ESA Renewal Success

I posted off my ESA renewal form in the middle of December and the brown envelope arrived this morning with the result I'd obviously been hoping for, "You have been placed in the Support Group"
I was originally placed in the Support Group 3 Years ago without a face to face following my transfer from Incapacity Benefit, so to continue in the same Group is obviously a huge relief.
To be totally honest I wasn't too confident this time as I didn't have any recent letters of support. The Specialist I had been seeing for over 15 Years retired recently, and my GP had been unable to supply me with one in the short time before the ESA form was due back. I didn't receive the ESA form until the 6th of December and it had to be returned by the 1st of January so taking the Christmas Holidays and Royal Mail into consideration I was left with about a 2 week window, not really ideal.
The only medical information I could provide were the same two letters of support I had used 3 Years ago. I also included around 40 extra sheets of information explaining how I am affected by my illness and what I can and can't manage to do for each individual descriptor. I also included a detailed 24 hour diary to show exactly how I am affected on a daily basis.
A huge thanks goes out to everyone concerned with the Benefits & Work Forum for all their hard work in providing such useful and up to date guides and information, we really would be lost without you.
I also hope this post will give hope to the folk out there who find themselves in a similar situation with no current medical support to rely on. I'm sure there are a few out there, especially those like myself suffering with the devasting effects of severe ME/CFS.

Thanks all and the very best of wishes.

jackmalanak wrote: I posted off my ESA renewal form in the middle of December and the brown envelope arrived this morning with the result I'd obviously been hoping for, "You have been placed in the Support Group"
I was originally placed in the Support Group 3 Years ago without a face to face following my transfer from Incapacity Benefit, so to continue in the same Group is obviously a huge relief.
To be totally honest I wasn't too confident this time as I didn't have any recent letters of support. The Specialist I had been seeing for over 15 Years retired recently, and my GP had been unable to supply me with one in the short time before the ESA form was due back. I didn't receive the ESA form until the 6th of December and it had to be returned by the 1st of January so taking the Christmas Holidays and Royal Mail into consideration I was left with about a 2 week window, not really ideal.
The only medical information I could provide were the same two letters of support I had used 3 Years ago. I also included around 40 extra sheets of information explaining how I am affected by my illness and what I can and can't manage to do for each individual descriptor. I also included a detailed 24 hour diary to show exactly how I am affected on a daily basis.

A huge thanks goes out to everyone concerned with the Benefits & Work Forum for all their hard work in providing such useful and up to date guides and information, we really would be lost without you.

I also hope this post will give hope to the folk out there who find themselves in a similar situation with no current medical support to rely on. I'm sure there are a few out there, especially those like myself suffering with the devasting effects of severe ME/CFS.

Thanks all and the very best of wishes.

Hi jm,

Just looking at your previous topic : Here where you received an "early Xmas present" !!!!

Well done and many congratulations on being kept in The SG without the need for a F2F !!!!

Thanks for taking the time to post regarding this and thank you very much for your very kind words !!

Now that you have your SG Decision Notice letter, you may find : This Post informative.

Requesting your ESA Documentation now will mean that you have them filed away safely to refer to when your next reassessment comes around.

bro58