Terrified re Changes to ESA from Jan 28th

I have read through these and am frankly terrified especially of the way they're now going to classify physical and mental illnesses separately. I have both and I consider them to be both mental and physical. Fibromyalgia is actually neurological but fatigue is both physical and mental. I also suffer with Generalised Anxiety and Phobias which are considered mental (but of course they have physical symptoms).

There is also something about imaginary wheelchairs and aids, and treatment, so if they think treatment would help you, no matter how inappropriate, and no matter how it may not help or indeed make you worse they can score you no points/class you fit for work. I thought the forcing of people to have medical treatment contravened Human Rights (but when has that mattered to this government?)

And the qualifications for Reg 29/35 seems tobe changing (though I may be misunderstanding that) so it doesn't matter if you are at risk from work any more. It wouldn't surprise me, because anything that people are using to enforce their rights (ie these regs) the DWP soon pull from under us.

I've not been migrated yet from IB so I will be affected by these cruel changes.

I would appreciate any help and reassurance.

Many thanks.

This is clearly something that is going to worry a lot of people. In fact, someone else has posted a similar thread,

Changes to ESA regulations

Do you have any specific queries? We do need to be careful to ensure that this does not turn into a discussion thread, as that is not the purpose of this forum .

Hi

Yes I read that post but my specific questions are:

1) I have fibromyalgia and mental health problems. How do I fill out the fibromyalgia section? It's neither just 'physical' or just .mental' eg fatigue is both and they can't be disentangled.

2) Are there any changes to Regs 29 and 35? That is, will the substantial risk to my health still apply?

3) Will I be penalised financially if they suggest treatments and or aids?

4) My medication has side-effects - will these be taken into account? Are they counted as physical or mental?

Many thanks

I think that the changes are too recent for us to be able to offer much advice. If my fellow mods can be of any help they will answer on this topic thread.

Thanks Jim.

For some reason I'm not receiving notifications any more.