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ESA!!!!! ATOS!!!!!

missribbons

I dont even know where to begin. After years of being unsuccessful in employment - either being sacked or bullied, i have found myself applying for ESA.

The psychological damage that has been caused trying to be a part of society has left me on medication. I wake each morning shaking with fear, usually this is after a night of sleep walking and nightmares.

I relunctantly came to the realisation that i needed to be on ESA. The application form was intimidating and very stressful as i worded each issue i dealt with on a day to day basis. I felt i poured my darkest secrets of how life as an adult with aspergers really is and it hurt. But i needed to do this to survive.

Last week i recived a letter to say i needed to attend a medical assesment to see if i was capable for work. I attended this today.

As i had feared the whole meeting was very distressing, intrusive and completely inappropriate in regards to aspergers syndrome - or 'disease' as the healthcare advisor called it!!!

My reflexs were examined, i was asked to squat, lift my arms, bend my legs, what my hobbies were, did i use a mobile? did i go on the internet? did i play games? all baffling all invasive and all to tick boxes. 

I have avoided reading much about ATOS - the private company paid to assess us; 'lying theiving bastards' but from panoramas programme earlier this week, i feel that this is not an assesment to help those with aspergers. I am scared for the result and distraught at how this has left me feeling even more isolated and desperate than before.

Parents

  • These people started to learn their particular trade when Thatcher got into power on the slogan 'Britain isn't working'.  Her evidence? About 1 million unemployed.  A very short while after she came to power there were 3 million and everybody available had to start to try to find ways to slim down the apparent number.

    Not ASD myself, I was then looking for work and remember with a kind of ache the form I was given by the Jobcentre, or whatever it was then called, to fill in to apply for work if I could get it and benefits if I couldn't.  "What hours are you prepared to work", I remember in particular, was followed by a set of blocks to fill in and an injunction not to answer "Any".  Of course, if you said you would work any hours, which was true in my case, it did not enable them to disqualify you for setting an unreasonable limit on your hours of availability for work.

    So great was the stigma, so difficult and humiliating the process, that I stopped attending and, as a result, lost my national insurance contributions for a period of about 7 years - I was at home, looking after my kids instead.

    It has not changed.  I trust none of them and advise anybody else to do the same.

    R

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  • These people started to learn their particular trade when Thatcher got into power on the slogan 'Britain isn't working'.  Her evidence? About 1 million unemployed.  A very short while after she came to power there were 3 million and everybody available had to start to try to find ways to slim down the apparent number.

    Not ASD myself, I was then looking for work and remember with a kind of ache the form I was given by the Jobcentre, or whatever it was then called, to fill in to apply for work if I could get it and benefits if I couldn't.  "What hours are you prepared to work", I remember in particular, was followed by a set of blocks to fill in and an injunction not to answer "Any".  Of course, if you said you would work any hours, which was true in my case, it did not enable them to disqualify you for setting an unreasonable limit on your hours of availability for work.

    So great was the stigma, so difficult and humiliating the process, that I stopped attending and, as a result, lost my national insurance contributions for a period of about 7 years - I was at home, looking after my kids instead.

    It has not changed.  I trust none of them and advise anybody else to do the same.

    R

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