New ESA Claim

[estellyn]

Have they refused your claim yet? If so just but in a new claim now that it has been 6 months.

[Lapsed Workaholic]

In your very first post of this thread you said:

 

I failed my medical and tribunal last year, My original medical was 9th of July 2014 and decision 23rd July. My tribunal was 26 november 2014.

 

You would now have been eligible to re-apply for ESA using the same criteria as it is now six months after that assessment date.

 

However, the assessment did not go in your favour and you asked for a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR). Instead of waiting for the outcome of the MR you put in a fresh claim using a different criteria and not even mentioning the criteria upon which you based your first claim despite the fact that your first claim was at that time still active and under reconsideration.

 

If, as you say, there was no mention of the asthma on your first sick note but you made them aware of it during the assessment, then they should have considered that when allocating points to the descriptors. Can you show and prove with medical evidence where asthma of itself would have made a difference to the scores? Did you point this out when you asked for MR?

 

Can't you see that by your own actions you automatically cancelled your first claim before giving them the opportunity to reconsider it by informing them of such a change in your circumstance that the circumstances upon which you previously claimed ESA to all intent and purposes since you did not mention them, no longer existed.

 

I know it is generally accepted here that DWP staff are stupid but they would have to be total dummies to let pass such an own goal and so obvious an attempt to pull a fast one.

 

The decision on your last claim would have been given in the MR since they had said claim before MR decision was made and conveyed to you.

 

On that basis I would suggest that they are right in asserting that you can't legally submit another claim using the same criteria until 6 months after decision on the claim was made, and that was, as you say, 15 August.

[pcombo]

Well DM called me today saying my claim was accepted as a worsening condition for some reason back to the 6th of february. So not sure what happened now.

 

But either way im back on ESA and what a relief it has been...

[pcombo]

I called DWP to get my payment details changed to my post office account, I called on the 11th of march, payments are released on fridays for wednesday payments so plenty of time.

 

The only problem is the company i had my benefits paid into were closing and on the 9th suddenly advised all customers to remove funds before the 13 other wise you wont get access, It's basically a prepaid visa debt card and the money is paid into a collections accounts and the company allocate the funds to the visa debt card account.

 

So anyway DWP made a mistake and send the payment due on the 18th to the old visa debt card account. Anyway i got a call from some rude woman at DWP saying you never called to change any details we have no record.

 

Anyway i called ESA again and they told me they did get a call from me on the 11th because i know i called and done it in plenty of time. So basically there £113 sitting in a natwest holding account because thats the bank the prepaid visa debt card used.

 

So DWP admitted they made a mistake and reissued the payment to the post office. Will DWP recover those funds or will they remain where they are, i dont have access to them.

 

But in the end i got my money and DWP messed up and repaid me. But was just curious.

[Mr.P]

One would hope that the DWP recover the money from the Natwest account seeing as it was their mistake. But just to cover yourself, I'd suggest getting in writing that the DWP made the mistake.

[pcombo]

I will do, They could see my new payment details on the system or that i did request them to be changed, So someone at DWP has made a problem.

 

I got a new payment issued, So all is good. I know it's tax payers money but DWP can go whistle if they think im going to chase around companies to get it back. I told them in plenty of time.

 

Thanks

[antone]

The DWP will not ask you to recover the funds on their behalf, no. They issued you a new payment, so they're obviously satisfied that you don't have the money and that the mistake was theirs. There is a department within the DWP that deals with these sorts of issues (that is, recovering payments that have gone missing) but it may not be worth the trouble for such a small (to them) amount of money.

[pcombo]

So today, My council offered me a flat £70.59 per week. Which is fine.

 

But on the 30th of July I have my ESA medical, And I don't know if ill pass or fail and im worried, So if I make a claim for housing benefit with ESA, and my ESA claim gets closed because of a failed medical, How would that effect my claim, if i made a JSA claim then appealed ESA?

 

Quite worried now.

[Guest]

If you fail the medical then the best thing would be to ring the council and let them know what has happened and that you will be claiming jsa whilst appealing the esa situation. You would still be entitled to housing benefit and council tax relief whilst claiming jsa.

 

From my experience a phone call to the council as soon as anything happens always keeps them in the loop.

[antone]

If you fail the medical then the best thing would be to ring the council and let them know what has happened and that you will be claiming jsa whilst appealing the esa situation. You would still be entitled to housing benefit and council tax relief whilst claiming jsa.

 

From my experience a phone call to the council as soon as anything happens always keeps them in the loop.

 

Yes, pretty much this. If you ESA stops then the DWP will probably inform the council of this fact and the council may stop your HB. So as a matter of urgency and pretty much before doing anything else, contact the council and tell them that you wish to continue your HB claim on the basis of "nil income" until you get things sorted out. Once you make a JSA claim you need to inform the council again, and after that (if you choose to appeal against your ESA decision and move back onto ESA while waiting for the appeal to be heard) then you should inform the council of this as well.

 

It is a pain, but councils don't generally want you to end up homeless so keep them informed of everything that happens.

[pcombo]

I recently applied for PIP and sent evidence etc with my claim, I called ATOS today and they basically told me they have enough information that I wont need to go for a face to face assessment.

 

Can someone advise me what this normally means for my claim status.

 

Thanks

[reallymadwoman]

It means that they have enough information to make a decision without a face to face. There's no way to predict what that decision will be however.

[pcombo]

I called DWP and they told me that my PIP was awarded and that I was put on Daily living component, Standard.

 

So I'm quite happy with the outcome without having to go for a face to face.

[reallymadwoman]

Congrats on no face to face, always to be avoided if possible.

 

I'm not sure if there would still be a report as such as there was no face to face assessment, but it might be worth asking for it if it does exist, if only so you have a copy since DWP seem to be so efficient at losing/destroying anything that might be of help to the claimant in the future.

[pcombo]

Congrats on no face to face, always to be avoided if possible.

 

I'm not sure if there would still be a report as such as there was no face to face assessment, but it might be worth asking for it if it does exist, if only so you have a copy since DWP seem to be so efficient at losing/destroying anything that might be of help to the claimant in the future.

 

Yeah ill call DWP tomorrow and see if they have it.

 

Apparently my PIP claim is until 2020.

[id6052]

pcombo - pleased for you - 2020 is quite a long award - out of interest, how long ago did you apply as the DWP state the turnaround is quicker these days

 

i originally applied in April 2013, did not get a decision until April/May 2014 - so took about 13 months, though did get higher rate living component - my award was for 3 years so up until April 2016 - you should be aware that they normally commence a review about 12 months before the end of your award - my review started in May/June this year and finally had my assessment last week - am dreading the outcome

[pcombo]

I applied on the first week of September, ATOS sent a report to DWP on the 13th october, And was awarded PIP on 20th.

 

So quite fast and no face to face assessment.

 

I'm quite happy with the outcome.

 

Hope your outcome is good

[pcombo]

I counted my points received on the descriptors on the award letter, It said I got 11 points for daily living component so was on standard,

 

But I counted all the points for this and counted 22.

 

Help

[reallymadwoman]

I'm assuming you mean that you think you should have got 22, not that you got 22 and DWP reduced it to 11. Ask for a mandatory reconsideration in writing, listing where you believe you should have scored additional points and why, e.g. I believe I should get 4 points for this descriptor because xxxxx. You should be aware that there is always a possibility that the award will be reduced (to nothing) instead of increased. If you're confident you could also phone to ask/provide the information over the phone, however this does mean you have less chance to make sure you get all your points across - no pun intended!

[Nystagmite]

Did you submit any evidence with your application?

[pcombo]

When I counted the scores they gave me for each descriptor, I reached 22 counting the scores they gave me.

 

But it says I only got 11 points, Even though the points giving add up to 22.

 

I submitted evidence, Like 2 gp letters, and ESA report along with a mental health report.

[pcombo]

I looked at the letter again, It seems the descriptors are duplicated, Not sure why. Kinda complicated things,

 

I think it is correct that I did score 11 points.

 

Either way I'm still happy.

[reallymadwoman]

Since you only need one more point to get the enhanced rate, I'd be looking at those point scores very, very carefully to see if you can find just one more that would make such a difference to the amount you get.

 

As an aside, as you got an odd number of points you must have either got the 1 point for needing an aid to take medication or 3 points for needing help to get in the bath or shower as they are the only odd numbered points available. This means that someone who forgets to take their life saving medication without an aid effectively scores nothing unless they also need help getting in the bath or shower because that 1 point can never make the difference between getting or not getting an award by itself. To me, that seems very wrong but then probably the people who devised these scores aren't going to die if they forget their pills so it's not important to them.

[pcombo]

DWP sent me a form saying I could be entitled to SDP.

 

Does this just get added to my ESA claim, And will the SDP be backdated to the start of my PIP claim I believe it is?

 

And how much is SDP?

 

Thanks

[Nystagmite]

SDP is £61.85 per week and gets added to ESA