MAY BE REPOSTED
This month's MEA website poll is assessing what happens to people with ME/CFS who claim DWP Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
One of the reasons we are doing so is to compare the results to the last time we assessed ESA outcomes in November 2012
Early results suggest that there has been a significant increase in the number of people being placed in the ESA support group – something that links in to the feedback we are receiving on ESA.
However, a significant proportion of people with ME/CFS are still being found ‘fit for work' when they clearly have a very genuine claim.
It would appear that all the work we have been doing ‘behind the scenes' with the alternative version of the WCA, the need to perform WCA descriptor tasks reliably, repeatedly, safely and in a timely manner, along with Professor Malcolm Harrington's independent reviews is starting to have a beneficial effect for people with fluctuating medical conditions.
Dr Charles Shepherd
Hon Medical Adviser, The ME Association.
Scroll down to find the poll on our home page. Please tell us what has happened to you with regards to ESA.
OK – I’ll admit I’m not very good at finding things, never have been, but my brain fog makes it nearly impossible, but I can’t find the questionnaire on this page, perhaps you could provide a hint, I’ve searched the page for WCA and for ESA, no survey!
So sorry, Stephen. I put up misleading directions.
The poll can be found close to the foot of our home page at https://meassociation.org.uk
One day I’ll learn how to work this thing!
Best wishes
Tony Britton
Not sure if you mean new claims or transfers from IB, or both.
I did the transfer in November 2012 and got put in Support group. At great effort I had insisted on having the interview recorded (as strongly recommended by Benefits and Work) and I highly suspect that this was crucial as it meant that I got a decent assessor (it had taken several attempts to get the WCA recorded as many assessors refused to be.
I don’t know when in November 2012 you did the past poll, so not sure if I’ve already done it or not.