ESA Claim

I'm new to claiming anything off the government, as I've always worked for the past 28 years. I've realised what a state this government is in, when I've game to claim. My claim went in on the 14th August 2014 for ESA, I'm still waiting to be assessed. I thought according to the advice I was given, that I would be assessed within 13 weeks, some 7 months later, I've not had an assessment. What do I do?

Jacqueline wrote: I'm new to claiming anything off the government, as I've always worked for the past 28 years. I've realised what a state this government is in, when I've game to claim. My claim went in on the 14th August 2014 for ESA, I'm still waiting to be assessed. I thought according to the advice I was given, that I would be assessed within 13 weeks, some 7 months later, I've not had an assessment. What do I do?

Hi J,

Welcome to Benefits and Work

You are correct in that The ESA Assessment Phase is only supposed to last 13 weeks.

However, there is nothing in legislation to enforce this.

You are not alone, many ESA claimants have been stuck in The Assessment Phase for 12 months or more.

You could contact The DWP :

THE ESA PHONE NUMBER DWP : 0345 608 8545 Press Option 3 for ESA.

Where you could request that they fast track your ESA WCA through Maximus, so that The ESA DM can make a decision.

You could inform them that being in receipt of Assessment Rate ESA only is causing you significant financial difficulty.

This request may involve you having to escalate to a Supervisor/Manager, which would involve a call back, so it would be best if your ring up as early as possible.

If you get no joy with that, you could complain to your M.P. :

Contacting your MP

Who can be helpful in such situations.

You should be aware that if you have been working continuously right up until the time of your ESA Claim, that it is likely that you are being paid Contribution Based (CB) ESA.

Payment of CB ESA whilst not in The Support Group (SG) is limited to 365 days, see:

12 Month Limit for ESA(CB)

From our : ESA FAQ’s

If you were not in The SG by the end of these 365 days, all CB ESA payments would cease, and you would have to be financially assessed to see whether you could pass the means test for entitlement to payment of Income Related (IR) ESA.

If you couldn't you would receive NI Credits only towards your State Pension :

Asset rule for ESA(IR)

24 hour work rule for ESA(IR)

If you haven't already done so, you might want to read through our : ESA Claims Guides

Please reply to this topic if you have any further queries or wish to provide updates.

bro58