Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

thanks BB i shall pass that on!

[bluebottle]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

thanks BB i shall pass that on!

I've had to report the person who wrote the report on me for ESA. In my case, they made statements they weren't qualified to make and disregarded a report of a doctor with specialist qualifications. If your ex and friend Speedy want me to look over their reports and advise whether to complain, I would be happy to do so. Acting beyond the bounds of professional competence is not uncommon, I believe.

[Magrew]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

I have filled in many of these forms now, I used to struggle but since I was advised of the keywords that the assessors seek my success rate has been very good.

I know it is good to erradicate the problem at source, and the EDM is an excellent idea in that regard. In the meantime I highly recommend that if you have an ESA50 to fill in then use google and find advice to fill it in in the context of your specific condition.

I found Benefit Scrounger's blog quite funny though

My ESA50






As though the universe just cannot bear to stop toying
with me just yet, the very day I got a letter to say I'd been awarded higher
rates of DLA, after a 19 month appeal, an ESA50 form drops through my
door.

I've been claiming Incapacity Benefit, the old, out of work,
sickness benefit since 2000. The last assessment I had for IB involved the same
scary letters from Atos, the same assessment (yes, SHOCKER : Sickness benefits
were always assessed) and the same worry.

The letter back in 2010 was
very scary too "If you do not complete this form, you may lose your benefits/If
you do not attend your assessment you may lose your benefits.... etc.

The
letter said I had to take any medications or aids I use with me. I called the
man at Atos :

Me "Really? I have to bring everything? Only there's rather
a lot A repeat prescription form won't do?"

Him "Yes, you have to bring
everything."

Me "But I have inject strong painkillers and chemo - do I
really have to bring needles, syringes and opiates into the heart of Brighton?
I'll get mugged!"

Him "Yes, everything."

Me "But sometimes I use a
feeding pump and tube, but I don't have one at home, surely I don't have to
bring that?"

Him "Yes, bring everything"

The people at Atos
helpfully provided directions to the "testing centre". I could take the bus,
then walk for 7 minutes or I could take three trains then walk for 19 minutes.
With a feeding pump and two carrier bags of medications, it was clear I'd have
to rely on the taxi-of-Mum. Yes my friends, somehow, my Mum would have to drop
me outside the door on the Red zone of a jammed one way system, with no disabled
parking within hundreds of metres. So we did one of those mafia-style body drops
where I'm sprawled on the pavement as she screeches away.

I joked at the
time that it was like a 16th century witches ducking trial - if you get to the
assessment centre at all, you are clearly well enough to work. If you don't,
they stop your benefits anyway for not turning up.

So, last time, when I
was finally called in from the urine aroma and barred windows of the waiting room, the lady told me to show
her my meds. I tipped half a pharmacy onto the table and she told me I'd
"passed" there and then. She looked embarrassed. She told me "You're lucky this
is still IB, if you were in the room across the corridor, having an ESA
assessment, losing an arm isn't enough. You have to lose an eye and a leg too
before you might just qualify.

So here, at last is the mythical
form. The ESA50 that is striking fear into the hearts of sick and disabled
people everywhere.

And it is remarkably odd.

Before it even gets
to the "real" questions, it asks if you "misuse Drugs alcohol or other
substances"

Why? Is alcoholism or substance abuse no longer an illness? I
have a sneaking suspicion answering "yes" to that one won't bode well for the
rest of the form.

Next, under moving around it asks "Can you go up or
down two steps?"

Erm, yes, I have bowel disease? Or are there jobs
requiring two steps to be climbed just the once in a day? If there are, I might
be able to consider this work lark after all! What if I can climb up but not get
down? The question only asks "either" "or"

No 4 asks if I can pick up a
pint of milk. Erm,,,,, yes or I'd never have another cup of tea again. I'd never
even be able to lift the kettle and frankly, I'd be dead without tea every hour
or so. It's often the only thing that keeps me going - they know we're British
right?

No 5 asks if I can turn the pages of a book or pick up a £1 coin.
Ace! If there are jobs where you sit and read, and people give you a £1 every
time you turn the page, I'm in!!! Sign me up!

Question 11 asks if I can
learn to set an alarm clock. Important one that one eh, or all us festering
layabouts would never get to work in the first place. Perhaps THIS is what has
been holding us back? We never learnt to set an alarm clock!!

I really
like this one : "Can you manage to plan, start and finish daily tasks?" Is there
a Mum on the planet who could answer yes to that one? I often plan a task,
occasionally I even start them, but I rarely finish them. Somehow I get the
feeling they're not talking about my household management though.

No 17
asks how often I behave in a way which upsets other people - does the DWP count?
Only I imagine I upset them most days.

Anyway, the point of all this is
to show how utterly bizarre the criteria for ESA are and most importantly how,
if you have no advocate, know nothing about the changes and think you can just
fill in the form with what comes to mind, things probably won't turn out awfully
well. It is a veritable minefield of traps and tricks.

So, if like me,
you just got yours, call your GP and find a welfare advocate who can help you
TODAY. Don't wait, they only give you four weeks to fill in the form and get all
your evidence together.

Now I just have to hope the universe wouldn't be
cruel enough to take away with one hand (IB) what it just gave with the other
(DLA)

[bluebottle]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

What ATOS is doing, in respect of the WCA, contravenes Section 3, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and Regulation 3, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and, I am advised, the Unfair Contract terms Act 1977 (as amended), also. Also, what Tories don't seem to realise, in their desperation to provide tax cuts for their rich pals in the City of London, is that the Secretary of State at the DWP is 100% vicariously-liable for the actions of ATOS and crazy decisions of DWP Decision Makers. Ian Duncan Smith is reputed to have said that disabled people sit round drinking coffee all day. If only! I also know someone who was in the army with IDS. Their opinion of him? "He was an a***hole when he was in the army and he's an a***hole now." Their words, not mine.

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

BB, an a***hole, is USEFUL - so IDS cannot be one of those !

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

However. It was actually a LABOUR government which brought in Atos and set up a very bad contract with them

[bluebottle]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

BB, an a***hole, is USEFUL - so IDS cannot be one of those !

If anyone has a better idea of what IDS is, answers on a postcard, please, to..........

[bluebottle]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

However. It was actually a LABOUR government which brought in Atos and set up a very bad contract with them

The last Labour government was, in my considered opinion, bordering on corporate fascism or neo-Marxism. It would be best if ATOS's contract was torn-up and they were told, being a French company, "Sur votre velo."

[Magrew]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

The last Labour government was, in my considered opinion, bordering on corporate fascism or neo-Marxism. It would be best if ATOS's contract was torn-up and they were told, being a French company, "Sur votre velo."

I think the phrase you were looking for was "va te faire foutre". Excuse my french

From where I see it IDS is simply the mouthpiece to deliver David Cameron's strategies keeping the negative flack at arms length from DC. I think that therefore makes him a patsy.

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

If anyone has a better idea of what IDS is, answers on a postcard, please, to..........

hes a muppet on a striiiiiiiiiing

[bluebottle]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

I think the phrase you were looking for was "va te faire foutre". Excuse my french

From where I see it IDS is simply the mouthpiece to deliver David Cameron's strategies keeping the negative flack at arms length from DC. I think that therefore makes him a patsy.

If the French phrase you've posted, Magrew, is too rude to post up in English, send me a PM. What I put up was "On your bike".

[bluebottle]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

I think the reason the person I know who was in the army with IDS and called him an a***hole is because he's full of ****.

[Hoggie]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

good old J McDonnell Mp a very good man and a few of us have been in close contact,making sure he knows whats going on.
he sent me this link, today.
http://www.publications.parliament.u...703/121029.htm

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Get Your MP to Sign the Early Day Motion to Curb ATOS

UPDATE....

Due to me telling him about BB's case reporting the ATOS$er who said he could work etc, I am proud to announce that Smiffy (my ex) appealed and was told he was correct and unable to work due to severe nerve damage and fibromyalgia!

ATOS seem to have a lot of egg on their faces as this was highly publicised on FB by said Ex, and everyone now knows how to appeal!!

Thanks BB!!!