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Regarding the terminal illness route, all this stuff about terminal illness being picked up early in the claims process, will depend (it seems) on claimants making the running. My understanding is that officers answering the ESA telephone claim line will not raise the issue - rather, they will wait for the claimant to do it. This seems to be confirmed in the wording of the 'special rules check' sequence in the ESA training manual for Atos staff, which suggests that it is for claimants raise the issue. Lets hope the ESA claim form (promised by recent amending regs) will contain such a prompt.
Otherwise its going to be a case of phoning the ESA claim line and saying "Hello. I'm Steve, and I'm dying", or some such (assuming of course that I know).
Whilst we are on the subject of the training manual, here is a clip from page 36, concerning the LCW/LCWRA tests...
"...it is also essential that the practitioner maintains a positive focus and approach identifying the claimant’s capabilities rather than a more negative approach mainly identifying their restrictions...’ I'm no Rumpole, that that seems a bit leading to me.
Lastly, it would seem very clear that the assumption is that most people going through the WCA will have a physical examination (Although I imagine not for purely mental function cases). Thats a change from the present position, in my experience.
Have a good weekend all,
Steve
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