Won Appeal - Reapplying for ESA?

Hi

After following the advice on this forum (many thanks to all concerned generally), I attended my mother's appeal tribunal with her, and her appeal was upheld (on grounds regulation 29 was applicable).

In addition, the tribunal recommended that she was not re-assessed for a period of 2 years.

I have a couple of queries:-

Are the recommendations about not being assessed within a certain time frame purely advisory; in practice have DWP accepting or ignoring the recommendations?

Secondly, due to the loss of income (between the DWP decision and the appeal) my mother was forced to attempt to take a job to make ends meet. The result was that after a single week of work (around 30 hours), she couldn't continue due to her condition and had to leave.

My understanding is that she will have to reapply for ESA - is this correct? If so, will the Tribunal's judgement about not being re-assessed lead to an automatic re-instatement of her ESA, or will we need to go through the entire process from scratch?

Many thanks.

sheep wrote:

Hi

After following the advice on this forum (many thanks to all concerned generally), I attended my mother's appeal tribunal with her, and her appeal was upheld (on grounds regulation 29 was applicable).

In addition, the tribunal recommended that she was not re-assessed for a period of 2 years.

I have a couple of queries:-

Are the recommendations about not being assessed within a certain time frame purely advisory; in practice have DWP accepting or ignoring the recommendations?

Secondly, due to the loss of income (between the DWP decision and the appeal) my mother was forced to attempt to take a job to make ends meet. The result was that after a single week of work (around 30 hours), she couldn't continue due to her condition and had to leave.

My understanding is that she will have to reapply for ESA - is this correct? If so, will the Tribunal's judgement about not being re-assessed lead to an automatic re-instatement of her ESA, or will we need to go through the entire process from scratch?

Many thanks.

Hi S,

Well done on winning the appeal.

The Tribunal have decided that your Mother has Limited Capability for Work, (LCW) under exceptional circumstances rules, (ESA Reg 29) which can be seen here :

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/794/regulation/29/made

This places her in The WRAG of ESA, were you aware of this :

12 Month Limit for ESA(CB) Updated 10/03/12

See also :

Work Focussed Interviews

Work Programme

As a fairly recent developement, Tribunals have started making recommendations of how long it should be before a successful appellant is re-assessed. However, these are only recommendations, and whether The DWP will abide by them will only become apparent with time.

Did your Mother close her ESA claim when she started work ?

Did she inform the DWP ?

Was it classed as : Permitted Work ?

bro58

I too eventually got my ESA after the medical.
Thanks to Benefits and Work site I was well armed with all my evidence and had looked at the ESA pages you provided.
The more evidence you have i.e. consultants, doctors nurses letters the better.
Clearly have a photocopy of the the ESA questionaire they sent you in your possession at the interview so they can't try to catch you out. Make sure someone is with you and demand (in advance) that you want the interview recorded. They will give you a copy of the interview on a tape at the end( Hilarious really as who uses tapes or has tape recorders these days? should have been a disk or small computer plug e.g. cruzer.)
- It may be needed if you appeal.

m wrote:

I too eventually got my ESA after the medical.
Thanks to Benefits and Work site I was well armed with all my evidence and had looked at the ESA pages you provided.
The more evidence you have i.e. consultants, doctors nurses letters the better.
Clearly have a photocopy of the the ESA questionaire they sent you in your possession at the interview so they can't try to catch you out. Make sure someone is with you and demand (in advance) that you want the interview recorded. They will give you a copy of the interview on a tape at the end( Hilarious really as who uses tapes or has tape recorders these days? should have been a disk or small computer plug e.g. cruzer.)
- It may be needed if you appeal.

Yes m,

Making a request to have one's "medical" recorded is a good idea, see :

Letter asking for your medical to be recorded NEW 23 JULY 2012
A 2 page letter you can copy and paste to send to DWP/Atos requesting that your medical is recorded. This letter is also included in the WCA guides aboWord version may be easier to copy and paste.

Which is the 6th link down this page :

ESA Guides

And further information here :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=vie...id=10&id=87658#87658

bro58

I received a copy of my recording on a CD, so it obviously varies between areas.