My telephone appointment last week went fine. All the Work Coach wanted was to ask if I had received, completed and sent off the form for my WCA will which be coming up in the next few weeks. I wanted to check that someone was on top of sorting out exactly what UC I should be getting. My new appointments are added quietly to the UC journal without my receiving any notification. When I logged in, I found I had been scheduled an appointment for 2:40pm. Due to my illnesses, I ha

Phoning ESA again. It has a long spiel followed by ‘please press 1 to continue’. Why not just carry on without having to press 1? After more spiel, there is an explanation about it being the wrong number for Universal Credit. Then it tells you, twice, that you need to state what benefit you are on and the reason for calling. Instead of ‘press 1 for ESA, 2 for JSA’ etc, you have to state the benefit verbally – which the automated system then has to repeat back to you to check.

I started my claim for UC on 16th July. I told ESA on the same day, or possibly a day or two before, that I had moved house, no longer had any savings and was putting in a claim for Universal Credit. On 10th July I had received an ESA payment as per usual. I didn’t know this until checking my bank account today, as I haven’t previously needed to be aware on exactly what date my ESA payments are due. I should therefore have received one further ESA payment, of five days, no lo

After getting a letter from ESA last week, this week I logged on to my UC journal and found that I had – at last – got an award breakdown. I’m on the basic rate, less than £75/week, and I had over £100 taken off the month’s payment because of my earnings. As an added complication, my housing association seems to change its service charge on a frequent basis – it went up between when I first moved in and asked them to write a letter to pass on to UC with my rent and service ch

A couple of days ago I saw this tweet on Twitter: “Work as a health outcome is a fundamental principle for us. There must be a shared approach within the health and social care system” Jenny Osbourne from @GM_HSC #ERSAMBW #disabilityconfident #nooneleftbehind pic.twitter.com/13KRhqnyEf — Pluss (@PlussInspires) May 23, 2018 This phrase creates a visceral reaction in me every time I see it; it immediately makes me feel sick. And my healthy friends to whom I mention it react wit

The government still doesn’t know what its talking about. But this time it’s almost seven years on from when it gained power, and its politicians no longer have the right to plead ignorance. They do not have the right to remain ignorant on matters of great importance over which they hold the power. A spokesperson for the government said that mental illness is not a disability. Leaving aside his personal knowledge of mental illness – which appears to be restricted to non-disab

On Thursday the DWP announced that Atos is withdrawing from its contract to run Work Capability Assessments, the controversial assessment for people too sick or disabled to work. Interestingly the DWP both claim that they sacked Atos (“We removed them. It’s not them walking away”) and that Atos paid them for leaving. Which to me sounds like Atos chose to leave, as I’d have thought that the one responsible for ending the contract early would be the one that pays the penalty fe

The government has been carrying out a study of suitable descriptors to use for assessments for ESA. The results were supposed to be released in spring of this year, then summer, and then finally were released earlier this month. The superficial results suggest that the current descriptors are better than the alternative descriptors tested in the EBR. But there are number of provisos that indicate that the current descriptors and assessment process are still very flawed. Atos

We cannot afford to base policy on public opinion when the public opinion is based on false information. ESA is a good example of this. Public opinion is that a larger proportion of those who were or still are on IB did not need or deserve to be there. Consequently there was room for approval of a harsher test that tells more people that they do not face health-related barriers to work. This led to ESA, a test considered to be one of the harshest in the world, which many sick

When it’s their word against yours, medical evidence is what proves you’re not the one lying. Medical evidence is what says that you are in pain, or you are blind, or you are mentally ill. It’s what confirms that you aren’t making things up or exaggerating. It’s what tells the decision maker to believe your evidence over what the Atos assessor said, or simply to believe your evidence at all. It’s the medical evidence to counter the medical opinion of the Atos assessor. It’s t

I received a request to write about the 878 300 people who drop their ESA claims early.  The government’s line – repeated several times – is that these claims were fraudulent or cheats.  This topic has been covered multiple times by now.  Declan Gaffney produced an excellent report on this, which can be found here: http://lartsocial.org/shapps. Steve Walker also wrote about the dropped claims on his blog here: http://skwalker1964.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/govts-disability-dist

“84% of GPs say they have patients who have presented with mental health problems such as stress, anxiety or depression as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the Work Capability Assessment.  21% of GPs say they have patients who have had suicidal thoughts as a result of undergoing, or fear of undergoing, the Work Capability Assessment.”[1]  As Stephen Lloyd, MP, said, Atos is “feared and loathed probably in equal terms.”  Many find the WCA both stressful and upset

The government has plans to further sanction long-term sick or disabled people if they deem these people to not be working hard enough.  There are already sanctions if these people do not attend all of their ‘work focussed interviews’ or fail to satisfy ‘work-related activity’ requirements.  The government is extending this ‘work-related activity’ to include work experience; it is now legal for officials to mandate people in WRAG to carry out work experience,[1] although plan

A few days ago James Max wrote an article about Atos and the Paralympics.  Many disabled people and their supporters have been upset by the government’s permission for Atos to sponsor the Paralympics.  James Max argues that it is completely acceptable for Atos to be a sponsor.  He says that if you don’t like it, then “Tough.  Put up the money yourself if you feel that strongly about it.” I do feel strongly about it, but unsurprisingly do not have the money to sponsor somethin

Last night Panorama (BBC2) and Dispatches (Channel 4) featured documentaries on the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), part of the process for determining who is ill enough to not be required to look for work.  The programs were well informed about the facts and largely delivered them without any misleading usage. I have been following the welfare reform bill and WCA since January.  I am aware of most of the stories surrounding the WCA, have read multiple reports of people dyi