I have just had a 'over the phone' , Work-focused interview for ESA...., ..I rang the JSP to say I was not well enough to attend the actual interview this afternoon...and the lady I was supposed to see said, "Well it's only a few question's we can do it over the phone if you like?". So if it's only a few questions and it was possible to do it over the phone...why are they bringing people into the JSP offices... why can't every one just answer a few questions over the phone.......But my real point for writing this is when I whent through the list of my illnessess I asked her if she needed any help in spelling them...I have trouble with some of them and I have them....so I always ask especially with Fybromyaligia...."No No it's ok ..I know how to spell it. Everone has that these day's..nearly every one in Plymouth has it "..
I could have screamed down the phone at her.....What a thing to say......Still I suppose I should be use to it ..no one believes me when I say it's a illness and how badly it affects you ...they should just try walking in my shoes for a day.....Oh there I go again I could't walk for a day in my shoes or any one elses .....
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rosaann52
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Thanks Wendyjoy....I have an appeal going through at the moment..
on my Medical Report Form...the health care professional actully stated in her prognosis that....and i Quote....
"I advise that work is unlikely in the longer term"... and other things saying that my work capability is restricated due to pain and yet still THE DECSION MAKER ..say's I'm fit for work...If I don' win on appeal I won't let it go I'll go for the full appeal in front of a judge.I've got plenty of time and thank God my brain still works (sometimes) and I'll stand and fight my corner....
She probably only deals with people on the sick so it is a reasonable assumption that everyone she interviews has it so to speak. They are like that at the DWP, mad as hatters.
Also dealing with you by phone means she can't have you removed from the JC for threatening her, effectively ending your claim.
I couldn't help but comment on your post....please be very careful what you say as I have a friend who also is effected by Fibromyalgia and severe Rheumatoid Arthritis.....and she does manage to go to work just about...... where you may ask.....at the DWP!
I know many, many of us have had bad experiences through claims for benefits or getting help with treatments etc, but PLEASE be careful what you say and consider everyone's feelings!
Not all DWP staff are fit and healthy, some have to continue working to pay a mortgage and have no other choice and they certainly aren't mad as hatters. I have known this person for 20 years now and they were incapacitated through RA well before we had even heard the word Fibromyalgia. She manages her job but with great difficulty. i don't actually know what she does so can't say how well she does it, she doesn't talk to me about the job as when she gets home she wants to forget it. I'm sure in all the years she has worked there she has had to put up with a lot of stick from the public, so all I ask of you is to please be careful what you say, not all people are bad!
Im going back to bed now as im having a bad day myself.....
Im not having a go at anyone, I just would like to see people thinking before they type
esp as i have Just seen one post where one of the members on here wanted to name and shame an OH worker. Im sure thats what they felt like doing, I'm not disputing there reasons for feeling that way, but there are proper channels to go through to make official complaints. if you are treated badly you should never fear making a complaint, thats why they have these procedures in place
hugs to you all,have a good and hopefully pain free weekend xx ((hugs))
Ok you know one nice person who has RA that works for the DWP and it sounds like you are having a go based on this.
I have no choice but to face these people from time to time, and over the last 5 years I found most of them, 98% to be very judgemental and abusive.
I made the official complaint as you do in these situations, and guess what, it gets you no where, it is your word against theirs, JC interviews are not recorded so you can't prove what was said.
On another visit when the abuse continued I tried a different approach, I refused to continue with the interview unless the manager was present. After a long series of excuses about her being very busy etc, I finally got to see the manager who sat in on my interview. The person who was dealing with me, by now was in more of a rage and could not contain herself even with the manager present who sat there in silence, probably because she could not believe what she was witnessing. So nothing came of that incident either.
Unfortunately people are continually subjected to abuse in many walks of life, the NHS being the latest organisation under scrutiny. How many times have care home staff been in the news for assaulting elderly and mentally retarded residents? The list could go on and on.
Going down official complaint routes won't get you anywhere with the DWP, or the rest of them for that matter, the only way to catch these offenders, criminals if you like, is to secretly film them in the act and send the recording to the media. Even then, nothing may come of it.
I'm so sorry really that you have had such a rough time and im not disputing anything you say, plus i wasnt having ago. i just want you to know there are good staff too.... sadly you havent met them yet.
i really didnt mean to up set you. I'm on the same side as you too, its just i always consider my friend every time i hear/read these things and just wanted you to know that there are god amongst them, just not enough.
I am appalled at your interview where the manager sat in. in fact i dont have the right words to express what i feel, well not ones i would type.
No problem Fibro, I forgot to mention that I complained to my MP about this also, the only difference here is, your complaint is dealt with from the top down, starting with the chief exec of the DWP and after that, reads like a list of who's who.
At an interview it was claimed that I signed a document agreeing to look for work when I was saying the complete opposite and refused to sign anything, so I was sanctioned for breaking this agreement that I did not know anything about.
Long story short, after the investigation instigated by my MP, the DWP could not produce said agreement. So that caused some problems for them which they solved by forging a document with my signature.
Neither of which was authentic, it looked nothing like my signature and the agreement was written on a sheet of plain A4 paper, not on official DWP stationary as you would expect.
They got out of that by saying a member of staff sometimes signs a document, in error of course, no fraud here! when a claimant refuses to sign, and ordinary A4 paper is used when they run out of official stationary.
Even though a blind man could see from what was by now a mountain of evidence, this was probably the most amateurish attempt at fraud ever seen, they lied about everything, including sanctioning me, they didn't stop my ESA ffs! and I had the bank statements to prove they did!
Of course nothing was done about it, I still see the same faces at the JC, and I remember all the fun we had together. And based on the result of my latest medical which won't be long now, WRAG again no doubt, I will be off to the JC again.
Oh will this pleasure never end. I will even throw in some hugs to show how happy I am. ((((()))))
i really do feel for you, my friend by the way no longer sees the public, as you can imagine it would be too much for he. I'm my mind she shouldn't be working and i have no idea how she copes. some are just stronger mentally than others. i know i couldn't cope. i have been through hell over the past year or so health wise not just with fibro and had got so low i had to admit to my GP in front of my OH that i honestly no longer wanted to carry on and didn't even want to be alive. I wasn't joking i felt like a heap of jelly that someone was trying to pick up using a fork!!
The joke of that side of things is when he offered did i want to speak to someone, i wasn't ready but after a few months i thought may be i should, then months down the line i am turning the corner myself with the help of valium. I still often feel so down but the valium is helping the shakes that i have had for over a year now. but I'm having to cope alone, all because the services he thought were and should be available to me weren't for some reason or another.. i managed after months of waiting someone giving me online self help but they were so silly they forgot to check the requirements for the software... it only works on windows pc's and i don't use windows. i even asked did they have it on a disk or able to tell me whats on the programme but they couldn't so i demanded to see a person face to face. i still had to wait a few months for this, i was told i could have 6 to 8 sessions with a counsellor, i think i have just had session 4, not sure what good its doing. appts are meant to be 2 wks apart but i have had breaks of 3 4 and 5 weeks, now she tells me she is retiring and they are closing the building. its depressing anyway and should have ben condemned years ago... so i have two sessions book that are also going to be a waste as the next is about 4 or 5 weeks away and the final session yay, is the following week, but her last day so is she really going to care! I doubt it. i don't feel i am going in any direction. each time you get 50 mins half of which is taken up by going through a list of questions, its so they form a graph of your moods over the sessions, but the breaks in between are too far apart to make and real assumption from them. at the end all i get is the choice to travel 20 miles to one office or 30 miles to another. there is no practical public transport where i live, its sort of the middle of no where! so can only go on one day in the week when my husband has his day off,but that day is used to take me to the 'local' hospital 14 miles in the other direction, for hydrotherapy. i have been going a good 10 years now on a 'self help' basis and can not, not go as i will cease up completely. my pains aren't just from fibro and the whole lot combines is just to much for nay human to take. so i really do feel for you what you are having to endure. How would any of them just treat you like that. i am fed up that no one believes we are in so much pain that life is so unbearable. I know there are members on here who are struggling in to work too, but did i read yesterday or the day before on a post that once diagnosed, its not like we are making our own diagnosis, they should recognise it and if necessary award benefit when its required. I know ofr various reasons, not everyone claims, but if you have no choice that what the Department for Ministry of health and social security was set up for... thats what it was called long before our time, but they should stop messing around changing names of departments or names for benefits. in the end its al the same... socail security. whether it be means tested or otherwise. Who ever decided that benefit should stop for the unemployed after 6 months and the sick after 12 when they have paid in for it, but if you haven't paid enough contributions you get paid the means tested version which will continue after the year. No offence meant for anyone on income support or housing benefit, if its needed it should be due, but not everyone who was on contributory based benefits may have a partner who works which prevents them getting any extra help. esp. those without children, so their partners earnings may be just fractionally above the rate to get any help, they cant get more wages but the need is still there.
whoever changed all these benefits should be made to live a month in our shoes, i bet they would soon be changing things... sorry to rant on, this post has got humungus!
all i can add to what you are going through is to stay strong, who have the will too, so much more than i could. I cant stand lies and esp when departments lie like that is disgraceful! I wish there were someone we call all do to help.
I won't goon now as this is long enough but my recent experience similar to this is with CAPITA who are an occupational health company similar to ATOS and sadly they are taking over many of the DLA reassessments. all I can say is hope i get my complaint in to the GMC before the so called doctor gets any DLA assessments t do... he hasn't kept proper records and thinks I was in a wheelchair unattended..lord knows how i got there the 30 miles to their offices! i haven't drive for ages as all the combo of meds i take has given me double and blurred vision, so f course not safe to to drive even if i could manage that distance which i couldn't!
keep at them my dear, at least you have us all behind you, even if its just to listen too... Im going to tell my friend to look on this site, but of course even if she fits the bill be be ''one of us'' i doubt she would get involved... she is much quieter than me.
I hope you are able to have a good weekend.. i just noticed the time its 2.30 and I'm still in bed!!
rant away to me by PM if you need to.... many apologies to everyone for such a long message, i got carried away.. thats what happens when you have dictation mode on your keyboard!! lol xxx (((hugs))))
The way system works today is, no matter how much you paid in when you were working, they soon forget about that and do everything in their power, including breaking their own rules and regs, to deny payments you are legally entitled to by law.
The benefit claimant who is not well enough to work is seen as a pest who must be eradicated by any means possible. You only have to look at how ATOS operates to see that.
The attitude is the same in my local JC, they do their damnedest to deny you have any illness, and send you off on back to work courses where you are told, there must be something you can do etc.
it sounds like something from WW2 I won't get political as they will remove it so no names mentioned, but as we have a disability they may as well throw us in the gas chamber!! i say now more, but you can read my mind. I wont ask you where you like as its not right, but it certainly sounds like you are getting a rough deal from all areas. i know my MP wouldnt support anything I ask as he "good freind" of that 'man' at the top!!! :roll eyes: xxx
I got my MP to explain why the staff involved in my case were still working at the JC despite clear evidence of wrong doing.
He explained MP's can only order reports from govt depts, they have no powers to punish or fire staff who abuse the rules and regs of the benefits system.
The other drawback is, they have to toe the party line. In effect an MP has no real power to do anything.
There is a system in place and no matter how badly DWP staff may use or abuse it, no MP can change that.
The get out of jail card is everything can be put down to clerical error or lack of staff training, or both.
Well I had it 26 years ago, diagnosed after the first 4 years of it all so it is no way a new illnesses made up to help us so called skivers. What a load of tosh. I agree everyone with fibro shpuld get is based solely on the fact that in June 2012 it was printed that the government accperts that fibro ois a potentially disabling illness. yet they failed to tell ATOS that! I was awarded DLA many years back and my primary illness was Fibro and I was awarded the DLA indefintely although I do have 14 other ongoing ilnesses to add to it.
The media labelled us but not many people ask why we have been labelled. We have been labelled NOT because of FMS but because of system players, milking the system by syain things like 'I am housebunds because of a bad back' and then get caught playing a few rounds of golf. It is people like that who get us labelled. it hits the press/media and immediately we are all scrounging no matter what the illness. I have lung disease x 2 which is lifelong and worsening, yet I am declared fit for work on the gorunds that the ATOS doctor 'claimed' to have listened to my lungs and found 'absolutleu nothing to suggest lung disease'. One I had medical evidence via x-rays, CT scans and all the breathing tests you can think of, and two, there was no stethoscope in the room !!!!!!!
Thanks Ozzygirl64......I will though it's not easy when you really do find it difficult to go out and about because of pain...no one's home should become their 'prison' but for some of us it really does....
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I will even throw in some hugs to show how happy I am. 
Omg what a day I have had :((
Having a real bad and fed up day!!
Fatigue seems to be taking my life away for days at a time !!!
I have just been put in the ESA work related activity group. Is this good or bad
Having a rant sorry in advance !!!
