ESA assessment passed, Entitlements, interview.
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Dakky
Member Posts: 53
I went for my assessment not long ago, and have now received a letter telling me i have been put in the support group (Yay! no more doctors notes). I'm wondering about the support group though and if anyone has any information that would be appreciated.
There is no mention of how long I'm in the support group, does anyone know why this is?
I see people mention pip, will I eventually be put on pip or assessed for pip?
What are the differences between pip and ESA?
Also for anyone wondering what the entitlements for ESA after assessment are, they break down like this for me per week:
Your living expenses
Extra money because of the income disability guarantee £72.40
Limited capability for work addition £15.55
Extra money because you are in the support group £35.75
Total: 123.70
I thought I'd also mention my assessment interview and how it went. I'd read horror stories about atos, so mentioned it to my doctor before I was due for assessment. I wasn't sure what she'd say or maybe write something to take with me about my illness. Instead she said just do what you have to do to get through it. We both know stairs can leave me crippled so I thought I'd maybe try take two flights of stairs before I went, rather than go in with my normal ailments, which should be enough.
As it turned out I didn't need to do that. A couple of days before my assessment my spine, hands, neck and shoulders flaired up bad. They're always bad, but this was a real bad flare up. And on the day of the assessment I could barely walk due to my knees and Achilles tendons.
I entered the building and was asked to take a seat after proving my identity. The doctor came to the waiting room after ten minutes and called me. We had to walk about twenty yards to his interview room, which he walked behind me.This wasn't a problem as I was having great difficulty walking and he would clearly be able to see that.
In the interview room he had my esa50 application one the desk, and the four pages I'd wrote as supplementary information to go with the questions asked in the esa50 document. I think these supplementary pages I provided are important as there wasn't enough room in the application form. You need to make sure they have ALL relevant information.
We only got about five questions in when he asked to weigh me. I could barely get up due to me knees and not being able to push up from my wrists to support my weight. Because of that I stumbled of the chair and banged into the wall. He checked my weight and mentioned I was well under weight and something about my body mass index. The interview then changed into more of a doctors appointment. Probably cause he could see I was pretty much in agony from head too toe.
He ended asking about how I was doing with current medication, saying if i wasn't comfortable with it get it changed. Asked about hospital appointments etc. He also told me currently as I am isn't good enough, and get back to my doctors and ask for more tests. He also said I shouldn't really be here and needed a stay in the hospital to get to the bottom of this.
I suppose this just goes to show you that we probably only hear the bad and not the good. I thought I'd be raked across the coals and need to appeal, but instead had a very good doctor who was compassionate. Hope this helps anybody going for their assessment.
There is no mention of how long I'm in the support group, does anyone know why this is?
I see people mention pip, will I eventually be put on pip or assessed for pip?
What are the differences between pip and ESA?
Also for anyone wondering what the entitlements for ESA after assessment are, they break down like this for me per week:
Your living expenses
Extra money because of the income disability guarantee £72.40
Limited capability for work addition £15.55
Extra money because you are in the support group £35.75
Total: 123.70
I thought I'd also mention my assessment interview and how it went. I'd read horror stories about atos, so mentioned it to my doctor before I was due for assessment. I wasn't sure what she'd say or maybe write something to take with me about my illness. Instead she said just do what you have to do to get through it. We both know stairs can leave me crippled so I thought I'd maybe try take two flights of stairs before I went, rather than go in with my normal ailments, which should be enough.
As it turned out I didn't need to do that. A couple of days before my assessment my spine, hands, neck and shoulders flaired up bad. They're always bad, but this was a real bad flare up. And on the day of the assessment I could barely walk due to my knees and Achilles tendons.
I entered the building and was asked to take a seat after proving my identity. The doctor came to the waiting room after ten minutes and called me. We had to walk about twenty yards to his interview room, which he walked behind me.This wasn't a problem as I was having great difficulty walking and he would clearly be able to see that.
In the interview room he had my esa50 application one the desk, and the four pages I'd wrote as supplementary information to go with the questions asked in the esa50 document. I think these supplementary pages I provided are important as there wasn't enough room in the application form. You need to make sure they have ALL relevant information.
We only got about five questions in when he asked to weigh me. I could barely get up due to me knees and not being able to push up from my wrists to support my weight. Because of that I stumbled of the chair and banged into the wall. He checked my weight and mentioned I was well under weight and something about my body mass index. The interview then changed into more of a doctors appointment. Probably cause he could see I was pretty much in agony from head too toe.
He ended asking about how I was doing with current medication, saying if i wasn't comfortable with it get it changed. Asked about hospital appointments etc. He also told me currently as I am isn't good enough, and get back to my doctors and ask for more tests. He also said I shouldn't really be here and needed a stay in the hospital to get to the bottom of this.
I suppose this just goes to show you that we probably only hear the bad and not the good. I thought I'd be raked across the coals and need to appeal, but instead had a very good doctor who was compassionate. Hope this helps anybody going for their assessment.
0
Comments
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I'm so pleased for you, dakky, and thank you for your very comprehensive post. Good news is always very acceptable as we hear much more of the bad stuff.
I do hope you will get back to your GP and see that changes are made for the better.
I don't know anything about how long you will be in that group. It might be worth asking our Helpline people to clarify things for you.
(Might this site be of help? https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance )If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Steven Wright0 -
Hello Dakky, I have never been in this situation but I found your post informative - thank you for taking the time to write your account. There are good guys out there but it's always the bad ones who make the 'news'. I hope that your next visit to your GP is a positive one and I wish you well. DDHave you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben0
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