Please help, I dont know what to do ESA?

[macc noodle]

Unfortunately Sarah this is a process that you will have to go through in order to have your claim assessed. The system is in place to try and persuade claimants away from claiming - they have proven statistics that show that the harder it is made to claim, the more likely people are to abandon their claim. Sadly, this means that people with genuine mental health issues suffer in the process. This is because there are far too many people crying Wolf claiming mental health conditions that they just don'thave and they think it is easier for them to increase their benefits.

So, you will need to gather up your strength honey and ask for help from your GP and CAB - let them share the burden of this process - the CAB are used to these claims and will have far better insight into how to help you than you have doing it by yourself. Your GP should be able to support your claim with details of how long you have been ill (ie., from when you were first treated and medicated), what meds you require etc.

Try not to worry - at least now you have a payment agreed and I would just call them and see when it is likely to be paid. I dont think it should be that long now that they have notified you.

With regard to your sleeping pattern - this is absolutely no good for your long term mental health - you need to sleep at night and have get up during the day and potter around (at the very least) - why not ask your GP for something to help you sleep? Your body clock is all over the place - did you know that night workers are more pre-disposed towards depressive thoughts than day workers? There is just a chance that if you could regulate your sleeping pattern, you might start to feel a little better.

Good luck

[Sarah755]

Hi all,
Still no payment so I called them today. At first he couldn't find any record of it on his system, but I insisted I had the award letter in front of me and read it out to him. He then asked if I had sent in a medical certificate. There was some initial confusion about this. When I got the independant advice I was told I needed a "med5". When I saw the gp she was confused, wanted to know why they hadn't just written to the practice, she said that's what they normally do? I said I was told i'd need this first, she said a "Med5" no longer existed, and that she could give me a "Med3" or a letter. She then decided on the letter, said she couldn't give me a backdated sicknote.

So I asked the gentleman on the phone what it was exactly that they needed, did it have a reference. "No", he says "it is just called a medical certificate, backdated to when you first made the claim and you wont be paid until you send it".

Yet there is nothing at all in the award letter to say they were waiting for any further documents?

It is very difficult to get appointments at our surgery with the main doctors, they have changed the system so appointments can only be made one day in advance and within an hour they've all gone...it could be weeks before I can get another appointment.

It could also be weeks before I can get an appointment with CAB as they wont make appointments over the phone, you have to drop in to make an appointment to come back! They are only open two mornings a week and if its a bad IBS day I cant make it there (my IBS is always worse in a morning anyway).

I'm going round in circles, I still have no money and the whole thing is making my illnessess worse. I'm finding it really difficult to keep myself together.

[James23]

Sounds like you just need to ask your doctor for a medical certificate. Make sure you get it backdated to the date you got Ill as they will pay all the missing weeks. It's vital u claim back from as early as you can so you get what your entitled to. They don't give you much info I had this to figure out by myself aswell. But in the end they have been very good with ESA and I had everything backdated which was quite a lot. Also dont pay attention to horror stories about medical assessments the lady I saw was lovely and I passed my assessment okay. Stay positive and keep pushing.