So I return the forms to that person and everything seems fine. I begin figuring out exactly what I'm going to do with the money so I can get the issues that seem to be rapidly developing under control, maintained and in a position where I'm not leaking like a sieve whilst working.
It turns out the person wasn't exactly on the level (surprise surprise) with, in their words, "being left alone for two years to get this sorted out". I was sent off to a private healthcare facility for an assesment. This, for those with long memories, is the same assessment which has been in the news for being anywhere from overly complex & difficult to fill in to not being complete enough to take in to account all variables; the news story I remember was a woman with chronic pain being told she was able to work, despite being wired on morphine 23 hours of the day.
Now things to keep in mind: 1) This is not a diagnosis. 2) The person perfoming the assesment is NOT a medical specialist (mine had on a badge proudly announcing they had an NVQ Level 1). 3) If you have something unusual, rare or a weird interaction they aren't going to have a clue about it. 4) As best as I can tell they're paid by the number of forms filled in.
Now when a "certified medical professional" (the words of the healthcare firm) calls an auto-immune condition "acne" and a psychiatric condition a "lifestyle choice" doesn't inspect any of the abcseses and seems to be randomly ticking boxes as they see fit... you aren't going to be getting an acurate result. I was surprised to learn that I wasn't eligable for Incapacity Benefit shortly after.
You might be thinking at this point "no durr" but I complained. I had only filled the forms in at the behest of a DWP manager, the person doing the assessment used completely the wrong terminology about the illnesses despite being corrected several times and I contested the accuracy of the medical examination because of it and stated if they wanted further proof of how inaccurate this was to contact my dermatologist and psychiatrist at the provided addresses.
They declined the offer and instead wrote back flat out calling me a liar, denied I'd ever had a witness in the meeting (so she's a liar as well). They made it very clear that only because I was making such a fuss would they send my case off to the tribunal service, but that I shouldn't hold out much hope (being a liar and all) and that the medical assessment stood as it was... despite the person who took it no longer working for the company for "unstated reasons".
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