reconsideration after reconsideration??????

I have been placed in the WRAG group, and had asked for a reconsideration which I had a letter telling me that the decision was unchanged, so I have written a letter to request an appeal as per my letter below.

Thank you for the time taken to explain the decision regarding my ESA reconsideration. Unfortunately, however, I am still of the opinion that I should be placed in the support group and would like to request a move forward to an appeal as we discussed. I have the specific opinion that I should be in the support group as I am in constant pain all the time and it is because of the effect of this constant progressive pain I have to stop what I am doing and rest without exception, If I try to "ignore or put to the back of my mind the excruciating pain, it only gets worse so therefore I feel it restricts my abilities extensively and therefore should not have been assessed as being able to be in the work related group as I can be totally unable to move on some days due to the severe pain. I refer to the following excerpt which I feel is relevent to my problem. "The claimant suffers from a bodily disablement and, by reasons of such disablement, there would be a substantial risk to the mental or physical health" I feel that having to be forced to go through more pain would be detrimental to my mental and physical health.

I suffer with neurological problems caused by damage to my spine. I recieved a letter back but do not understand, it states the following.
we will look at the decision you have appealed against and, if appropriate we woill revise the decision in your favour. If you have further evidenced which supports your appeal please send it to us and we will consider this when we look at the decision again.
If we cann revise the decision in your favour, your appeal will lapse and will not be sent to the her majesty's courts and tribunals service. you can appeal against ther revised/new decision if you still think it is wrong.
If we cannot revise the decision in your favour we will send your appeal letter and papers, giving our reasons and evidence for the decision, to her majesty's courts and tribunal service. we will send a copy of these papers
etc etc.

Am I having a further reconsideration as I thought that you could only have one then appeal.

Thank you Gordon,
I reason I asked for a reconsideration first, is because I was told this was the correct way to approach the subject via a phone call to the DWP following my initial decision. the decision remained unchanged, so I spoke again to the DWP and they said they did not need me to fill the appeal form GL24, but simply, write to them requesting an appeal.
I am just astounded that pain isnt taken into account as its the main symptom of my problem and the cause of my disability. The more I try and do the worse the pain gets, I proved this by trying out some work in a call center a few years ago, and was in so much pain on the third day that I had to stop for my own sanity and peace of mind. It was the reason I had Incapacity in the first place, there is nothing the doctors can do for the damage in my spine, except analgesia which only helps to a degree, so I either suffer or turn into a total zombie. Surely Pain should be taken into account, I have a chronic pain condition caused by damage to my spine, I have a pain consultant who has said there is'nt much more she can do for me as I'm immune to most treatments now which helped in the beginning.

Hi,

You seem to give a very clear account of how you are effected by pain.

Did you apply this to the descriptors????

For example, due to probs with my spine I cannot sit for xxx mins as I feel XXXX in my spine so I would have to xxxxxxx and so on.

Hope this helps

Radhika

leslie wrote: Thank you Gordon,
I reason I asked for a reconsideration first, is because I was told this was the correct way to approach the subject via a phone call to the DWP following my initial decision. the decision remained unchanged, so I spoke again to the DWP and they said they did not need me to fill the appeal form GL24, but simply, write to them requesting an appeal.
I am just astounded that pain isnt taken into account as its the main symptom of my problem and the cause of my disability. The more I try and do the worse the pain gets, I proved this by trying out some work in a call center a few years ago, and was in so much pain on the third day that I had to stop for my own sanity and peace of mind. It was the reason I had Incapacity in the first place, there is nothing the doctors can do for the damage in my spine, except analgesia which only helps to a degree, so I either suffer or turn into a total zombie. Surely Pain should be taken into account, I have a chronic pain condition caused by damage to my spine, I have a pain consultant who has said there is'nt much more she can do for me as I'm immune to most treatments now which helped in the beginning.

Hi L,

We always advise an appeal in the first instance as you receive an automatic reconsideration then anyway.

Only if the reconsideration is unsuccessful is the appeal sent to The TS.

So this only involves one action by the claimant rather than two separate ones.

What Gordon is saying is that suffering pain alone will not qualify you for the SG.

As with all limitations suffered as a result of a medical condition, you have to tie the limitation in with one or more of the qualifying descriptors.

Limitations can be caused by severe pain/discomfort, fatigue, breathlessness, etc, etc.

You then have to show that due to said limitations, you cannot carry out one or more of the SG Descriptors, repeatedly, reliably, and safely, for the majority of the time.

Therefore, you need to cite which of the descriptors apply to you due to the severe pain/discomfort that you suffer when you attempt to carry them out, giving details, and cross referencing it to medical evidence.

See the qualifying SG Functional and Non Functional Descriptors below.

SG (LCWRA)Schedule 3 Descriptors

ESA Reg 35 for entry to The SG (LCWRA)

See also :

Qualifying for the Support Group

bro58

Hi thanks for the replies,
I did indeed provide medical evidence, I also described that the pain was a result of the condition and that sometimes I can carry out the descriptive tasks and that most days I cannot, I also sent a letter to clarify the "IT VARIES" answer I had to give to most questions that apply just to be honest about my condition, is there a draft "letter" I can send to my consultant and GP to get further evidence to support my claim.?