ATOS test

[docnai]

hi after reading all the stories in the papers and on the news, can someone please tell me what happens when you go for a test with ATOS although i haven't been called yet, i dare say it won't be long. my wife says to stop worrying but i can't help it. please help.

[tettridge]

Hi

I know what you mean by being concerned as I am the same wondering what is required and what I need to produce to show someone the problems I have as I look fine but do have all sorts of physical problems that a complete stranger will or may not know about, and will they actually see what I am able (or not) to do in a short interview.

Kindest regards

Terry

[Bananas5]

Hello Terry,

I presume you mean the new ESA assessment? Formerly Incapacity Benefit.

The new test is designed to show what you can do and not what you can't. Unfortunately the LIMA software used bt Atos doesn't allow for variation to individual answers. It is a stinker.

There are plenty of sites around telling you what will be expected of you. Unfortuanately I can't do links but google in words and they'll come up. Benefits and Works is the best.

You will recieve a form ESA 50 which is long and complicated. Best advice is to get someone in the know to help fill it in. Also take someone with you when you go to the assessment

This bew test has ben designed to get the malingerers back to work. Unfortunately the disabled people have been swept into the same bucket.

Very few will get put into the support group where you won't be expected to get a job but the rest go into the group where there are sancions and time limits.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings but it is horrendous and a complete government mess.

I meant to say that when you go for your assessment you are given tasks to 'oerfirm' and yiou are awarded points. Each task holds different points and you need to score 15 mminimum.

I could write pges on this as it is something we have been campaigning against for a long time now.

DLA will work on a similar system of descriptors and points awarded. At the moment the DWP have not announced the rates of allowances but there will only be 2 rates for each group. Care and Mobility - standard and enhanced. So the lower rate of care will disappear this removing thousands of people off DLA.

The Blue Badge is based on - unable to walk or virtually unable to walk. These will be carried out by Occupational Therapists.

Hope this helps! But we fight on againsy these vile and disproportionate reforms.

P x

hi

[alfiep]

Hi,I was unfortunate enough to have to undergo this humiliating test earlier this year.It is not a short test as someone else has put here,mine lasted over an hour.Mine was not carried out by a doctor,but by a 'health care professional '.You are interrogated about everything that happens during a normal day.The idea being that they are trying to identify things that you CAN do,they are not interested in things you can,t do.You must remember,this assessment is being carried out to get people off benefits.You have to score a minimum of 15 points.If you cannot walk or can just about walk,that counts as 15 points.Anything else,no matter how serious you may think it is,will probably have a very low score.You will have to carry out physical movements like getting up from a chair,getting on and off a couch and sight tests.Get one of these wrong and you are off to the job centre.When I got my results ( takes about six weeks) I was surprised to see I had been put in the support group.It is a degrading test,the assess or will come and collect you from the waiting room.Be aware,the test starts here,they will watch you as you get up from the chair.If you gat up without using your arms to assist,you will already be under suspicion. You can get through it,but it ain,t no breeze.Good luck.

[terrytibbs]

Are you an expert in counter survaillance?? well get some lessons fast, the assesment starts before you actually see anyone, when i had mine they were watching by cctv as i entered the building, the watched if i took the stairs or lift, they made me wait 30mins in a waiting room while watching my movement and how comftable i was, then you see a nurse practitioner who has no access to your medical records and no expertise in anything else but the basics of health. Then they ask the standard questions etc then put you through a sort of medical by asking you to bend and move your wrists. Its absolute bullshit and i have known people who are in wheelchairs get kicked off DLA because they can move their hands. Welcome to TORY britain and its gonna get worse!! TIME FOR REVOLUTION?????

[alfiep in reply to terrytibbs]

terrytibbs

My reference to being watched when you got up was pointing to when your assessor began their part of this debacle

Shemadee,getting a taxi is a good idea.If you speak to your GP,they will have a letter template for this.Mine just filled in my details and then faxed it to ATOS who arranged for me to be collected from home.Getting home again was a bit of a far.I asked the receptionist toarrange a car to rake me home.I then waited 1 hour 40 minutes for it to arrive

[Shemadee]

At the risk of bringing the wrath of the gods down on me I would point out that the whole system was set up during the last Liebour Govt and being carried out by the Tories much to their eternal shame.

I was actually told, and believe it to be true, that the cameras are set up along the routes to the medical centre as well to see how you cope with getting in and out of a vehicle. This seemed to be the case when I had an assessment about 10 years ago and a second one about five years ago and a third to get my bus pass. Strangely enough I've had more help and input from the staff I saw at these centres than I've had from the NHS who cocked up my condition in the first place.

If you really want to push things, ask for a taxi to get you to the appointment. The alarm and confusion this caused was something to behold - I was left wondering if the office clerks have to pay out of their own pocket - but I dug my heels in and did get one!!

[treehugger]

Have just returned my form, I do not understand what happens in this 'capable of some work' criteria which most of us will probably be in. Apparently only 7 - 10 % of people are in the incapable of any work bracket.

If you are put in the capable of some work bracket this lasts for 1 year, after which I have not been able to get an answer as to what happens after this year.

My husband has just lost his job, so I c ould really do without this hassle. If you retire before 2014 you are not re-assessed.

I would just like to say what a load of rubbish the whole system is, UP THE REVOLUTION!

[tettridge]

Hi

I just wonder if 'they' think that going from a well paid (at least I thought well paid) job of £30000.00 a year doing the job I loved to the handout I am now on is by choice and why I am not now working now and having my pride being removed daily is something one tries to have just to get the ridiculous pittance one now receives.

It does make me angry at times (or it would if it did not hurt so much) that people can be driven to serious depths with this farce and how they play God with the people who need help not the things that we are made to go through just to be able to live not to enjoy life because I do not think any money would be enough to let us enjoy life as we would like even if we were even half way fit (but then we would be working)

Kindest regards to all

Terry

[talgarth in reply to tettridge]

Hi Terry, I am a newbie on here so please make allowance for any failure in site protocol. Like you I 'loved' my job, to the extent that when asked I would reply I didn't have to work? how could I consider doing a job I loved as 'work'. 1 of the very fortunate few then. Now like you, trying to get by on a pittance grudgingly given despite my paying astranomical sums in Tax & N/i in the past. How degrading the new ESA system is. Only 1 high point of the day today - that was to see Ukip traunching the tories in Eastleigh, and I was formerly a life long tory voter! To quote 'treehugger' UP THE REVOLUTION! regards. Donblanc

[tettridge]

Hi

My wife and I have a good friend who is a UKIP fanatic but we have to agree with most of what he says, he has more or less converted most in our village so we were all hoping for a UKIP win just to let them know we are not happy voters. Sadly it did not happen but there are more and more converts so could be interesting in the future.

Totally agree with the ESA thing, it scares me silly.

Take care and kindest regards

Terry