My boyfriend suffers from depression and has tried to kill himself twice. He stopped taking his medication as he felt this was exacerbating the situation. He has been for CBT and is making slow progress but he still suffers from insomnia and anxiety and although his therapist is happy with his progress, he concedes he would struggle with work. Yet in December, the DWP reviewed my boyfriend's claim, sent out a medical officer, who sat with us for 10 minutes, didn't listen to us and as a result, his Incapacity Benefit was stopped in January and he is still waiting on the result of an appeal 5 months later. He has not been able to claim anything, and we're living off my wage, but can barely afford the rent (which we are struggling with as HB and Council Tax Benefit has also been stopped because his qualifying benefits are suspended). At first DWP told us to claim Income Support, then said that was wrong and he should instead be claiming ESA. So he put in a claim for that which was rejected and he was again advised to apply for Income Support. We're still chasing the appeal, and the DWP are doing nothing but passing the buck. The whole situation's setting my boyfriend back and he went to see his doctor for help. The doctor told him that there was nothing he could do, and showed him a note on his file from the DWP instructing the GP to take no action as my boyfriend was the subject of an investigation!? I appreciate they can deny him money, but to prevent him from seeking medical help??? I'm disgusted by the whole thing. How can the DWP dictate that a Medical Officer is more qualified to comment on my boyfriend's mental state than his own GP? I understand they need to be impartial, but the report totally contradicted everything that was discussed. Its like looking at another person's report. I'm taking this to the public service ombudsman, but wondered if anyone else had experienced this?