New Style ESA

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your ongoing help and support.

I’ll send in my 3-month sick note when I receive it, as you suggest, and see if my £149.40 fortnightly payments continue. If they don’t continue I’ll write in and ask the DWP why the payments have stopped. If they continue to pay me I’ll send in another 3-month sick note in May. As I’ve said before, I don’t want to ‘rock the benefits boat’ and risk losing what they are giving me already. Maybe later on, in June maybe and nearer the benefit cut-off point in July 2022, I should then write in and ask them to assess me, since they haven’t done so yet. What do you think?

Kind regards

LH

Gary, you're a STAR !!! I'll take your advice and see how things progress. Kind regards and best wishes, LH

Hi there,

I've sent in another 3-month sick note, as well as a support letter from my GP, one in which he requests the DWP to consider placing me in the support group because my possibility, in his opinion, of me working again is more or less nonexistent.

Well, very recently I got a letter from the Health Assessment Advisory Service in Manchester informing me that I have a telephone assessment booked for 31st March 2022, between 1pm and 4pm.

I'm just wondering now of how I should handle this assessment. I have a full copy of the Form EAS50 that I sent in on 10th Oct 2021. I should perhaps read through this in detail and see what I said in my Capability for Work Questionnaire. But I just don't feel up to looking at all of that stuff. My mind at the moment is preoccupied with what is going on in Ukraine, where my family lives. They live right in the middle of the country, but their local military airport has been bombed, and enemy jets have been see flying over their city. It's very worying.

Anyhow, I try to keep positive. But I don't seem to be think too much about this telephone interview.

What do you think I should do?

Please advise.

KR

LH

Dear Mrs H, may I add my sympathies to BIS's and I'm sure all other readers.
Have you asked for your assessment to be recorded. In my opinion this is an absolute must. If they say it is too late and you don't want to delay the appointment, at least organise your own recording, preferably done by a friend or relative that can sit i with you and do it so you aren't worrying about the technology.
I would explain at the outset that you are half out of your mind with worry because of your family's situation [tell them] and may not be answering very well as a result. If it's all recorded and things then don't go well, at least you will have the evidence to help you get it sorted out.
You are blessed to have such a helpful GP, his letter should help you.
Denby