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DWP is ridiculous!!

grahame22

I'm currently awaiting a tribunal to try and get my ESA reinstated after it was terminated a few months ago by DWP following a medical assessment. When you appeal against the DWP's decision, they are supposed to then provide you with basic rate ESA payments whilst you await the tribunal, but so far I have received nothing. So yesterday I summoned up the courage to phone them and ask why I have been recieving no money, and their reason is absurd!

Apparently to get my money, I need to first provide them with medical evidence that I 'still' have ASD! And then I'll have to routinely provide additional evidence to prove that my condition hasn't gone away if I want to continue to receive ESA whilst awaiting the tribunal. 

Is this some sort of joke? Is this normal procedure? It really feels like I'm having my future decided by people who have no clue and it doesn't seem fair or right.

  • I can empathise totally with your observations over the so called 'Healthcare Professionals' being used to defraud disabled people out of what should be the bare minimum of entitlements.

    I am getting some bad feedback about my assertion that a lot of our trustees have been very silent about the the disgraceful cutbacks effecting disabled people. It is happening today!!!

    Did Cheryl Gillan or the Duchess of Wessex fight these cuts as to my mind they constitute the gravest attack on disabled people.

    Bet I know the answer?!!!

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    NAS20054 said:

    To treat vulnerable people in this manner is what I call unjust, immoral, disgusting, evil, scandalous, and that is just the start. 

    I'm not sure what's worse, the people who orchestrated such a ghastly scheme, mostly to use disabled people as a scapegoat for failings elsewhere, or the mainstream press, the majority of whom cheered it on and joined in with the vilification; about the best we've been able to expect is them turning a blind eye to these awful abuses.

    I'm left wondering what on earth has happened to my country.

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    I believe it is normal procedure for them to reassess people with permanent medical conditions with a maximum period between reassessments of three years.  And yes, it is a pointless waste of time though it would appear its main purpose is to harry people into dropping their claim rather than having any sort of genuine merit.  AFAIK the assessments are carried out by people who typically have no understanding of the condition in question, e.g. a physiotherapist can be the "trained medical professional" who could assess someone with mental health problems, supposedly.  I recall one of my applications was assessed by a nurse who was incapable of even drawing a rational conclusion let alone possessing any actual knowledge of my conditions, and much of the process is completed by a clerk, I believe.

    Keep on at them though: make sure you have any additional evidence ready well in advance, keep copies of everything you send them (or send them the copies, I don't recall how insistent they are that they receive the original) and write your national insurance number across the top as they're notorious for losing things, and don't be afraid to involve your MP: mine was actually very helpful and managed to get the logjam cleared before the tribunal even had a chance to happen.