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MR/APPEAL ADVICE AFTER BEING PLACED ON WRAG GROUP

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7 years 2 months ago #179192 by KevinW
Hi there I have today recieved my award for esa and have been placed on the wrag group, at this point I would like to say thank you, as my last application was turned down, this time with a lot of painful and grueling hard work and the emense help that your invaluable guides provided, I was somewhat successful, So a big thank you. My concern is that my curcumstances are different on this application to before. The condition I have suffered with for almost 4 years is chronic back pain and fatigue etc, caused when I broke my back in a car accident, and I was turned down for this condition on my 1st application. I believe I was only successful on this application because I am now also suffering from severe depression caused by the life changing accident and continous daily struggle to live.

I was awarded 6 points for standing & sitting, 6 points for going out and 9 points for coping with social situations.

I was not awarded any points for any of the following, I ticked varies on all the following:
1. mobilising reaching, picking up and moving, communication -
I walk with a stick outside the home, lean on a trolley to shop and only 1st two aisles which is milk, bread, and frozen meals. when pain and fatigue is bad which happens at some point every day I cannot go out or get up or down stairs. when pain is severe which happens most days I have to lay down for several hrs to recover. due to pain and strong medication I suffer with memory loss and confusion and at worst can be incoherent.
12.awareness of hazzards - I suffer with short term memory and confusion due to pain and fatigue and have on a number of occasions overdosed on tramadol (which is known to have led to fatalities in others) and other strong medication.
13.starting and finishing tasks - I suffer with dyslexia and severe depression, I struggle to find motivation to do daily tasks such as eating meals, getting washed and dressed, shopping for groceries, filling in forms and managing day to day bills and benefits

Im sorry if this is long winded, and I have actually reduced the descriptions considerably that were written on the esa50.
I want to appeal the decision because i am struggling with living day to day without the added pressure of work related activities, I feel this will put both me and my son at risk of harm, I also feel that the medical assessor did not address all the questions where I stated my condition varies especially my ability to walk more than 50 metres. I have already recieved my written statement of reasons for the decision, do you think I have a strong case?

Im not sure how relevant this is but the assessor omitted key facts from the report and also stated the following:
1)was able to get on the couch without assistance
2)did not appear to have any difficulty using a step to get on the couch
This would have been fine, but for the fact I did not at any point get on the couch, i did however rock and shuffle constantly during the assessment due to back pain and had to swap chairs part way through(these facts were ommitted from the report, in fact the report stated 'did not make rocking movements (rocking may indicate anxiety)'.
The physical part of my assessment was only partially carried out as i was complaining about the back pain, and this was carried out while I sat in the 2nd chair. after this we left the assessment.

My local welfare rights, will only support people that are under the care of social services, so i do not know where to turn for help.

I do hope you can help, I feel totally betrayed by the system that is supposed to be there to support, not persecute us. I am really struggling with the thought of having to go through a huge lengthy appeal, as simply completing the esa50 and attending the assessment was such a huge physical and mental challenge for me.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer
Kevin

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7 years 2 months ago #179209 by Gordon
Kevin

Entry to the Support Group will be dependant on you meeting one or more the SG Descriptors, based on your post, I think that you will struggle to achieve this through the Descriptors that you scored points for.

However that does not mean that you cannot be placed in the SG for the other areas that you mention or if you have not posted in detail how your effected.

You really need to sit down with the ESA Claim guide to understand how you might qualify for the SG and what information you will need to provide to show that you do.

If you want to challenge the Decision then the first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our ESA MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the ESA area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/esa1

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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7 years 2 months ago #179287 by KevinW
Dear Gorden
Thank you for your indepth response, I have received my statement report, is it possible to upload a copy of this along with my esa50 which would give you the best chance of understanding my circumstances.

Regards
Kevin

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7 years 2 months ago #179337 by Gordon

KevinW wrote: Dear Gorden
Thank you for your indepth response, I have received my statement report, is it possible to upload a copy of this along with my esa50 which would give you the best chance of understanding my circumstances.

Regards
Kevin


I'm afraid not.

Our role is to ensure that the claimant has access to the information that they need and an understanding of the system to allow them to deal with their claim issues themselves. I'm afraid we cannot provide individual detailed advice.

Gordon

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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