People annoy me!

People annoy me. Seriously. Why do people spend so much of their time complaining about how things are, yet do nothing to actually put the situation right? I'm getting to the point where I just want to shout at some people now.

I belong to various groups where people discuss M.E. and similar conditions a lot. Everyone agrees that it is unfair that we have essentially been forced to give up our lives, that we do not get recognition or help from the medical profession, and that there is so little research into our conditions.

So, the Vivint competition in which a huge amount of money was given to a research institute recently finished. All people had to do was vote for a certain institute every day ... the organisation with the most votes won the money. I voted every day. I asked my friends to vote. No one did. Now see, when my friends ask me to do something like that, I do it. If it is important to them, then I do it for them. None of my friends did it. What disgusts me the most about this is that a lot of my friends have M.E. themselves, and those friends also frequently complain about how unwell they are. Yet it seems they are not willing to click a few buttons every day when they are online, in order to promote research that will help them.

It's similar in regards to the situation with the Department of Work and Pensions, and even with our own doctors. People sit behind their computers and complain about the treatment they get, and yet they just won't do anything about it. When I started writing to my MP in regards to welfare reform, I was told by some of the complainers that there's no point. In light of the letter from Chris Grayling today I can vaguely understand where they are coming from, but it just makes me want to push more. It's important! The more I encounter ignorance the more I'm going to fight it. The way things are at the moment is ruining peoples lives ... it's ruining OUR lives, so why are we not all fighting it?

It's not doctors faults that they were taught that M.E. is a psychological condition. But it is certainly our fault if we don't give them paper and articles and criteria that show them otherwise. I know there are some doctors who just won't listen, but if we don't try we don't stand a chance. Yet time and time again I hear 'it's not worth it!'. Of course it's worth it! It may not benefit you now, but you are at the very least sewing a seed that may benefit someone later on.

It's not just with regards to illness though, now that I've noticed this annoying trend, I'm seeing it everywhere. I had a problem with ATS a few weeks ago. I'm rather annoyed at the outcome of writing to them too, but again it just makes me more determined to make things right. And I will. But the fact that certain people are actively trying to persuade me not to annoys me even further.

For goodness sake people stop lying down and being doormats .. stand up for yourselves!

Letter from Chris Grayling

My MP has forwarded to me the response he received from Chris Grayling, after he sent to him my own letter. I am really upset by this. I actually sat and cried after reading it.

It's a three page letter, very well written, covering a lot of ground. However, it does NOT cover even half the issues I mentioned in my letter, and it does cover a lot of things I did not even mention. Evidently therefore we have been sent a standardised letter. I find that disgusting. He has not only wasted my time, but wasted my MPs time. What is the point in pretending to be interested in what the public has to offer if he's not even going to read the letters sent to him?

Dear Ms Voljeti

I have now received a reply to my letter from the Department of Work & Pensions regarding the Work Capability Assessment.

I am enclosing the Minister's reply which, as you will see, sets out the current situation with regard to this issue.

My thanks, again, for having raised this important matter with me and I do hope this information is of help to you.

Yours sincerely

Your MP

---------------------------------------

Thank you for your letter of 27 July on behalf of Ms Olana Voljeti regarding the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

Entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is based on an individual's functional ability rather than the condition itself. Anyone claiming ESA  will undergo the WCA which is based on the premise that eligibility should not be based on a person's condition, but rather on the way that condition limits their functional capability.

The assessment gives people with fluctuating conditions the opportunity to explain how their condition varies over time. The questionnaire that customers are sent has been re-designed so that people are directly asked if their mental or physical functions vary, and to give more details of how this affects them as an individual.

The health care professionals who carry out the WCA are trained to ask about and take account of fluctuation. The assessment is not a snap-shot - if a person cannot carry out a function repeatedly and reliably they will be treated as unable to carry out that function at all.

The activities and descriptors used in the assessment were developed in consultation with medical expert and representative groups in order to ensure that they are appropriate for all conditions. The consultation involved considerable discussion about the variability of some conditions. We are now making some changes to the WCA, including ensuring that it more fully accounts for the effects of exhaustion.

Turning now to the issue of healthcare professionals' integrity, I can confirm that the Medical Services Agreement between Atos Healthcare and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not include any provisions either from the Department or from Atos Healthcare to incentivise healthcare professionals to find claimants undergoing the WCA fit for work, and nor would we wish to do so.

It should be noted however that all decisions on benefit entitlement are made by DWP decision makers and not by Atos Healthcare professionals. Entitlement is determined by the Department's decision makers and is based on all available evidence, including that provided by the claimant. Decision makers are rightly impartial and also not incentivised to find claimants under going the WCA fit for work.

We recognise that attending any medical assessment can be a stressful experience, and these will not be carried out if there is enough existing evidence on the claimant's  current condition to decide entitlement to the particular benefit in question. The healthcare professionals who carry out the examinations are trained in assessing vulnerable customers, and when people are asked to come for an assessment they are encouraged to bring a friend or relative with them.

I turn now to the issue regarding the overturning of decisions at appeal. An appeal tribunal hears all evidence afresh, including any new evidence that was not available to the original Jobcentre Plus decision maker, in order to decide whether the original decision on benefit entitlement was correct. Thus when an appeal panel reaches a different decision this does not necessarily mean that the original decision lacked validity.

To try and improve the accuracy of initial decision-making and reduce the number of cases which proceed to appeal, a number of innovations have been trialled within Jobcentre Plus. These include encouraging benefit applicants to submit all the available evidence at the beginning of their claim rather than only producing it for the appeal hearing; and strengthening the reconsideration process so that more decisions are reconsidered, with additional information if available, by decision makers and healthcare professionals, before proceeding to appeal.

Both of these processes have produced very encouraging results. In addition, there are processes in place for the result of appeals to be sent to both decision makers and healthcare professionals in order to improve the accuracy of decision-making, and the Department continues to monitor the outcomes of appeals to continue to improve the assessment.

We are committed to continually improving the WCA to ensure that it is as fair and accurate as possible.

As part of this, we have a statutory commitment to independently review the WCA annually for the first five years of its operation. Professor Malcolm Harrington, a highly respected occupational physician, carried out the first review, reporting in November 1020. We fully endorsed his review and have implemented the vast majority of its recommendations, and are working hard to implement the remainder as soon as possible.

In addition, a department-led review reported in March 2010. We have now implemented its recommendations which include taking better account of the effects of exhaustion and making greater provision for people awaiting or in between courses of chemotherapy. The improvements as a result of this review came in to force on 28 March.

We have now appointed Professor Harrington to conduct a second independent review of the WCA and provide further recommendations as appropriate. He has already started work on the programme of work he has identified, to look in detail at the descriptors for mental health and other fluctuating conditions. Also as part of his review, on 14 July the Government published a call for evidence as part of Professor Harrington's second independent review of the WCA.

The call for evidence is particularly interested in views and evidence about:
- the implementation of Professor Harrington's Year 1 recommendations and the impact they are having;
- what, if any, further work is required in future reviews; and
- the face-to-face assessment.

The call for evidence runs until 16 September. May I encourage Ms Voljeti, to contribute to this process.

I hope this is helpful.

With best wishes,

Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP
Minister for Employment

Recording not allowed

Pfffft.

For months we've been recommending that people record their ATOS Medical Assessments, because of how badly the assessors are misrepresenting what happens. It seems that they are refusing to allow assessments to be recorded, unless we go to rather extreme lengths to do so. I know that some people have successfully recorded their assessments. Whether they did so clandestinely or informed their assessors I do not know. I suspect that the guidelines for recording assessments have come out as a reaction to people like myself advising others to record them. I also suspect that the reason they are being unreasonable is because they already know that their assessors are misrepresenting what happens. Very frustrating.

The below is taken from a post on Where's the Benefit:
"In a response to a Freedom of Information request made at the end of 2010 the Department of Work and Pensions provided the official guidelines to ATOS staff regarding recording of assessments. The most important parts are quoted here.

"Such a request can only be agreed with the prior consent of the HCP, and then only if stringent safeguards are in place to ensure that the recording is complete, accurate and that the facility is available for simultaneous copies to be made available to all parties present. The recording must be made by a professional operator, on equipment of a high standard, properly calibrated by a qualified engineer immediately prior to the recording being made. The equipment must have facility for reproduction so that all parties can retain a copy of the tape. The responsibility for meeting the cost of the above requirement rests with the claimant"

"It is for Atos Healthcare, in conjunction with their legal advisers, to determine the action to be taken in the event of a claimant making an audio or video recording without the prior knowledge and consent of the HCP, or without ensuring that the safeguards defined above are in place"

"If you suspect a customer of trying to film or record an assessment the following action should be taken

Advise the customer that such action is not permitted, explain why not, and ask them to switch the device off. If the customer refuses to comply:

• The assessment should be suspended
• Inform your site manager and/or medical manager immediately" "

Second letter from my MP

The reply to the letter I sent to my MP; you can find here:

Dear Olana,

Thank you very much for your letter, and enclosures, regarding your situation as a CFS/ME sufferer which I read with interest and concern.

You have made a number of very interesting points with regard to how the assessments for ESA are carried out and I have now referred this to the Minister concerned at the Department of Work & Pensions.

As I mentioned in my previous letter, the Minister will not be able to comment on your own, personal situation, but I have requested his comments on the concerns you have raised.

I shall, of course, contact you as soon as I receive a reply to my letter.

My thanks, again, for taking the time to write.

Your sincerely,

Your MP.