atos assessment

Hi just wondering if this has happened to anyone else on the forum?

Today I received a letter from atos informing me that a face to face assessment date had been made with them for next month, I was surprised as I had not received an ESA50 form prior to today's letter, the last ESA50 form I filled in was in December 2013 and I was not called for a face to face then and my support group ESA was not altered in anyway.

Is this the way atos are reassessing claimants now due to the backlog experienced by them? I have recently read that assessments could resume in March of this year, looks like the rumours were right.

Also with the letter was a warning that the assessment building has 82 steps from the atos offices to ground floor and that the lift can not be used in an emergency and therefore if you would have difficulties going down the stairs or need assistance from another person in an emergency to ring them to discuss your concerns.

First of all I have dealt with atos enough to know never to phone them, I only deal with them through recorded deliveries via royal mail. I need to inform them I would indeed have difficulties with the stairs and would need assistance from another person but I do not want them to send me for an assessment miles away either as the longer car journey would worsen my condition.

Any suggestions how to explain this to atos as I believe I need to tell them because if I not they will mention it on their report to use against me, "claimant did not report any difficulties with using 82 steps so therefore must be fit for work" type of comment. I do believe the "no lift in an emergency warning" A4 piece of paper is included for an under handed reason and not just for the good of my health.

I would be very grateful for your suggestions

God bless and keep fighting the system

jo wrote: Hi just wondering if this has happened to anyone else on the forum?

Today I received a letter from atos informing me that a face to face assessment date had been made with them for next month, I was surprised as I had not received an ESA50 form prior to today's letter, the last ESA50 form I filled in was in December 2013 and I was not called for a face to face then and my support group ESA was not altered in anyway.

Is this the way atos are reassessing claimants now due to the backlog experienced by them? I have recently read that assessments could resume in March of this year, looks like the rumours were right.

Also with the letter was a warning that the assessment building has 82 steps from the atos offices to ground floor and that the lift can not be used in an emergency and therefore if you would have difficulties going down the stairs or need assistance from another person in an emergency to ring them to discuss your concerns.

First of all I have dealt with atos enough to know never to phone them, I only deal with them through recorded deliveries via royal mail. I need to inform them I would indeed have difficulties with the stairs and would need assistance from another person but I do not want them to send me for an assessment miles away either as the longer car journey would worsen my condition.

Any suggestions how to explain this to atos as I believe I need to tell them because if I not they will mention it on their report to use against me, "claimant did not report any difficulties with using 82 steps so therefore must be fit for work" type of comment. I do believe the "no lift in an emergency warning" A4 piece of paper is included for an under handed reason and not just for the good of my health.

I would be very grateful for your suggestions

God bless and keep fighting the system

Hi j,

We have heard from a few members recently where they have received an appointment for a WCA F2F without being given the opportunity to fill in an ESA50.

This may be a tactic to help reduce the backlog.

Even though it is not absolutely necessary for an ESA50 to be issued, you can certainly argue that any information that they may have in the one that you filled in circa Dec 2013 is not current, and is therefore not applicable to your current limitations, if that is the case.

It also leaves any adverse decision more open to challenge, as The ESA50 is an integral part of the evidence used in the WCA process.

You could contact ATOS, and raise this issue with them.

You could offer to fill in The PDF ESA50 and post it to them :

Using The PDF Version Of The ESA50 Questionnaire

Whilst referring to the guides on this page :

ESA Claims Guides

See also :

How long do I have to complete the ESA50?

ESA50 too big for the envelope

&

Sending Documents to the DWP or ATOS

If you have access issues due to the stairs, and the health and safety issue with use of the lift, you should contact ATOS ASAP.

I agree that you should not rely on phone contact, but using E-mail should be an adequate way of providing a "paper trail" :

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Remember that you are allowed to re-arrange a F2F once, and if you have mobility issues, and these issues are one of the reasons that you are currently in The SG, I would most certainly raise this with them.

They must make reasonable adjustments under The Equality Act 2010.

You could even request a home assessment, but they will probably insist that your G.P. faxes them with a letter supporting this.

If nothing else, requesting a re-arranged F2F may give you more time to fill in and post the ESA50 to them.

There are two recent posts that you may find of interest : Here, and Here.

You should be aware that if you do have the F2F re-arranged that failure to take part in that without good cause may result in your ESA payments being stopped.

Information on ESA Assessment Venues can be found : Here.

Please keep us updated !

bro58

Hi j,

Almost forgot !!

If you do have to attend a F2F : ESA Medical – What to expect

bro58

Hi bro58

Many thanks for your fast and very useful response, having read your suggestions I do believe atos are trying to hurry claimants through after the recent ESA backlog and it is on them to send out the form to get more up to date information, considering my condition has not improved since filling out the form and I have been seen by a pain clinic, a physio and an occupational health therapist since and no tablet or other course of treatment has helped, the only option open to me now is attending a pain management course for chronic pain.

I will try and gather up as much new evidence and print off articles from the internet as to why people suffering from the condition of chronic pain do not always respond to the more traditional medical treatments. Would I be better taking this information with me to the assessment or sending to the decision maker afterwards, what do you think? Also I was taking morphine tablets when I filled in the last form but I was taken off them due to side effects, would it still
be relevant that I was prescribed those tablets even though I can not tolerant them?

I will also inform atos of the difficulties I would have with the stairs and could they note this and therefore i would require assistance from another person in the case of an emergency. I am very concerned that atos are using the warning and the fact that people may be not bother to mention the difficulties they would have again as they have probably written it on the ESA50 form so many times, atos will use it as a part of their report that will end up in the decision makers hands. I hope other readers take note of this as well.

Thanks for all your help, look forward to your reply

Am I correct in saying ATOS cease ESA medicals March 2015 ??

Misterm

Could it be that ESA form completed Dec 2013 has only just resulted in being called for F to F assessment FEB 2015 ?? If this is the case it does not follow that they have started to deal with deferred backlog of assessments ??

misterm