ESA50 01/13 General Enquiry

Hi All

I'm pretty new here joined a few weeks ago and just started filling in, well preparing my forms to be submitted next week spent the last couple of weeks preparing copies of documents and awaiting a letter from my doctor but have a couple of questions.

I have been long term ill due to an accident in the early 90's then a more serious one in 2005 where I fractured my spine and my left leg was in a bit of a state. I have had spinal problems since the early 80's as well as chronic fatigue, now been diagnosed after 30 years with Fibromyalgia but there is also a long history with breaking things, spinal conditions and things such as OA in most of my bones.

Having gone through a number of "medicals" over the years and had to appeal each one it's the first time I have had to fill in an ESA form so wondered about a couple of things, especially the walking and reaching because the walking would be the only one to get me into the support group.

Now after the long winded intro the couple of questions.

I downloaded and started to read the new ESA PDF "ph_wca_fullv1.pdf" and noticed that it suggests using "it varies" so you can explain your condition better which I thought was great until earlier when I read a post about the walking section. Someone had posted about walking and said on previous experience they would never use the "it varies" option again as it leaves you open to they think, if I use the 50m and they don't agree I get the same result so was wondering if people have problems with using "it varies" option?

Second thing is the part about seeing any specialists, I started physio again 4 weeks ago for my legs and after what they had to say I really don't want to put on the form I am seeing them. Out the 4 sessions so far I seen the same person 3 times. Week one had an hour assessment and he listed countless things wrong with my legs and lower back, week two he seemed to think I had made a miracle recovery and did some treatment on my left leg. Week 3 I go back and he claims the treatment he did was on my right leg, I corrected him as I only have metal work in the left side but he was insistant and wrote it in his notes then decided it would be a good idea to stick me on crutches . Week 4 I go back and it's a different physio, spends 15 minutes with me and twists my ankles from side to side then declares there is nothing wrong with me at all, not even my spine so I explained the conditions I got and why that makes me walk sort of weird but he was having none of it then said he didn't care if I used the crutches or not. To top it off he claims all my legs, hips, arm and spinal conditions are because I am right handed so therefore normal.

If I haven't bored everyone to dead with the long post I was just wondering if I should give the physio details because with an attitude like that I can well imagine the damage that could be done to my claim if he writes a report.

Thanks for any advice

Thanks for the reply Gordon it has clarified a few things for me as there are several sections where none of the boxes apply to me but there are other things that do apply that I could put in the comments box and add to a separate sheet.

I think I read a post on here with regards to not ticking any of the boxes and writing something like "none of the boxes apply" or words to that effect I will see if I can find the post for the exact wording.

Thanks again

Tim

Thanks for the info, did just find a post saying the same it was one I saw earlier but an older post.

I think especially on the walking, reaching and carrying I will just leave the tick boxes blank then start to explain in the comments box as to why none of them apply to me then carry it on in detail on a separate sheet.

Tim