Scared of new ESA

[Dollit]

There is a short paragraph under Support Group which may help

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/esa/key-facts.asp

[lisajones]

There is a short paragraph under Support Group which may help

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/esa/key-facts.asp

Thanx

Work-focused interviews
Most people claiming Employment and Support Allowance will be expected to take appropriate steps to help prepare for work, including attending a series of work-focused interviews with a personal adviser.

Support Group
Under Employment and Support Allowance, if people have an illness or disability that is too severe to undertake any form of work-related activity, they will get increased financial support and will not be expected to prepare for a return to work.


I think that sums up my son's dilemma. He is managing six hours of simple work with an understanding family friend and that is as much as he can do.

So he falls right through the middle.

[Apotheosis]

Thanx

Work-focused interviews
Most people claiming Employment and Support Allowance will be expected to take appropriate steps to help prepare for work, including attending a series of work-focused interviews with a personal adviser.

Support Group
Under Employment and Support Allowance, if people have an illness or disability that is too severe to undertake any form of work-related activity, they will get increased financial support and will not be expected to prepare for a return to work.


I think that sums up my son's dilemma. He is managing six hours of simple work with an understanding family friend and that is as much as he can do.

So he falls right through the middle.

I have been worried & anxious about all this change within the benefit system. Things have a very fine balance in my life. I have a history of 20 years of severe mental illness. I have had very little orthodox support. Over the past 7 years I have been living alone & independently. I have seen a psychiatrist earlier this year who extolled the virtues of the therapeutic value of work - & he told me that people couldn't recover properly unless they were in work! I have been seeing a psychologist recently & they have gone on at me a lot about pursing a path which leads into work.

This is all very well, but it's been over 10 years since I have worked. I am put in another catch 22, as your son is Lisa. I don't have the support I need, I have never had the support I need. On the one hand; I have a long term dream/goal of being financially self supporting, but getting there would be very long term; & full of some very difficult challenges. On the other hand, if I play ball & actively look at a route into work - then my benefits will be reduced & jeopardised; & I'll be forced into certain activities. If I play the "sickness" card - then I'm suck in the same position with virtually no support. That's if they decide to leave me alone.

Most of my energies are focused on recovery & maintaining a life in which I have to cope on a daily basis. From the perspective of seeking work; of which I have no idea how I would manage, as even now I often feel exhausted & stressed with what I do have to cope with. How would I pay the bills? I live in a modest flat - the rent is £530 PM, then there's council tax, bills, food, travel expenses. I'm not going to be able to find a job that pays it all; let alone be able to get done everything that needs to be done, while being in full time work. It would end in severe illness - as has every job I have had in the past. After every period of employment I have ended up sectioned.

The government should be focusing on proper support for the mentally ill & genuine therapeutic assistance, affordable housing, & a whole gamut of measures to improve the lives of societies most unfortunate. This entire benefit change is solely motivated by politics - there is nothing about it to address the real issues. It will not help those that need help the most. It is quite simply an utterly ridiculous policy.

We are not all blessed with a good MH team; in fact the majority don't have the support they need.

The truth of the matter is - that a lot of people will be forced into a lot of activities that they do not wish to do, & the whole exercise is going to be counter productive to a whole range of people; especially the mentally ill.

All of this is yet another measure of control - that widens the gap yet further of those with money & power - to those with nothing.

[lisajones]

I'm surprised to be finding other people caught in the same trap between the two categories being offered. I thought my son was just a particular case but I'm begining to see that he isn't. Are there any more people who will find this change difficult?

I think we should collect up the responses from as many people as possible and then ask Rethink to make representations on behalf of people with mental health issues to the government to make changes to this system that will help and address the problems of service users through this.

[Apotheosis]

I'm surprised to be finding other people caught in the same trap between the two categories being offered. I thought my son was just a particular case but I'm begining to see that he isn't. Are there any more people who will find this change difficult?

I think we should collect up the responses from as many people as possible and then ask Rethink to make representations on behalf of people with mental health issues to the government to make changes to this system that will help and address the problems of service users through this.

Your welcome to include any of my posts on the subject.

[redpen]

lisajones,
I don't know if you have read my thread, but I was wondering whether I could use your story for a journalism project that I am doing. If you would like to add more or less detail please could you post it to my thread?
You can say if you want to be anonymous.

[firemonkey]

Here is the reply i made on compass web site.

For years people like myself were told that work was not a viable option and little or no help was given for those issues arising out of our illnesses that were a barrier to us being able to work. Now mental health professionals colluding with this government are pushing work as some kind of miraculous cure all for the mentally ill and clients problems are to be cynically played down or dismissed.

Many mentally ill people including myself receive sub standard or in some cases non existent help and yet without that help how can people with mental health problems realistically be expected to reach a point where work becomes something that is beneficial to themselves and to society.


Instead of demonising and terrorising the mentally ill and pushing the absurd notion of work as some miraculous panacea the government and the mental health policy makers should be looking at improving access to mental health care and once services are accessed striving to optimise the level of care and support provided.
Ditch the short sighted, ill thought out pandering to the Daily Mail readers and look to a longer term policy of better funding and provision of mental health care from whence more mentally ill people can enjoy a better level of mental health leading to a greater and more realistic opportunity for sustained employment and improved QOL.

Seeing as how the seeds of mental illness can often first be sown in the teenage years then let's see more in the way of early prevention initiatives. Also better training for teachers and other professionals with regards to providing mental health first aid coupled with improved means of such professionals being able to bring those showing signs of incipient
mental illness to the prompt attention of mental health services.

It's time to bury the delusion that economists like Gregg and Layard have the slightest clue about mental illness and what is good for the mentally ill and those who care for them.

[Apotheosis]

Well said fire monkey.

[lisajones]

The Compass campaign Welfare for All is going well. They have a group of Academics supporting the campaign. They have asked if they should form other groups to support the campaign. There are very articulate posts on this thread describing the problems with the new system for people with a mental illness. The campaign needs input from service users.

Do we have the beginning of a mental health support group here for the campaign? Shall we offer to form a group.

[firemonkey]

I am making as many people as i can aware of the compass campaign via email and the forums i use.

Like a lot of other people with mental health problems i am finding my feelings of anxiety and paranoia being exacerbated by these changes to the welfare system.
Matters are not helped by the uncertainty as to what group i will fall into. An uncertainty that is not helped by deliberately vague descriptions as to who will fall into the support category.
Mention is made of those with severe mental illness falling into the support category but will this be defined by standard psychiatric definition of severe mental illness or by a definition of severe mental illness cynically formulated to define as many as possible as not severely disabled and therefore to be subsumed into the non support category?

A couple of months ago i heard of a 60 year old ex teacher who had not worked for 26 years due to severe mental illness being summonsed to see the DWP.

Why put such an individual through such an experience? The phrase 'gratuitously sadistic' springs to mind.