Update on my esa claim i have now reclaimed [ diabetes causing me problems] probably the stress of all that has gone on. When you fail the tribunal your rent and council tax for the time you were waiting for the appeal in my case 8 months becomes a debt to you unless you can prove you were receiving a benefit for that period because the local council are informed by the esa that you were not entitled to benefit for that period because you lost your appeal. You then have 2 options all your bank statements with the payments from esa on them for the period in question .then you should phone your BDC office and ask them for a letter stating what benefit you were getting take these to your local council to show them you were in receipt of a benefit.I would also advise using your local jobcentre plus phone to call them which is free. I would also request this info from them in writing and always ask the person you are calling their name and make a note of it. This system is designed to wear people down and as in my case make their conditions worse.I am now awaiting my next medical.

I was made redundant in march 2009 because i told my employers i needed a hernia op i am also diabetic type 2 on a new drug (byetta) which i have to inject twice a day. I signed on esa in march 2009 because my op was at the end of that month and it will take three months to fully heal so i wouldn't be available for work .When i was admitted they found my blood pressure was dangerously high and i could die on the operating table or i could have a stroke afterwards. So i was sent back to my doc who sent me to a specialist also my diabetes started to go worse at this stage so i was sent to see a diabetes specialist as well. I am blind in my left eye and have proven industrial deafness in my right ear at 11% i also have plantar fasccitis in my left foot so i continued to claim esa till these probs are sorted. In may 2009 i was invited to attend a ATOS medical were i told the (doctor?) my medical problems the medical lasted 15 minutes he asked what i watch on tv did i text on a mobile phone and how i arrived there that day. looked at my hernia asked me to touch my toes which i couldn't because of the hernia in my stomach and that was it he did not listen to anything i had told him. Needless to say i scored a big fat (0) i appealed and had the tribunal hearing in jan this year my welfare rep didn't get my medical records there for the hearing which i didn't know at the time and the tribunal panel didn't tell me this. They told me they were impartial and nothing to do with the DWP (and i am father christmas).anyway i failed and my money was stopped without informing me that this was to happen i have now been without money for five weeks i have appealed again but this is all designed to grind people down and make your medical complaints worse as it has in my case. I have also sent emails to my local mp and spoken to the editor of the local paper.I would advise everyone to do the same. This government is only interested in numbers it gets off the sick regardless that innocent people with genuine medical conditions are getting caught up in this.