Worried about IB medical

[catkin417]

Hi

 

I am on long term IB for depression and anxiety.

 

I have had reoccurring episodes for the last 11yrs. Each lasting various lengths of time.

 

On Monday I have to go for the medical and I am worrying myself stupid.

 

Will it be under the PCA assessment?

If the health person starts to ask me to do physical things do I tell them my illness is MH?

 

What do they ask?

If they ask what do you do in the day? In my case as i am sure others it depends on how bad i am feeling.Ie days when i can't even get out of bed.

Do you just try and say look it depends on how i am that day. No day is the same.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

[doktorjohn]

most people are likely to be asked the majority of these questions. It’s worth looking through

them and thinking about how you could most accurately answer them.

 

Travelling to the medical

 

Have you come on your own?

How did you get here?

Where do you live?

How long did it take you to get here?

Where have you parked? or Where did the bus stop?

Did you have to walk (from the car park or bus stop)?

How far was it?

 

Your health conditions

 

What are your main conditions?

What medication do you take?

Who do you see about your conditions?

When did you last see them?

Have you seen a specialist?

Any hospital admissions in the last 12 months?

 

Accommodation

 

Do you live in a house or a flat?

How many stairs do you have?

Is the toilet upstairs or downstairs?

Does anyone else live with you?

Accompanying person

Who is this with you?

Are you a friend or a relative?

What is your name?

 

Past employment

 

What was your last job?

Why did you stop working?

When did you stop working?

Would you like to go back to work?

 

Sleeping, washing and dressing

 

What time do you go to bed?

How do you sleep?

What time do you wake up?

Do you have problems getting out of bed or dressing?

Does anybody help you?

Do you shower or bathe?

 

Cooking, housework and shopping

 

Do you do your own cooking?

What kind of cooking do you do?

Can you follow a simple recipe?

Are you safe around electricity and gas?

Have you had any accidents recently?

Do you keep your home tidy?

Do you do shopping?

Do you go to the supermarket or the local shop?

Do you walk or drive to the shops?

How long do you shop for?

How often do you go?

 

Hobbies and social life

 

What do you do all day?

Do you have any hobbies or interests?

Do you watch TV?

What do you watch?

Do you use a computer?

Do you have friends?

Do you have a social life?

Do you like to spend time with friends or family?

D you go to pubs or night clubs?

Do you drink alcohol?

Do you use any street drugs?

 

Pets

 

Do you have a pet?

Do you feed your pet?

 

Communicating

 

Do you have a telephone?

Do you have problems with phone calls or doorbells?

Do you phone your friends or family?

Do you deal with you own letters and bills?

Did you fill in the incapacity questionnaire yourself?

 

Temperament

 

How is your temper?

How is your mood?

Do you have problems with anxiety or panic attacks?

Did you get anxious or lose sleep thinking about coming here

[catkin417]

Thank you for this.

Will have alook through.

Just dreading it.

[doktorjohn]

The woman who "did" me was very nice and sympathetic but she (along with the DWP) stabbed me in the back later with a load of rubbish and 2 points.

 

Basically if you say anything positive about yourself they will use it against you. A lot of it is "catch22" - if you say you watch films it then translates that you can sit comfortably for 2 hours and follow the plot.

 

The perfect way would be to driven there by a friend or family and have them carry you in and say that you are too ill to answer questions and too ill to even be there or sit still or stand up.

 

I know this sounds ridiculous but I am angry with them and I know that I will have to go on Jobseekers in the long run because they have moved the goalposts so that you can barely get a cigarette paper between them.

 

Do your best though because it will make for a good appeal.

 

dj

[catkin417]

Have you appealed and been successful.

 

I know im jumping the gun but you just feel you've failed it before you even go as its MH probs.

[doktorjohn]

I've been waiting for the appeal tribunal since March this year and I do expect to win on mental health grounds.

 

BUT

 

When they migrate me to ESA in the next year or so I will not meet their ridiculous criteria and I will not put myself through another appeal living on £52 per week for 9 months or so.

 

I will send you a link to my appeal statement if you think it might help you.

 

dj

[catkin417]

Wow i didn't realise they take that long.Its bad enough having MH problems but one of the issues they don't seem to understand that putting us through these hoops to jump just makes you feel even worse.

I just wish they would accept what your doctor and other healthcare people say. They are the ones that know you best.

We ourselves know what we can and can't do and the time it takes.

I know my recovery is slow but i just have to keep making the tiny steps no matter how small and one day i will get there.

The link to your appeal statement i would be grateful for.

I am already fretting about failing the medical.

How long did it take for their decision to come through? I take it they don't tell you there and then.

Thanks

[doktorjohn]

It took two weeks after the assessment to get the letter and my IB was stopped from the date of the letter.

 

My appeal is in google docs so I'll try and give you a link in a personal message on this forum.

 

dj

 

PS. I totally agree with you that they are making us more ill and there have been suicides.

[starblackie]

If you are on IB your assessment will still be under the PCA until the migation which nationally will be rolled out April 2011, so your medical will be under the same rules for IB until then, very good luck and best wishes for Monday

[catkin417]

Thank you for the support.Will let you know how Monday goes.

[honeybee13]

Hello. I know you're not at that stage yet, but I appealed an IB decision at a tribunal and won. It's all on my sticky at the top of the forum.

 

HB

[catkin417]

Thanks for that honeybee.

How long did your appeal take?

Anyway i've got everything crossed for Monday.

I just wish i could stop fretting.My poor old Mum doesn't know what do with me and that on edge.

[honeybee13]

Hi. If you mean my appeal to the DWP decision maker, I can't remember. Also it was a long time ago and timescales now seem to be longer. If you mean the tribunal, it was many months and is longer now. Sorry. I learned patience from the exercise.

 

HB

[ANDYANDFLO]

I know this sounds ridiculous but I am angry with them and I know that I will have to go on Jobseekers in the long run because they have moved the goalposts so that you can barely get a cigarette paper between them.

 

Do your best though because it will make for a good appeal.

 

dj

 

Hi, I am at that point now - well I should say I past it a week or so ago. I just could not carry on with the stress of the ESA appeal. I was making my wife's life a misery with worrying about it all. The last straw was being told that the appeal will not be heard this side of Christmas. I failed the medical and sent in my appeal in Jan this year!

 

So took the only other option and applied for JSA©. The lies I have had to tell them to be accepted you wouldn't believe it. I was warned that if there was any chance that I could not fulfill all of the JSA conditions, they would have refused my claim. I just hope and pray that they do not come up with a job as I know that I could not possibly do it. But hey, what option did I have.

 

This whole system stinks and I am now of the sincere opinion that it is all done to defeat as many people as possible in making claims and having to fend for themselves.

 

I have given up, and thank God I am of an age that my working life is coming to an end very shortly. I do pity the young families who are having to put up with this situation.

[catkin417]

Thank you honeybee.

I'll just take it a step at a time get Monday over with and go from there.

[catkin417]

Hi

 

I am so sorry that you have felt you have had to apply for JSA when obviously you are not well enough.

Obviously the system is at breaking point if your appeal had no chance of being heard until nearly a year later or more.

What do they think it puts people through having to wait this long it exacerbates their medical conditions particularly MH probs.

God knows what is going to happen when IB are migrated onto ESA.

[GRUMPYOLEMAN]

Hi, I am at that point now - well I should say I past it a week or so ago. I just could not carry on with the stress of the ESA appeal. I was making my wife's life a misery with worrying about it all. The last straw was being told that the appeal will not be heard this side of Christmas. I failed the medical and sent in my appeal in Jan this year!

 

So took the only other option and applied for JSA©. The lies I have had to tell them to be accepted you wouldn't believe it. I was warned that if there was any chance that I could not fulfill all of the JSA conditions, they would have refused my claim. I just hope and pray that they do not come up with a job as I know that I could not possibly do it. But hey, what option did I have.

 

This whole system stinks and I am now of the sincere opinion that it is all done to defeat as many people as possible in making claims and having to fend for themselves.

 

I have given up, and thank God I am of an age that my working life is coming to an end very shortly. I do pity the young families who are having to put up with this situation.

 

Hi, I am sorry to hear that you have given up. I have too, and like you am now claiming JSA. It's not right but there is only so much that you can take. 13 months + for your appeal!!, I thought mine was a long wait - 10 + months!!

I have a friend also that has stopped her appeal for the same reasons. She has been called into the DWP offices to be questioned about what she put on her ESA50. Her medical results are totally at odds to what she has said is wrong with her. I do know that in the past I have heard that the DWP are now in fact challenging the validity of 'sick notes' and whether the applicant has been honest in the ESA50. I hope I am wrong on that point!!

[catkin417]

What! If they are challenging "sick notes" or the now "fit notes" then it beggars the question of why we go to the doctors when we are ill we may as well say we want to be seen by ATOS.

Did the result of your friends medical totally differ from her ESA50 form.

[doktorjohn]

Of course they are now arranging to cut housing benefit and JSA after a period of time as penalties for not taking jobs. I don't have the exact details but every new statement of intent from the government is more draconian than the last.

 

dj

[catkin417]

I beleive that they are on about cutting housing benefit by 10% after you have been unemployed for 12 months as a supposed incentive to get a job. Age old adage there aren't enough jobs out there.

Obviously going to be worse when they migrate IB to ESA.

I am sorry to hear that yourself and others have had to give up appealing what do they want when people are genuinely ill are able to show with medical evidence that at the moment they can't work.

[doktorjohn]

I am going ahead with my appeal for IB but when I go on ESA I will not appeal again unless I have a new illness in the meantime.

 

dj

[GRUMPYOLEMAN]

What! If they are challenging "sick notes" or the now "fit notes" then it beggars the question of why we go to the doctors when we are ill we may as well say we want to be seen by ATOS.

Did the result of your friends medical totally differ from her ESA50 form.

 

Hi, to be honest I don't know, I haven't seen the ESA50. I know she has it somewhere, it came with her appeal pack. She is in a right state at the mo, but I will be seeing her tomorrow. What she has told me is that the medical report concluded, like most have done, with 0 points. However, the ATOS assessor did make a comment on the report that in his opinion her statement of her condition, and presumably the sick note, does not appear to be consistent with his findings that she has no apparent underlying medical condition. From that I am presuming that he is saying that she has lied about being ill, and that the sick note has been issued on the basis of a non existing illness. Her GP has since then continued to give further sick notes for the same illness. I am wondering if she is going to be interviewed about how she has managed to get those sick notes from her GP and what she has told her GP about her 'illness'. And maybe use her as a witness in a complaint against the GP. I don't know, What she is worried about is thinking she may have to repay the monies she has had. I'm just guessing here. Anyhow I will hopefully know more when I have seen the documents and letter tomorrow.

I've heard about dodgy MOT certificates but never dodgy sick notes!!

[GRUMPYOLEMAN]

Of course they are now arranging to cut housing benefit and JSA after a period of time as penalties for not taking jobs. I don't have the exact details but every new statement of intent from the government is more draconian than the last.

 

dj

 

Don't quote me on this but I understand that you can only have 26 weeks of JSA © then you are on your own

[doktorjohn]

I believe that applies to one type of JSA (contribution based) but you can carry on claiming the income based JSA indefinitely but obviously subject to the hoops you must jump through.

 

dj

[GRUMPYOLEMAN]

That is correct!