ESA Application & Medically Retired

I have fibromyalgia and degenerative discs in my lumbar spine. After a long time off sick from work at a bank i was medically retired and granted a medical pension at age 43 (December 2015) - I'm finally applying for ESA and PIP.

Can anyone explain the impact of being in WRAG on my pension? Or how I would go about finding this out? I'm hoping that the fact i've had many occupational health assessments and it was finally dediced that I was permanently unfit for work will mean I'm put in the Support Group but looking at the guide on this site that is looking increasingly unlikely.

I can mobilise but it does cause me pain and fatigue. I don't use walking aids as my doctor says they will be bad for my long term mobility and i try to take as few pain killers as possible, using self-management, pacing, breathing, a TENs machine and resting to cope as much as possible.

With self-management I've brought my condition under control where I can function to a limited extent but the idea of going to work again terrifies me as I am sure that the extra stress on my body will throw me back again to the days when i was taking maximum doses of four different painkillers and then coming home to sleep and barely being able to cook, not being able to clean or care for myself (at the time my daughter did most of this for me)

They lost my sicknotes at the claims office (and then found them again), so I was advised to travel to my local jobcentre plus to deliver copies. I did this but the journey left me in tears as I was in so much pain. I had to call an ex-boyfriend to come and collect me as I couldn't face getting public transport home again :/


How much do they take account of pain, because I do walk to try to keep my mobility for as long as possible, even though it does cause me pain and so much fatigue that I need to go to bed afterwards? Obviously with fibromyalgia my condition varies from day to day and if they see me on a good day they will not see much wrong with me.

Also my condition varies hugely dependent on the weather/season. In summer I'm much more active as the warmth greatly helps me, however in winter I often don't leave the house for days so it's really hard to answer questions like how many days a week are good days and bad days. How is this accounted for in the process?

I have a PIP medical on 5th October and I am waiting for the ESA medical appointment that I am sure will arrive soon, so any advise on how to present my condition would be appreciated.

Thanks

Kristina

Hi Krystina and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

I would not expect your ESA, whichever group you are in, to have any impact on your occupational pension.
However, you pension could well impact on your ESA, even if you are on the contributory kind.

For people on income-related ESA, any pension would be counted £ for £. With contributory ESA the first £85 of pension will be disregarded, then 50p ESA deducted for every further £1 of pension. You must notify DWP when you receive your pension, even if it is below £85, as it could save a lot of trouble later on!

Contributory ESA is taxable, this will probably be collected from your pension.

Whoever assesses your ESA claim will pay no attention to your occupational pension or the reasons it was awarded. All they will be interested in is if/why you meet the specific descriptors. The descriptors, the issue of variability and how to present your problems are explained in the ESA guide

ESA claims and appeals

May I suggest that you bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future? This will allow you to return with further questions or comments about your ESA without having to start a new topic each time. It helps us enormously when everything relating to the same claim is kept in one topic - and I hope you will find it useful too