ESA "Substantial Risk" descriptor

At my ATOS medical, and in my appeal statement, I've put forward an argument that the "Substantial Risk" descriptor applies to me. I'm wondering what my chances are! In particular, what 'case law' exists around this.

I have CFS and with careful management I now manage 2 to 3 hours mild activity per day. If I try to do much more, I get worse.

Here's what I've said:

If I am found not to have limited capability for work, there will be a significant risk both to my own health and to other people’s, as follows…

(1) If I was to try and do a day’s work – worse still a week’s work – I know, from experience, that it would seriously exacerbate my symptoms, causing more pain and distress, and actually delay my recovery. All the wisdom with Chronic Fatigue is that the harder you push it, the more you override it, the harder you go down. So even for me to go for a job interview - which would be the first logical step - would be a risk to my health. If I tried to work a full 35-hour week plus commuting, I would have to push through the exhaustion that would begin half-way through the first day and would inexorably escalate. I almost certainly wouldn’t complete the week, and I could end up permanently disabled.

(2) If I got an office job, drove to work for an hour, tried to work a 9-to-5 day, and then tried to drive home, my driving would be hazardous. There can be no doubt about that. I would be a serious danger to other people on the road, because I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes open or think straight. I would be a risk to other people, a risk to the public.

I believe both of these are completely solid reasons why there is "substantial risk". They are reasons why I will not try to override my illness and return to work. But I wonder what the law says counts as a valid reason.

I have CFS and with careful management I now manage 2 to 3 hours mild activity per day. If I try to do much more, I get worse.

I expect they would argue that you could work for 2 to 3 hours a day.

@Gordon

But what constitutes evidence?

What I'm describing is not my "opinion" but my experience of how my body reacts to sustained activity. Occasionally I do press on, for whatever reason, and invariably I become progressively drowsier, more clumsy, and unable to concentrate. It is harder and harder to think straight, or to keep my eyes open.Eventually I have no choice but to lie down and sleep.

How does one "prove" that?

Maybe I could turn up to the tribunal having kept active for 7 or 8 hours beforehand. I'd be bumping into the furniture, dropping things, unable to think straight, finding it very hard to concentrate on what anyone said to me or to put an intelligible sentence together in reply, and struggling to keep my eyes open.

If I thought it might work, I'd be seriously tempted.

Hi Andy, it is a problem a lot of us have..how to prove our illness.

ATOS said I had anxiety, which I do but I also have a chronic depressive illness.

What is really, really important is that at the Tribunal, they have the list of descriptors on the table and they try to fit 'you' into the descriptors.

Are you specifically looking to get into the support group?