ESA/ATOS Medical Assessment

It should be the DWP/Atos who are required to request medical evidence, prior to conducting the WCA.

As the DWP are deciding/reviewing a claimant's entitlement to ESA, the burden of proof rest with the Department to ascertain if a claimant qualifies for ESA? As such they are supposed to take all the evidence into account. Under the PCA for IB in most cases but not all, the DWP sought information from healthcare professionals by issuing an IB113 prior to conducting a medical assessment. This changed however when Atos took responsibility for the issue of form IB/ESA113, and from what I have seen, the issue of this form now appears to be discretionary?

Although it is stressed frequently on B & W of the need to seek supporting evidence from healthcare professionals, I don't readily accept this approach, as this effectively transfers the initiative and the burden of proof to the claimant which is not the purpose of the WCA. As part of the Harrington report into the conduct of the WCA, Atos acting as agents of the DWP are obliged to consider all the evidence, which includes written or oral evidence from the claimant, which may not necessarily be from a healthcare professional, who may know very little if anything about how an illness/disability affects them in everyday life.

The problem is that until the DWP/Atos decide to abandon their stance whereby medical assessments cannot be recorded, evidence given by the claimant can (and has been) misconstrued and subsequently disregarded by ESA decision makers. This is undoubtedly responsible for the huge number of appeals against ESA decisions in particular, but also some IB decisions. If the DWP/Atos have nothing to hide, they should readily agree to the recording of the assessment, and in my opinion they should be compelled to do so, unless the claimant decides to the contrary.

Can one not ask the Dr at the medical if he/she has any details of your illness. Have they submitted ESA113?

Yes, you can.

It is not an unreasonable question, and the disability analyst should inform you if an ESA113 has been issued. Alternatively, as soon as form ESA50 is received, it may be preferable to write to the DWP to ascertain whether the ESA113 was issued (or will be issued), as the disability analyst may be inclined to ask you to refer all matters regarding correspondence directly to the DWP.