ESA50 Question 3 & 4 Question + Electronic Version

I spent all yesterday doing my ESA50 with the B&W Guides initially on the hard copy form and then realised I would end up writing "see attached sheet" all over it and downloaded the electronic version from directgov if anyone wants to avoid searching the direct link is

www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/...lasset/dg_195544.pdf

I am unsure about my answer to Question 3 and 4 as I have ticked Question 3 that I have no problems reaching up however I do have problems bending down and for question 4 I have ticked "It Varies" for all the answers and put the following

I have ticked the "It Varies" box for all this as while I might have no trouble picking up these items on the same level I would struggle to move them to a lower level due to the considerable pain and discomfort I have with bending down or over due to Functional Abdominal Pain Syndrome.

To give a practical example I do my grocery shopping online with Asda who are very good at adjustments to disabled customers and help by putting the delivery crates in my kitchen and leaving the crates with me until the next delivery so I can unpack them slowly when my pain levels allow or use my easy reach grabber (the grabby thing) to unpack any items needing refrigeration or frozen.

Could anyone with more knowledge advise if I have answered this correctly / could improve the answer or should have answered question 3 in another and better way.

On an aside if anyone wants a laugh I discovered last night that the postage paid envelope sent to return the hard copy form might be A4 size externally but is not A4 Internally and if you use the e-form it prints on A4 paper and wont fit so I e-mailed the "comments about the e-form" address last night in a fit of frustration and said whoever managed that was a total idiot not expecting a reply and I just received a very grovelling apology from a very senior civil servant at the DWP saying that she was responsible for the oversight and very apologetic....dont you just love karma.

As moderators we can offer is general information about how the system works. However, we cannot offer advice to individuals about a specific benefits problem under any circumstances which includes completion of an ESA50. To give accurate and reliable advice about a specific benefits problem, we'd need to know a great deal about such things your income, savings, health, household arrangements and more. To give advice without all this information would seriously risk misinforming you.

If you need specific benefits advice, you can download our FREE, 12 page guide to getting help with your benefits. However, other members are free to discuss your enquiry if they so wish, but ultimately it will be up to you whether or not to act upon any advice given.

On the more general points in your post, it will do no harm to attach as many A4 sheets to the ESA50 as you deem necessary? The more information you are able to give about your medical condition and how it would affect your ability to work, all the better.

Finally, did the civil servant along with the grovelling apology confirm that any remedial action would be taken to ensure the interactive ESA50 and the accompanying A4 sheets, would fit into the envelope that is supplied in future?

Ha! I had the same problem struggling with the downloaded and completed ESA50. I thought i was going mad trying to get the document inside the pre-paid envelope. Frustrated at every turn!!! I finally bent the document in half (bringing the top half down to the bottom half) and folded it.

Unbelievable - thanks for sharing more of the idiocy of the process.

cmarie

I am actually in an e-mail dialogue at the moment with the person responsible and suggested that they edit the pdf with an note saying that people may want to use a freepost address for atos for sending larger amounts of documents and pointed out that its a good civil service fix because it weasels out of a mistake and is revenue neutral to the government because the postage will already be covered in Atos's contract.....just waiting to hear the reply

I too was very frustrated by not being able to get my downloaded form into the given envelope. Because I have so many accompanying medical papers, the bundle was too fat to fold in half, so I sellotaped the given envelope to a bigger envelope. (And I sent it by special delivery.)

Pretty quick response which was

Thank you for your suggestion. I am not aware of the computer fix you
suggest but I will put this forward as a solution via our IT people.
Thank you for looking into this for me