now.

I don't like asking for money from anyone - not my husband, not the state, not anyone. Before this I was sporty, independent and hard-working, I loved my job, I still do. My job involves helping others, and I hate that I can't even look after myself when I am having my worse days.

Very few people want to be on benefits for the rest of their lives, I certainly don't. I don't want to be on them now, but I also have to give myself the best chance of a sustained recovery so that I can get back to work and stay there.

[di]

You'll get there Love.....and for as long as you don't...don't allow the Daily Mail type peeps make you feel bad for where you are. I don't know why you can't work. For me, it was, possibly still is, fear of being out in the big world with strangers staring, thankfully, I've found work where I'll be amongst people I know. Had this opportunity not arisen, I'd probably still be on ESA and 'proving' tat I feel **** when all I really want is t feel great!

[Hilary B]

The benefits system was intended as a safety net, but however the rules are framed some will manage to turn it into a feather bed, unfortunately they are tackling this by means that make holes in the safety net, without actually doing much about the feather bed types.
Until the rules are made subject to common sense, rather than legalese, it is bound to be off balance one way or the other, and at present, with the Government purse as stretched as everyone else's.....
If the system had been adjusted a decade or so ago, when the warning signs first appeared, we wouldn't be in this mess.

[Two_Sheds]

if you are not "cured" then you get no benefit.

But Steve, it's the best way to motivate the lower classes: make them poorer, so they go out and find work.

The way to motivate the rich though is different, because they are ... well, different. So you pay rich people bonuses, even if their company is losing money, even if they drive the economy into the ground and bankrupt their bank.

they tell us he didn't get his back problem through injury (he got them through majorly failed surgeries)

They're wording the failed ESAs very carefully. They say something like this: we're not saying you don't have an injury or a health problem (they accept you have only one arm). You have been found not to have a limited capacity for work (which translates as: you can use your other arm, and it doesn't disadvantage you in any way).



At no point do they suggest ways or means for a person to be helped back into work (treatment, courses, training, subsidised anything). They just stop the money. So if you couldn't afford treatment before the ESA test, you certainly can't after it.

[donnakebab]

Thanks CS. I get it now.

[mrmagoo]

your asking the wrong person!

sorry.will but out.

[Two_Sheds]

Mr Magoo, you're missing a trick. You should work for Atos

[snohare]

If the system had been adjusted a decade or so ago, when the warning signs first appeared, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Oh, they started this system way back in 1994. That was when the disgraced head of a US Healthcare Insurance company called Unum, described by a California federal court as "operating illegally from day one" - they specialised in denying valid claims for compensation, using a software system called LiMa suspiciously like the one now used by Atos - was invited by Peter Lilley to come consult on changes to Sickness Benefits. In 1999, the Social Security Minister of the day, walked into a top job at Unum, and this trend has continued. Unum's UK subsidiary is now advertising its' products with phrases like, "In these uncertain times you can no longer be sure of government benefits..." They don't mention their own diabolical record of denying payouts to people with neurological and immunological conditions.
They also do not mention the number of US States that banned their parent company from operating, after multiple convictions for racketeering, extorting money, and God knows what, not to mention a nine figure fine in California.
The Unum folk are honest-to-God sociopaths with no shred of conscience; they would sit down to a table with their insurance assessors and say, "We are going to deny x % of these claims." And that is what Atos (who are not regulated by any medical body, and receive a fee for every claimant moved from their benefits) are now doing - meeting targets.

The Potter Blogger: The scandal of the DWP's advisors

Guess who just filled out the ESA form...chronic fatigue sufferer...I am doomed. But if I am, so are they...they have crossed a line in trying to pick on the weakest.

[julesapple]

Sno, that is truly scandalous.

We've just filled out ours - now chasing the BH's medical records - so if you want a shoulder to yell or whinge at, just PM me. We'll do it together! Don't let the barstewards get you down.

[snohare]

Mr Magoo, I don't know what benefit system your neighbour is on, but it isn't this one. There is an assessment every two years or so, always has been, independent of sick notes. If he gets them that easily, he has a personality disorder or something equally severe, you see him treading a thin tightrope.. But of course, you wouldn't see him when he is ill. That's why few of my neighbours know I am ill; they may assume I am out elsewhere "as usual", but I'm ill at home.
The one thing that will give a DWP DM (Decision Maker) serious pause, is the idea that you may be an insurance hazard at work. The powers that be hate the idea that you may somehow get a job, then (for example) go postal due to a previously known psychotic illness - and the DWP may be sued by victims or next of kin. They know they have not a leg to stand on legally, particularly as their pet researcher Mansell Aylward's claim is that mental health sufferers who feel unfit to work do so because they have "a deviant attitude." "Mental health sufferers" now include CFS and ME sufferers in the UK, as the health insurance industry has successfully changed the official definitions from neurological to psychiatric. The current death toll of ESA claimants waiting for appeal tribunals to admit they are ill is I believe 31, many psychiatric.
Of course, with the complete cycnicism which has been the system's hallmark for several years now, Atos know that they can put epileptics onto JSA, because they will never get a job, and any injuries done will be to themselves. I understand that of the 70% + of Incapacity Benefit claimants put onto the Work Related Activities Group, 39% are assessed long term ill by the Jobcentre Plus staff (who are worried about their premises insurance) and something like 22% are signed off short term ill.
I may well PM you, Jules. I have loads of info, on all the intricacies of the tricks they pull. (Many illegal, of course.) Make sure you document all changes to your health as the process proceeds, and give this info to your doctor; and get an advocate to help you.
When I first made the mistake of doing research on this of course I could see immediately what was in store for me - so my ulcers kicked off big time, and my health (previously improving, albeit sporadically) has deteriorated. I am fine as long as my ageing parents can afford to support me, but God, I pity people who are totally on their own.

[cardiffsteve]

I found this website very useful for filling in ESA forms and getting ready if you have to appeal or go to tribunal.

One little problem, to get to the best information you have to pay.
I think its £19.45

It did help me with my tribunal.


Benefits and Work