Hi all,
Can anyone give me some advice? I've suffered from depression and anxiety for over ten years. The depression I can just about deal with, meds help somewhat..but the anxiety is what really affects my functioning. After I was made redundant two years ago I was also diagnosed with IBS-D which as many of you will know goes hand in hand with anxiety. When i'm facing a lot of stress my IBS flares up badly and I find it dificult to leave the house.

After my redundancy I was able to claim income support as a single parent until January when they moved me onto jobseekers allowance. I didn't think this would be any problem as I had already been looking for another job while on income support. I naively thought that I would be able to explain to them that there would be certain jobs I couldn't apply for due to my medical conditions. Not so unfortunately. They have already threatened to sanction me for not applying for jobs that are out of school hours even though they are not supposed to penalise single parents (childcare is very difficult to find and I also have a son with learning difficulties) and told me i'm not trying hard enough to find a job. The stress of not knowing whether my JA will be witheld from one week to another has actually made me very ill again to the point it's even difficult for me to write this and have it make any sense...I just cant think straight and i'm a nervous wreck.

I was told by a friend that I may be eligable for ESA due to my medical conditions but when I enquired about it no one could tell me, they just offered to send the relevant form. Due to me being sent the form and without my knowledge my JA was stopped...I hadn't even recieved the form yet. I now have nothing coming in at all due to their mistake but they've said all I can do is reapply for JA...surely there's no point as the minute I send the ESA form back it will be stopped again, whether or not i'm eligable for ESA. What can I do? I've got bills to pay and kids to feed...this is making me so ill.