AT WHAT STAGE DO LiMAs TAKE PLACE ?

Hello Forum,
I want to ask 2 questions about the Logic integrated Medical Assessment (LiMA) that I have seen described and illustrated in the Benefits and Work Guides (on pages 71-73 of the ‘Physical Health’ Guide and on pages 76-78 of the ‘Mental Health & Learning Difficulties’ Guide) and involves what looks to me like a disjointed, designed-to-disorientate-and-round-the-claimants-on-their-feet affair (unless perhaps they have Pinball Wizard faculties).
My First question is:-
At what stage of the assessment process of a claim for ESA is this LiMA medical applied to the claimant?
i.e. Does it:-
(a) take place during the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which may follow the claimant’s return of their completed ESA50 Questionnaire?
Or
(b) is it a medical that takes place LATER, after a claimant has been placed in the Work-Related Activity Group (WRAG) as a way of discerning what types of work the claimant may be able to manage despite their limited capabilities?
The reason I am asking is because I have my WCA coming up (it is in the process of being rescheduled from the original 4th March one because I told Atos I wasn’t going to accept an unrecorded one) and I went to a lot of trouble to make use of the ’Use this space’ areas on my ESA50 Questionnaire, as you so wisely urged, in the face of the tick boxes alone being often woefully inadequate to convey a true picture of my someone’s health problems – Consequently, I would be very worried if, when I attend my WCA, I am subjected to this LiMA-lets-just-dot-a-radio-button-here-there-and-God-knows-where-and-at-bamboozling-high-speed sort of thing, which may, in the eyes of the Decision Maker cancel out any notice which may have been taken of all the valuable information I put on my ESA50 Questionnaire!
My Second question is:-
If a LiMA medicals do take place during the WCAs, what is the purpose of that exercise, considering that the ground covered by the completion of the questions THEY THEMSELVES had selected to be included in the ESA50 Questionnaires should have elicited answers which cover all the NECESSARY ground already surely?...........It then could only come across to me as being a sort of double-check to catch people out i.e. a claimant may have time to make up/invent incapabilities - which maybe they don’t actually have in reality during the time span they are allowed to complete their ESA50 Questionnaire, but ha, ha, they will have a hard job spontaneously revealing something of the same picture of their health condition in the face of the ‘fast fire’, bullet point questions being ‘machine gunned’ at them in a LiMA medical. I would think that even a person who does not have Depression and Anxiety and Perfectionism (OCD) problems (like I myself have) could become confused and seized up by the disorientating effect of having multiple questions about abstract contexts one might find oneself in jabbed at them for not-always-distinguishable-reasons. They will probably finish up feeling as if they have been put alive into an electric food mixer and the power switched on!
I thank you all for any enlightenment you can give for my 2 questions.
Good Luck to you all.

Jean.

Hi Jean,

The 'LiMa' software is used to guide the questions during, and record the results of, the face-to-face assessment that you refer to as the WCA. This is undertaken when it is believed that more information is needed in order for a decision to be reached.

ESA Medical – What to expect