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Frequency of WCA
Thanks Pete C
So it terms of remedying this- a letter to the DM with medical evidence pointing Reg29 out?
It appears that the request to attend the medical has come from Atos as opposed to the DWP (although the only info I have from the client is via e-mail so this may not be correct)- what is the point of DMs if decisions on eligibility and reassessment all come from Atos these days??!!
I’ve never tried it but I feel a letter and evidece would be a good starting point.You could also use the letter to ask that the medical be postponed pending a decision on Reg 29. The appontment letters come from ATOS but must be at the request of the DWP so the DWP may be able to put it all on hold.
Also Reg 35 - that’s the equivalent of reg 29 but to get your client into the Support Group.
We’ve had lots of these. I work with HIV+ clients, and had one recently where I got a lovely consultant’s letter confirming that this woman had a CD4 count of 80 (that’s full blown AIDS) and active TB, and also castigating the stupidity of Atos calling this woman into a public medical given her infectiousness to other people as well as the risk to her own health. To be fair, the disabilities/pathways adviser didn’t want her in the Job Centre and the medical Referencing team in the BDC saw the folly of the medical. Atos’s response to the letter was to arrange a home visit to her instead! It was made clear to them that she would score no points on the functional descriptors and that they should be considering her clinical markers but they still put her in the WRA group. (she’s now in the support group under Reg 35).
Other than that - three monthly seems to be the rule up here but for certain clients. I have another with a CD4 count of just over 100 and various other problems who’s just been sent another ESA50, yet he only completed his last one in July.
Topic related-I often suggest clients obtain medical evidence/clinic letters to attach to their ESA50/IB50 forms. I tend to find that more severely ill clients are passed on ‘scrutiny’ without having to attend a medical at all.