HOW TO SURVIVE THE ESA ASSESSMENT PROCESS - PART 1

Since yesterday, I’ve been thinking hard about the ESA Assessment system and about how it might be possible to help present and future claimants through this farcical but mandatory process.  Yesterday’s blog was relatively light-hearted, insofar as one CAN be light hearted about this situation, but today I’m going to start getting down to the nitty-gritty.

Let’s start by going step-by-step through ATOS’ own web page concerning "What A Claimant Can Expect".

The Questionnaire

Before your assessment you will be sent a questionnaire, composed mainly of tick-box answers with spaces for you to add detail where you feel it is appropriate / necessary.  The MOST important thing you need to remember when completing this form is that when the completed questionnaire is received by ATOS the tick-box answers will be scanned into your computerised record – the detail you add may not even be thoroughly read at this stage!

• In answer to every question, deal ONLY with how you would manage on your very worst days.  If you give answers capable of being interpreted in such a way that you can accomplish much more on the good days than on the bad days, ATOS will ignore any detail concerning your bad days and focus ONLY on what you can achieve on a good day.  Don’t give them this option!

·         In spite of the fact that they may not even read the detail you enter in the spaces provided, complete these spaces in as much detail as you can (remembering to concentrate on how you would manage on your WORST days) and explain any past adverse consequences, accidents or incidents of harm which have resulted from you doing the thing they ask about.

·         Repeat these details as often as necessary when answering different questions – hammer home your point at every opportunity just in case someone accidentally reads them in a moment of boredom!

·         Wherever possible, obtain letters from any and all medical professionals who are involved in your care and/or treatment and which support your claim.  They are unlikely to be considered at this stage but you may not have an opportunity to introduce them later in the process, so send them in with your completed questionnaire.

·         KEEP COPIES OF YOUR COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRE AND ANY ACCOMPANYING LETTERS.  Even if they are not “lost in the system” once they leave your hands, you will certainly need them to refer to during the face-to-face assessment.  It is critically important that you have a copy of what you have said and what has been said about you when you go to the interview.  Even the most minor discrepancy between what you say at interview and what was written in your questionnaire will be pounced upon and used against you.  They actually read the detail at the face-to-face stage, not so much to take it into consideration as to see if they can trip you up!

Once you have completed, copied and returned your questionnaire with the accompanying letters, it becomes a waiting game while the system digests your forms and eventually coughs up either a telephone call or a letter [or both] requiring you to attend a face-to-face assessment interview.