I have just received my dreaded esa letter now I am waiting for a phone assessment, this has restarted my depression and anxiety attacks,

[bob2421]

has anyone been placed in the support group at the telephone assessment stage, or even placed onto support without having to appeal

[Hidden]

I must admit I don't know much about this, but I did manage to find this out -

An Atos healthcare professional will carry out an initial paper check which is called a

“pre-board check” or “scrutiny”. The purpose of the check is to identify claimants who

meet the criteria for the Support Group, or to see if there is evidence that means

someone does not need a face to face assessment.

If the healthcare professional confirms evidence that can be justified, (sometimes

supported by further medical evidence from a GP or other medical professional) the

claimant does not need to be called for a face-to-face assessment.

I can only assume your case is following this pattern and that they are going to telephone you next. I found the above info from the DWP site.

Please click on link below for more info -

dwp.gov.uk/docs/esa-stakeho...

[bob2421 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Liberty, I doubt very much that anyone has ever been placed into the support group from the phone call stage. The way Atos have been doing things I wonder if they would use the phone call as evidence that the claimant is capable of working in a call centre, some of the dirty tricks they have done would suggest this.

I have also never heard of any fibro cases being placed into support without appeal. once again thanks for the reply bob2421

[Hidden in reply to bob2421]

It is odd I have to agree with you. Hopefully other members will post if they have had a similar experience so we can compare notes.

Take care Bob, we will try to help and support you as much as we can. xxx

[bodeia]

Sorry for late reply, unfortunately my experience has not been good, not a telephone medical but I had to go to the offices which caused a massive panic attack on the day but I still failed the medical with 0 points, even though I have FM and several other health conditions and at the time was waiting for surgery on my fingers, severe arthritis.meaning thy top joints need to be fused.

The ATOS health care professional was ,more interested in the fact my daughters visited and I used the computer but ignored the fact I use special software also he gave no mention of any of my health problems.

I am currently appealing and the wait is awful since mid June causing undue stress that has kicked my FM into overdrive.

I just received a letter last week they will be looking at the decision again and if they can't change it then it will be forwarded to appeal tribunal, which at the moment I believe can be anything up to 9 months because of all the appeals going on.

In the meantime I'm on an assessment rate of ESA while it all goes through making finances a struggle.

So I would be extremely cautious of the telephone assessment, at the same time I do hope it goes much better for you than it did for me

[Ozzygirl64]

I was going to say that I feel the telephone assessment is just like a trick question. I had one of those and it appeared on my report 'can use a telephone to communicate', how did they know that unless they used that conversation? xxxxx

[vikki]

a friend of mine had that assessment, Her husband was there at the time, she has difficultly holding anything for longer than 5 minutes so she stated this and asked if they minded her putting the call on loud speaker as she was unable to hold the telephone too long and also by doing this her husband also could listen and he helped her out, maybe worth you doing this too bob take care vikki x

[Hidden]

Hi I had a face to face assessment about a week later the dreaded letter arrived, saying they couldn't reach me by phone so could I ring them.

I did only to find out I had been turned down for esa , I am not going

to appeal I'm going to turn up at the job centre every fortnight to sign on in my usual state , tired in pain confused and anxious and see how long before

they will help me,