The medical Assessment

So today, I had the dreaded medical assessment. For those of you not familiar with the UK welfare system, anyone who claims either Employment Support Allownce (like me- used to be know as Incapacity Benefir), or Disabilty Living Allowance, have to go through a medical assessment with a "neutral" agency called ATOS. This assessment comes somewhere during the 16 week "Assessment Period, you are put on at the start of receiving benefits. Now I don't have a major problem with this, as I understand the need for clarity especially with so many (or so the media would have us believe) fraudulant claimers out there. However I do have issue with the fact that the only assessment centre in Norfolk is in Norwich which means many like me have a 50 mile or more round trip. Given the nature of the assesssment, some people going to this have very severe disabilities or are seriously ill, so I do think it's shameful that they can't have some more local centres- Norfolk is a BIG county! Anyway the assessment wasn't too bad. The doctor, had my claim form infront of her, so initially asked for extra information relating too this, eg; diagnosis, limitation etc. She also asked about how side effects impacted on my day to day life (washing and dressing) and how I filled my time during the day. I'm sure this last question is designed to catch people out in someway, but seriously how does anyone (disbled or otherwise) spend their time on benefits; you have no money to do nything really exciting, so readeing, TV and internet are as about as exciting as it gets! PLus when you get tired as easily as me, you're not going anywhere without a lift- I walk for about ten minutes and I'm done! Following the Q & A session, I had a small physical which involved stretching my arms up, which I just about managed, moving them behind me, which I did wincing, and squeezing her fingers. I also laid down whilst she looked at the way I could (or couldn't!) move and bend my legs and feet. When all this was done, I was more than happy to get out of there! It could have been a lot worse. I'd been reading horror stories online about the way people had been treated during their assessments, and people who'd failed and had benefits stopped. I think these tend to be the harder to measure conditions like depression and stress. With me it's (hopefully) pretty straight forward, they have confirmation from my oncologist that I have a brain tumour, and my physical limitations are sadly obvious to most people. I'm hoping this is just a formality and won't adversly affect my benefits in any way. I had a bit of a worry regarding my benefit payment recently; I was due to be paid on Friday, but by Monday had still not received my payment. When I phoned the DWP, they said my sick note had expired. This was confusing as they had never had a sicknote from me, just a medical statement from my oncologist which had no expiry date (just how quick do they think you get over cancer?!), and secondly, I'd had no communication from them about this at all! When I raised this I was told "We don't always send letters"????!!! "Why?" "Its up to the claiment to know when their sick note expires" , again "But you never had a dated sick note, just a statement with no end date" "Oh, well you need to send one anyway" Angry is not the word. I can't believe they have such a shambolic system that they can stop a payment without saying anything until the person affected notices! What if I had bills to pay etc? Thankfully I was able to move back in with my parents, so this isn't an issue, but many others aren't so lucky. THe upshot is I got a sick note at my GP's surgery from a doctor who'd never met me before (so much more reliable than my oncologist who knows my case!???!) , and sent it so am hoping they sort out my money soon. Otherwise this busy week is set to contiinue with my phone assessment tomorrow, and my drugs run on Friday, and of course the lovely start of a chemo cycle early on Saturday morning. Sometimes the fun never stops....!