Fit for work, mandatory recon and the claimant commitment

While I sit waiting for my morning coffee to sink in I thought I would air my concerns and hopefully start a bit of a talking shop.

We all know that in IDS’s imagination the new appeals procedure would have meant that a UC claimant when found fit for work woudl simply bounce into having to sign on while the recon was decided and while the new appeals proceduures were only affecting “new style benefits” that would still seem, to some degree, to have continued to be the case.

Now that they’re rolling out the new appeals procedure to everything I fear it is going to turn into a car crash; people waiting for weeks for a new claim for JSA to be processed while they wait for a recon. The more I think about it the more I want to hide in the woods for a couple of years until everything settles down.

A lot of my clients will walk into ATOS, the assessing nurse (I’ve seen 78 ESA appeals, only 1 was a doctor; the rest were nurses) will miss the gravity of the antipsychotics or the diagnosis, hear a tale of a person’s bad back and advise that they’re fit for work. They sign on then relapse under the strain. It will get worse when the CC comes into play.

Has anyone heard of, or thought of any strategies to mitigate the horror show that’s about to start rolling? I keep on brooding on it but the despair distracts me.

Also, lazy work I know, but if JSA is sanctioned does that sanction period apply to ESA too? I might answer this for myself as the day goes on but someone might know off the top of their head.

Ta