ESA, What's happening??

Hi There, here goes for my first ever post, I am a carer for my husband, who has suffered numerous problems since 2003 after a car accident, he has had spinal operations and over 12 operations on his knees and neck, but more recently he suffered meningitis and encephalitis, which has left him with a loss of hearing in one ear, damaged sight, and slight brain damage, my question is about ESA, he has been on DLA since his accident and his incapacity benefit came to an end, however I re applied for him and they gave him ESA for 12months in the WRAG, I was not happy with this decision and took your advice and sent in an appeal, I filled all the forms in as advised by yourself and we heard nothing for a few months, then we got a date, we could not make the date due to my fathers cremation, so they gave us another date for a month's time, I did some more investigating and sent in a form to have the medical recorded and also sent in some more paperwork from his consultant, but three days before we were due to attend the medical, we get two phone calls from different people saying the doctor from ATOS was ill and we would receive another date, Two months down the line we have still heard nothing, has something happened to ATOS??, I am unsure as to what to do now

karen007 wrote: Hi There, here goes for my first ever post, I am a carer for my husband, who has suffered numerous problems since 2003 after a car accident, he has had spinal operations and over 12 operations on his knees and neck, but more recently he suffered meningitis and encephalitis, which has left him with a loss of hearing in one ear, damaged sight, and slight brain damage, my question is about ESA, he has been on DLA since his accident and his incapacity benefit came to an end, however I re applied for him and they gave him ESA for 12months in the WRAG, I was not happy with this decision and took your advice and sent in an appeal, I filled all the forms in as advised by yourself and we heard nothing for a few months, then we got a date, we could not make the date due to my fathers cremation, so they gave us another date for a month's time, I did some more investigating and sent in a form to have the medical recorded and also sent in some more paperwork from his consultant, but three days before we were due to attend the medical, we get two phone calls from different people saying the doctor from ATOS was ill and we would receive another date, Two months down the line we have still heard nothing, has something happened to ATOS??, I am unsure as to what to do now

Hi k007,

Welcome to the forum !!

ATOS are suffering problems, and their are huge delays in their dealing with assessing ESA and PIP.

ATOS are indeed suffering staff shortages.

My only suggestion would be to complain to your M.P. :

Contacting your MP

Here is a similar query from last week ;

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=top...=10&id=100711#118219

See also :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/2631-atos-to-lose-wca-contract

&

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/2638-bene...nment-contract-early

bro58

Thank you for your reply, I will contact my MP, another thing I forgot to mention, my husband is on the higher level DLA which we filled the forms in with help from this site, and although we did not have to attend a medical (first time ever) they only renewed his DLA for 12 months, he was due to have a knee replacement in April this year, but after a visit to the consultant last week they have put this operation off for another 12months, should I inform the DWP of this change??.

One more thing I may add, after visiting our GP on Friday last week, we were told that the surgery can no longer help with medical reports for patients, they can only help if ATOS/DWP request information, as that way the GP/Surgery gets paid for it.

thank you very much for your help, without this site we would have been lost and left to the DWP wolves to their worst

karen007 wrote: Thank you for your reply, I will contact my MP, another thing I forgot to mention, my husband is on the higher level DLA which we filled the forms in with help from this site, and although we did not have to attend a medical (first time ever) they only renewed his DLA for 12 months, he was due to have a knee replacement in April this year, but after a visit to the consultant last week they have put this operation off for another 12months, should I inform the DWP of this change??.

One more thing I may add, after visiting our GP on Friday last week, we were told that the surgery can no longer help with medical reports for patients, they can only help if ATOS/DWP request information, as that way the GP/Surgery gets paid for it.

thank you very much for your help, without this site we would have been lost and left to the DWP wolves to their worst

Hi k007,

"I will contact my MP, another thing I forgot to mention, my husband is on the higher level DLA which we filled the forms in with help from this site, and although we did not have to attend a medical (first time ever) they only renewed his DLA for 12 months, he was due to have a knee replacement in April this year, but after a visit to the consultant last week they have put this operation off for another 12months, should I inform the DWP of this change??."

You would only have to inform the DWP (DLA Unit) of a Change of Circumstances (CofC) if it resulted in a change in the care needs/walking limitations that resulted in your husband's DLA award.

"One more thing I may add, after visiting our GP on Friday last week, we were told that the surgery can no longer help with medical reports for patients, they can only help if ATOS/DWP request information, as that way the GP/Surgery gets paid for it."

Yes, this is becoming a common occurance with G.P.'s.

Unfortunately, The DWP/ATOS seldom contact G.P.'s for evidence.

G.P.'s are not contractually obliged to provide reports/letters of support for their patients., so they don't have to, even if you offer to pay.

This is why we advise that members should obtain their own evidence, and send it with The ESA50/DLA Claims Form.

One way round the G.P.'s refusal is obtain copies of your G.P. records, which will involve paying a fee.

You can request this at the G.P. reception, you will probably have to fill a form in, but they cannot refuse :

You could then use relevant extracts as evidence.

See :

Requesting your medical records

&

Charging for medical records

bro58

You could offer to pay an administration fee for a GPs letter that might help.