HELP!! WORK ARE TRYING TO GET RID OF ME

I think I know what I am doing know after reading some of the boards.

Just an update I went to the doctors Yesterday, I booked a double appointment with her and I turned up with A list of all my up to date symptoms.

I wanted to go through all my symtoms with her to see if any were related to each other. I asked if It meant that my diagnosis was Fibromyalgia and chronic pain and chronic fatigue. She looked had said she could not find any evidence that I had been diagnosed with Fibro and told me my diagnosis was Low back pain and cps and cfs.

I talked about a few things with her told her I had to write them down as I knew I would cry if I had to talk about them as I was a bit stressed at the moment with work finishing me, having tinitus in my ear for a week and generally being ill at the moment by then I was crying. She had a little look and said do you want me to keep this on file in case your work want to get intouch with me. I said yes. any way i came away and broke down because she didnt really listen to me and just filed all the papers i had given her away. My husband phoned her and said how upset i was and that nobody really cares that im in pain 24/7 and asked for infor to be referred to a neurologist privately.

Anyway enough of my problems.

What I am wandering is - I have downloaded the ESA1 form its quite long some 52 pages is there something I can download to help with filling this one in like their is for the other forms as I cant find anything.

Thank you in advance

Sorry to hear of your trouble, CFS is awful as when fatigued it is impossible to go through loads of information and forms. It is very frightening when you have no idea what the employer will end up doing.

I was given medical retirement with a medical pension years ago. Had I taken voluntary redundancy there would not have been an immediate pension. That pension paid the mortgage. Not sure if this would apply to your employment but don't let them push you into a decision without proper information. Don't let them bully you!
We had booklets from the union about each type of redundancy.

Also does your union rep really understand how ill you are? My doctor told ATOS that CFS means that I am not reliable to work as I cannot guarantee to be fit for work all the time. They need to realise how little energy you have and how debilitating the pain is.

It sounds daft but do they have to consider alternative employment or adjustments?
Have you contacted Action for ME? Their website has more specific advice on ME/CFS.

I hope you will be successful in whichever course you take. cemac

You mentioned different levels before in your post, 1,2, & 3 and am not sure on what that is reffering to.
However before you can ask to leave work due to ill health or forwarding it as a redundancy you should be provided with an apt with the companies Occupational Health Doctor who will look at whether or not you are able to continue work as it is or if a longer time to get better is needed, or what they could do to make life easier at work for you. This is what your line manager and your HR dept should be doing and it should be conducted with the knowledge of your union rep to help you thru the process.
I suggest you contact your HR dept to discuss such matters.

Thanks Gordon for replying and your offer of help.

Cemac- I wont let them bully me, I do have the union involve and he attends all my meetings, which at the moment is one a fortnight as I have two part time jobs. I have seen occ health and adjustments have been done. I will have a look at Action for M.E
Thank you for your advice.

Pusscatsmum- the levels were Tier 1, tier2 and tier 3 for ill health retirement. Tier 1 means you will never work again before pensionalble pay, Tier 2 I think is Not within 3 years but eventually you will work again and tier 3 means you will work within the next three years something like that. I have seen occu health thanks and I have an H.R meeting every 4 weeks.
Thank You

Having seen this I just had to reply and send you my best wishes. I have just gone through ill health retirement and working for a local authority. It is so very stressful but I wanted to reassure you that you can come out with a good result for yourself. There is a local government pension scheme available on internet which helped me on the work aspects. www.lgps.org.uk I got tier 1 after seeing the occ health doctor. I was exceptionally nervous on seeing him despite being told he was totally independent. He really was in my experience. I have since heard he helped a colleague have another attempt at work with adaptations before granting the ill health retirement.

As for the guides on form filling the one's on this site are so helpful. I used them as a crib too for putting together a document for work occupational health doctor as it is all to easy to miss issues. I was also filling in DLA, work and ESA at the same time. It's tough going. Get some emotional support for it as it's all too hard facing these difficulties alone let alone convince others they exist and what is reality. We all minimise or exaggerate at certain points.

I used the Union rep to take over almost all the communication between work and myself, HR and managers which helped lots. When it comes to ESA and their requirement for certificates I discover all my local authority needed was to actually see them so a scanned copy was fine. ESA will request originals. I also did most communication by email as less stress and you also have a copy!

Anyway good luck and I'm sure you will come through it OK.