Credit where credit is due (and hopefully ESA too !)

[jacobsmum24]

Good Morning

Thanks to everyone who took an interest in my trip into the big city yesterday for my Capability for Work Assessment yesterday. I thought I had better post an update after moaning yesterday !

When I arrived, I was advised they were running 90 minutes late and I could make another appointment if I preferred but after a two hour journey, I politely said I would rather wait. In the time I was waiting, a few of the natives became a bit restless and were quite abusive to the receptionist which was totally uncalled for. Needless to say, I was the only one offered a cup of tea. ☕

Anyway, when I finally got in for the assessment, my assessor was a lovely girl who had previously worked as a liver nurse in the gastro unit at the hospital. She was very knowledgable and understanding of my condition and didn't ask me to do any silly tests. She also said that I shouldn't even have been called in but my GP hadn't responded to their request for information. She said she was very happy to recommend that I get moved from the Assessment rate to the Support Group rate for ESA and that it should be backdated to October.😀

Additionally she asked if I was getting PiP and I said I didn't think I would qualify and she said she sees lots of people with much less serious health issues than mine who get it and to put in an application straightaway so that's today's task.

It was a bit of a nightmare getting to this stage but credit where credit is due, the assessment was very relaxed and easy and hopefully I will get the right decision letter within two weeks.

If anybody else is going through this process and needs any help, just drop me a PM and thanks for all your messages yesterday.

[jacobsmum24]

Forgot to say, I also collected lots of pennies (and foreign coins) in my little Burger King paper cup outside 🤣🤣🤣

[Laura009 in reply to jacobsmum24]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 you star !!! X

[Millie09 in reply to jacobsmum24]

Hahaha !!! 🤣🤣🤣.... but what a fab result!!! And well deserved!!! ..very very pleased for you x

[Braveheart65]

I am genuinely glad for you and it’s most uplifting that you met with a compassionate human being! Well done you-but you will herein be renamed to ‘bag lady’ 😇.

My experience was very different albeit via phone call. I resigned from work due to ill health in sept ‘19. I had been off since March ‘19 and I was sick to death of the 7 occupational assessments I had been forced to go through having never had a sick day off (not 1) in all the years I worked for “not just any old company”. Having no idea where or how to make a claim, I phoned Dept of Health to be told my husband earned more than ‘the threshold’ and therefore I was entitled to ZIP. End of conversation. And that’s where I currently sit. It is ever so frustrating that working since finishing uni in 1987 contributing NI without a break (only 9 days off to have my son), I am entitled to nothing. But life is to short and you cut your cloth to suit. I feel on, convince myself I can find another job, start looking and then another symptom or bad few days reminds me of where I am at. It’s an anathema to me not to be working and I am bored to death of my own company! Who knew I had so little to say!

So outcomes like yours dear Bag Lady, warm my heart. 👍🏻😀

[jacobsmum24 in reply to Braveheart65]

You need to apply for contribution based ESA provided you have a Fit Note from the GP. When I resigned, I couldn't get JSA as it's now moving to Universal Credit which is based on your household income and like you, my husband earned too much.

Contribution based ESA (or new style ESA as it's called) isn't much and less for me as i have a personal pension but still worth doing. You might as well claim it though as you are entitled to it. You can do it online, then you go on to the Assessment rate until your Capability Assessment which is supposed to happen within 13 weeks. You might not have to go to a face to face interview if your doctor supplies sufficient info but if you do, I can give you bag lady tips 🤣🤣🤣