Esa Success!!!!

Thanks to the great guides and advice on this site my wife has succeeded in getting awarded her Esa on renewal without a F2F. Form was sent in Dec 19th 2018.

A letter arrived last week but it was not clear it was an award letter(as usual leaving you to guess). It looked very similar to the yearly letter about what she would receive in April.
I spent a couple of days researching and suspected it was an award letter. I then had to call DWP to confirm it was an award letter. I spent 1/2 hr waiting on the phone to get through, I then spoke to a call taker who asked me to read out the letter. He initially said it was the yearly letter, until I told him she had received the yearly one a week earlier.

I then had to steer him towards checking my wife's details as he had not taken any of her details or NI number.
After putting in her NI number he confirmed it was an award letter(yes!!). I then asked how long till the next review he then confirmed it would be18mths. I also asked for the medical report and the assessors report, he said he printed them out straight away & they will be posted asap.
The stress has been unbearable waiting on this decision. On her ESA50 I sent in a lot of extra pages plus a couple of hospital practitioner reports.

Thanks for all your help once again.

Just received the 2 reports over the weekend.

The medical report form is just one page with lines about my wife's conditions. It also has advice & I quote. " I advise that the client meets the criteria for limited capability for work related activity as they have severe functional disability"
Then goes on to say in the prognosis section " I advise that work could be considered within 18mths"
On the advice section they are saying "severe functional disability" but consider her ready for work in 18mths, very odd.

Also the decision makers form LT54 starts with "In all cases, including scrutiny LCW and LCWRA, decision makers must complete this ESA56 fully, scoring all descriptors.
ESA completed but unavailable"
All the scores on the form have zero's in them, moving around, standing & sitting etc.

In the WCA Allowance support group award. Part of it says"Having considered the available evidence, the Decision Maker has decided that Mrs X has met the appropriate descriptors in schedule 2 of the Employment and support allowance regulations and therefore has limited capability for work.
The decision maker has proceeded to consider whether Mrs X has Limited capability for work related activity. Having further examined the available evidence the decision maker has decided that one or more of the descriptors contained in schedule 3 of the ESA regulations apply to Mrs X, she therefore has LCWRA under regulation 34."

I cannot understand why at the time of my wife's decision the ESA50 was not available for the decision maker to make this decision, when the medical officer must have had it.

We are fairly satisfied that my wife did not go for a F2F but it seems highly unusual that the decision maker made this award without seeing the ESA50, and no points on the LT54.

Does this seem odd to you?

Am I being cynical thinking this was all rushed through & my wife gets reassessed in 18mths time because at this moment in time they are too busy with new claimants?

I didn't realise there was no legal requirement for an ESA50 to be issued Gordon. Does that mean that Maximus or whoever can simply send for an existing claimant without tha




I didn't realise there was no legal requirement for an ESA 50 to be sent Gordon? Is that something new? Does that mean then that Maximus could just send for an existing claimant whose review date is due and invite them to a F2F medical? In such a case can the claimant send the Maximus people relevant medical evidence before the date of any medical and can the claimant download an ESA 50 and send it off himself? If so is there a link anywhere to download a current ESA 50 or could claimant request one? Lastly, how common or otherwise is it to be sent for a medical without being invited to fill in an ESA 50?