Struggling today

It is okay - i know my MP cannot do anything directly but i know of a few people who have disabilites and are in the same position to myself but are being treated like dirt when it comes to be assessed first of all by the job centre , being told that we are fit enough to look for work , when i did my 2 year work programme ( just finished it , now awaiting to see what the next programme i shall be sent to ) i was bullied badly by an advisor who questioned my every move and my depression went downhill in a serious manner ( tried overdosing , etc ) luckily another advisor saw how bad i was - dreading going and she had a word with my own advisor and he explained to me that the other advisor wasn't anything to do with me ( the one who was bullying me - she picked on others as well ) and there after he had my back and she was taken off that day anyway - staff changes , i have already been through a ATOS medical ( 2012 ) failed it and the appeal as i could use my hands , arms , apparently there is a back log of assessments and it is not until next year when it changes hand , i just wanted the local MP to understand the position , have a chat , etc - express oncerns on the way everything is being done , Thank you for yourr kind feedback xxx

 

I totally understand where you are coming from Maria. The stress of the ATOS assessment and the blatant lies they told in my case...forcing me to eventually have to go to the job centre,even though I knew I wasn't mentally ready to go back to work...Well they wouldn't listen. And the more knowledge you have about your condition,the worse it is for you. Pall the stress from them,sending me on course after course,job interviews,stopping money just because you applied for 50 jobs but missed one that they had suggested.

It resulted in my present state which is a hundred times worse than I have ever felt in my whole life. 

Well said Gillian - why they cannot take in account our GP account as well i do not know , my GP is not stupid but they seem to thonk that all GP's are purposely giving out sick notes just for the fun of it , I am happy to be on ESA - i can deal with that nut of course the government don't want you on that - they want you to be on JSA so there is less people on the sick , but it back fires on us when the employers ignore our job application's because we have had to make it clear that we have something wrong - in my case i just normally put arthitis in both knees so cannot stand for too long , i don't put down severe depression but if i have too then i will , i live in a seaside town so hotel work is the main option - i am trained for that but cannot do it as i cannot stand for long or climb stairs so that leaves the supermarkets and they just ignore my applications , i do not like being black mailed and long gone are the days when you could go down to your local job centre and have a chat with someone about your worries , now it is all chatting on the phone and i can't do that , thinking of you , take care x

I agree , it would have helped if these people doing these assessment had some understanding , our GP's have made it clear that we are unfit for work and they should take thatas part of the assessment , it is all know to getting people off the sick and that is all my local MP is bothered about , when ihave been really low in the pass and i was working my colleagues would accuse me of sulking - how i am supposed to get it across strangers now if i got a job and i was struggling to be cheerful , you should had had your appeal go your way , that was wrong and totally unfair , when i had my appeal , the board said that i would had won before all those changes but because i could use my hands then i would be failing it - i can see this government failing to win the next election as so many people and they families are having difficulties and basically none of the other parties are caring enough either , a dreadful shame that those genuine are being targetted , you take care and thank you for your reply - really appreciate it x

That's what gets to me. They run through questions that are made to trick you. 

Are you able to use a washing machine? Well of course it's a yes/no answer. So even if you say,well yes I can use a washing machine,I'm mentally ill,not thick but that doesn't stop the fact that even though I know job to use a washing machine that 6 days out of 7 I can hardly muster the energy to get out golf bed and switch the blooming thing on....The answer they tick...Yes,she can use a washing machine!! Lol It's a joke. 

Our doctors have supported us,treated us and monitored us for months on end and feel we are not able to work,yet some jobsworth can sit across a desk,ask a few questions,spend 20 minutes with you and have the power in that 20 minutes to ruin you.

The questions are purposely set up for you to pass the medical so you are deemed fit for work.

I told them that my mum has to come check on me,make sure I get out of bed and washed and eating and they took that as,I wash,I motivate myself,I eat!!,,

They really are to blame for a lot of people's mental health worsening through stress. 

There was a documentary on TV about it. One women even left because they where told to make people seem fit for work and she was devastated at having to deem severely disabled or mentally Ill people fit and well enough for some kind of employment.

Im not saying I don't want to work. I have always worked but right now I need a hit of breathing space with as little stress as possible to get myself mentally healthy again. I very much doubt I will be given to much time for that to happen xxx

Hi Maria and Gillian

Yet again IMO, people with mental health issues are discriminated against. Everyone can see that someone with their leg in a plaster cast has broken their leg and therefore unable to work for a few months. I broke my ankle and was in a cast. I told my boss at the time (I worked for one of the large supermarkets) that seeing as 50% of my job was spent sitting down ordering stock I would still come to work. She was horrified and told me company policy wouldn't allow that and that I was a danger to myself and others and not to come back until the cast was off and I could carry out my old job.

Compare that with what happened a few years later. My mum had terminal cancer, one of my kids was really ill in hospital, I couldn't sleep and my dr signed me off with anxiety and mental exhaustion. I sent in weekly sick notes, but after 3 weeks personnel contacted me and asked me to come in for a sickness review meeting. I was told that my sickness record was unacceptable, they took into account, the time I had off with my leg. My GP suggested I went back to work, but partime. They wouldn't entertain the idea and if I wanted to keep my job I had to return full time.

needless to say my anxiety increased, I couldn't sleep and was like a zombie during the day. I ended up resigning rather than getting the sack. They only paid sick pay for 1 week for each years service. So I got no sick pay and applied for Incapacity benefit which was rejected.

Totally agree the questions like "can you stand up unaided from a chair" and can you carry a bag of potatoes with one hand, but not with the other are pointless. The Dr who carried out the assessment could not speak English and I couldn't understand half of what he was saying. Like you say I could get myself up, I didn't need personal care assistance and could, if wanted make a simple meal of beans on toast! I tried to tell him whilst I could do that, I never did as I felt so low, I stayed in bed till lunch, had no appetite and I couldn't care less about washing.

going to job centre work based appointments would get me totally worked up. Due to my permantly damaged shoulder, even shop work was out as there's plenty of lifting and carrying stock needed. I said I was looking for pa/secretarial and reception. They gave me details for a hotel receptionist starting at 7am and at least 15 miles from where I lived, not on a bus route. To get there for 7am was impossible as I didn't have my own transport. The bus to town didn't start till 6am, then I needed a taxi to the hotel which was in the country miles from anywhere, yet they still said it was doable and I had to take it, or lose JSA. Gave up after a week as it cost me more than I earned just to get there and back! Hope you have better luck.

Same here - if a job came my way that suited my needs then i would apply for it but don't like being blackmailed :-(  , thinking of you Gillian - take care if you can xxx

That is absolutely disgusting the way you have been treated !!!!! , i really feel for you , your case is one of many that i have read or heard about and it is totally out of order , it shows just how uncaring the poeople who should be helping us are , the advsior i saw at Job Centre when i came off ESA to JSA ( now i am back on the lowest amount of ESA until get assessment then i expect shall be back on JSA !!! ) understood bus times were an issue likewise disability and did actually work with it when setting my targets but i know at my local job centre they are not all like that - one person had to attend Job Centre each day at £3.50 daily bus fare at her own expense - that is alot to pay out , i am fortunate that the job centre is near me but that is not the point , if i take a job on and i fall to the floor then if no one is around to help me then i could be sitting there struggling to get up for quite a while , it disgusts me the way genuine cases are being treated while those who know how to fiddle the system are getting away with it x

 

Yes he is Conservative - he got in last election after we hah had the same Labour chap for years - people round here wanted a change . I certainly didn't expect him to perform miracles but at least suggest having a meeting / chat to dicuss the issues concerned , that is what i thought local MP's were around for - to discuss , meeeet his constitutes - he doesn't even know who i am - just one of his many "people " , he won't get in next time as he has upset a lot of people around this area of Dorset - he lives , owns a large estates so in this olden days we would just be considered his peasants !!!, we already have a UKIP take over councillor in my town .

Yes , i expect they do but he didn't suggest that i should come to one and i have had enough now with MP's etc , as i said before i didn't expect him to treat me as a special case - far from it but thought he would had suggested going to one of his conflabs with the locals or met him at the work programme - just really so i could just expain the problems i have been through and others like me - i just thought that they were there to listen as some friends of mine down Cornwall way have a similar problem where as my friends husband has mental health problems and she contacted their local MP and he came out and had a chat and listened to their concerns but i guess it is different in each area , i won't contact him again shall just see how things go in other areas x

 

A good MP will do what he can and most of all will be supportive and not so bloody awful. YNo human being should knock a person down when they need help.

That is what i thought but i guess i am wrong - he lives on his large private estate with pots of money and tough luck o the rest of us , i thought he would at least suggested meeting with him so he could at least a face to the person who has turned to him seeking views on the whole mental health issue connected to ESA , job Centre etc , now i jut feel useless - no one to turn to in a professional sense , that is life as so many of us have to deal with xx