The ESA50

Most people think that claiming Employment and Support allowance (ESA) stated when you first contact the DWP for the ESA50 or when the ESA50 drops through the door; Well it starts before that, the first thing you should prepare for is getting your medical notes, this can cost from absolutely nothing, if you're lucky to £50 for each hospital and your GP. Always get scans and x-rays from hospitals, these can take up to 40 days from each place once they receive the request and payment, the DWP & ATOS on the other hand have a habit of claiming they never received stuff so always copy anything you are going to send them and never send them originals even if they insist. Now let's get started on the ESA50:
I would recommend reading this before starting to fill in the form.

Inside the front cover  Page 2 it asks for your name & address along with your national insurance number (NINO) fill this in.

Page 3 asks for telephone numbers I would advise to not place any contact numbers in this part of the form as ATOS could use any number to call with little time left to cancel any face to face if they request one, and DWP will use it to contact too.

Page 4 asks for the names of medical personnel you are seeing like your GP or hospital specialist, they also want to know the date of the last appointment, many cannot remember the exact date, if all you can remember is the month just put that. I am sure many have been told by hospital consultants that they cannot offer anything else and to contact if they get worse, if you need to add more medical people than they give you space for use a separate sheet of paper.

TIP

    Use a word program, something like open office to type the additional info and set the header and footer of the printer to custom and in the 3 boxes put your name in the first, house number and street name in the second and your NINO in the third.

Page 5 asks for a list of your medical conditions, how it affects you, when it started and any aids you use and your medication. I would just name each condition and say see attached info. You may want to look at a site that deals with people with your medical condition or use NHS Choices to gleam info from there along with what you know yourself. When it comes to medication use BNF.org to look up side effect you have ATOS HCP's like to use the phrase "Saw no signs of." if called for an assessment. so don't be afraid to copy and paste info that is appropriate to you and the medication to a word program and print it off.

Page 6 asks if you are treatment you are having or expect to have in the near future such as dialysis, if this applies to you then use the word program and type it into that and place into that box see related info, you may number the pages so you could say see page XX. the page also asks about drugs,alcohol or other substances, if this refers to you use separate sheets to answwer directing the HCP to them as you will now know the boxes they provide are too small to give a detailed answer.

Page 7 ask about physical functions, moving around and using steps what is essential here is the fact that you think about doing the task repeatedly, safely and to an acceptable standard, within a reasonable length of time!  the last part here, reasonable length of time, is open to debate as one HCP may think one time while another may use another time, this reasonable length of time has to be set in stone for this part of the ESA50 to work.
As for the two steps this is a question where you may say you cannot manage two steps using the repeatedly safely and reasonable time scenario but turn up at their assessment centre to find either a series of 2 steps or ramps for wheelchair users, use the steps and you may have discredited your whole ESA50.

Page 8 continues about physical function, standing and sitting + reaching, remember from page 7 the repeatedly, reliably and to an acceptable standard. If you have problems and feel you cannot safely to your advantage describe your condition just say see attached info (maybe numbered ), then fully describe your ability to sitting and standing. Part 3 of the physical functions is about reaching if you can do this don't lie you will be caught out, if you do have problems then use the phrase see attached info, get into the habit of directing the HCP away from the small spaces of the form.

Page 9 continues physical functions, with moving and picking things up, although they give examples of pretty light objects if you have problems with picking up larger objects then mention it, as both the HCP and decision maker may assume you have no problems with picking up regardless of weight. If you use a stick to move around you may be unlikely to be able to carry a large light object as this may require two hands to do the task safely.

Page10 continues with physical functions, manual dexterity and using your hands to press a button, turn the pages of a book or use a keyboard or mouse. What if you can turn one or two pages but no more due to severe pain? this question looks like they don't care but you must always emphasize if you cannot do something repeatedly, safely and reliably. They ask about communicating with other people, they have become awkward with this question as it assumes there may be other methods of communicating with others to hand, this may not be the cause in some situations, I would say that reliably communicating may be ruled out in some circumstances.

Page 11 continues with physical functions, asking about understanding a simple message from other people, what a simple message is to one may not be a simple message to another. They ask about hearing or lip reading and large size print (16point) or Braille before asking for an explanation if you said you cannot or it varies, if you have just come round from a seizure then you possibly are not going to understand what is said to you even though you may say you do.

Page 12 continues on physical functions, and we are over half way through the form. we are now asked about controlling our bladder & bowels as well as staying awake while conscious. If you need to explain anything about either of these keep up the see attached info routine to keep directing the HCP and decision maker away from the form even if your answer will fit in the box.

Page 13 we finally get on to the mental health section.  The form relies on the person been able to do a simple task setting an alarm clock or a slightly more complicated task like a washing machine and as many may know the washing machine can vary from one to another, one I had only had 4 programs 90, 60, 40, 30 degrees washes while others have 10 plus programs, so while someone may be able to set the one with just 4 options they may not be able to set the one with 10 plus options.
We then have awareness of hazards such as boiling water or sharp objects, IMO ATOS/DWP will assume boiling water is a kettle with an automatic switch off. They ask how you cope with doing things safely, if you don't then tell them just that that as you do not feel you can do it safely you do not do it, after all when you don't feel safe doing something that's when accidents happen.

Page 14 asks about starting and finishing tasks and coping with changes. the answer options with starting and finishing tasks,IMHO is designed to confuse the person as it give the options of never, sometimes, it varies, IMO the last two are the same. So instead of the three answers you only have two to choose from unless you want to ask the DWP what the difference is between sometimes and it varies on page 14 of the ESA50.
They then switch back to the three options to answer for coping with known and unexpected changes.

Page 15 asks about social situations, they say if the person has physical problems with going out this should be mentioned in part one of the form, if you've been filling it in as you go through the form isn't this a bit late to tell the person they should have mentioned physical problems with going out, especially if they have mental health problems as well? If you are constantly going to hospital and GP appointments seeing a different person most times and have said here that you don't like meeting people you don't know then this may be used against you for the decision.

Page 16 asks about behaving appropriately as well as eating and drinking.  Maybe its your medication that affects your behaviour so use either a leaflet that came with the medication or BNF.org to print off the side effects and highlight the effects the medication has on you. I won't go into eating and drinking only the person knows this, even though you have the usual three answers I doubt there are many that fit into the it varies category, most will either be yes or no.

Page 17 is for other information, this I would advise you put in one of the two following phrases "I require that any face to face assessment be audio recorded by ATOS." or my personal favourite "All verbal communication WILL BE audio recorded.
Also enclosed is the following;
# pages of hospital & GP medical notes
# pages of of images of x-rays and scans
All the above are identifiable by name (your name) Postcode (your postcode) NINO (your NINO)
Page 18 is just your signature and that of a person who filled the form in for you even if someone else filled in the form you must sign.

If you are sending a load of other info you will need an A4 envelope maybe a padded one,  use the A5 ATOS one to stick on the front of it let them pick up the extra postage, and ask for a proof of postage.