ESA decision letter - good news but still a query.

First of all very many thanks to all of you at this excellent site.

Following your guidance, back in October, I submitted my most comprehensive ESA 50 claim form yet on behalf of my son (who has paranoid schizophrenia). I enclosed every medical report I could lay my hands on and answered each question in the systematic way you suggest. Forests of trees were sacrificed to make the quantities of paper I sent them!

And last week the effort paid off - he got the brown envelope with the news that he is still in the Support Group and without having to endure a face to face assessment. We are all so relieved!!

But I think the decision letter is rather odd. It doesn't say anything at all about which descriptors he scored on or whether they used the "substantial risk" reason instead. It just says "You meet the eligibility criteria for Support Group".
Is this usual for ESA decision letters?

By contrast his PIP letter spelled out which aspects he had scored on, which was so much more informative.The ESA letter does say you can get in touch if you want more information - do you think they would tell us their reasoning if we asked? Or would that be like poking a sleeping tiger with a stick?
Also there's no indication of how long this decision will last for - again, is that normal practice these days? Last time we were told the award would be reviewed after 2 years -although in fact it was longer . Do you think the absence of information about the period of review bodes well for us or doesn't it mean anything?
Not sure whether to ask more questions of the DWP or just file the whole thing away and keep my head down !

This sounds very much like the response I received for ESA. But I too have the same query as you have above which I am not sure has been answered. There was no indication either in my letter as to how long the decision is valid for. Why is that and what does it mean?

Very many thanks - sounds like I'd better ask for the ESA85A as that may indicate their reasoning and their prognosis.

I couldn't keep doing this if it wasn't for your guides. Its like having a well informed friend by my side as I go into battle yet again.