TRANSFER FROM IB TO ESA AND PIP CLAIM

angelcake

I'm sorry I didn't realise that's what I was doing. It's just been confusing and a struggle but I will try and be mindful in what I ask now

I'm concerned that you are looking for something from the forums that we cannot provide and that unless we can reset your expectations you will be unable to do the work you need to do in regard to this Mandatory Reconsideration. Most of the information I have posted is available in the ESA Claim guides in more detail than I can post here.

Actions are things like getting washed, getting dressed, sorting the washing, doing the washing, preparing the ingredient s of a meal, cooking a meal.

So the test looks at whether you can sucessfully complete two of these actions, for example; getting washed before you get dressed, doing the washing and then drying it, cooking a meal and then clearing up afterwards.

The Support Group Descriptor uses the word "cannot" in a similar way to the Coping with Social situations uses "always". It is reasonable for you to argue that these are not absolute statements (e.g. never), but there will be an expectation that the limitations you have are substantial. I can't give you a definition of what substantial means, that is a decision that will be made on case by case basis, but I can tell you that I do not think that 4 days a week be acccepted as meeting this standard.

The issue you have with Regulation 35 is that the risk must have been present and documented as such when you were assessed, the Decision Maker cannot take into account any deterioration in your condition that has resulted since the decision was made. So you cannot say that now that you are faced with Work Related Activity that you have issues with it.

Work related-activities may include may include such things as:

 Work trials
 Voluntary work
 Permitted work
 Work placement
 Work experience
 Preparation for self-employment
 Condition management programmes
 NHS Expert Patients Programmes
 Basic skills programmes such as literacy, numeracy and keyboard skills
 Activities to stabilise health conditions (including mental health problems) for example use of cognitive behavioural therapy

Gordon

angelcake

If you are looking to be placed in the Support Group by meeting the Starting and Finishing Tasks Descriptor then there are two aspects to this that you will need to meet.

First, and you will have to forgive me raising the subject again, you will have to show that for a substantial amount of the time that you cannot complete two sequential actions. The test uses the phrase "cannot", as previously discussed I believe that you can successfully argue that cannot does not mean never, but you will have to show that you are affected far more than 4 days a week that you have previously mentioned. I can't give you a target to aim for because it is not defined in law or in the guidelines for ESA but if I was pushed to give a figure then I would say a minimum of 95% of the time.

If you believe that you can show that you affected for a substantial amount of the time then your next target is to show the extent of the limitations that you have. The Descriptor refers to "two sequential actions" so I would start there, even though you suggest that you might have a more severe problem, you need to initially talk to the Decision Maker in the terms that they are expecting to see.

Clearly if you have problems identifying the logical order of tasks or more likely that you forget the first task (e.g. washing) before doing the second (e.g. dressing), then this is something that you should bring to the DM's attention, but the DM will primarily expecting you talk about your ability to carry out two tasks in reasonable proximity to each other.

So as examples of things that you could argue are issues preventing from doing the two tasks;

- you can start and finish the tasks but it take you much longer than a healthy person would
- if you start a task and then forget about or are distracted by other things so that you do not complete it or do not start the second task.
- you cannot start or complete a task without someone else prompting or encouraging you to do so.

There is no problem with you mentioning more complex tasks such as dealing with your bills, but you need to break it down in to its components so that the DM can see the problems that you have with these as well as the overall task. You need to explain why you cannot do things but also what happens when you do.

Regulation 35 differs from the other Descriptors, because the claimant must explicitly show that they meet the criteria, it is not something that can be assumed from the evidence by the DM. In your post you use the phrase "job related activity", it is important to understand that the things you need to show are not related to your working or anything in connection with your working, these will only qualify you for the WRAG

Regulation 35 is only concerned with those activities that the DWP may ask you to perform in order for you to prepare for a return to work, as listed in a previous post, a good example might be a Work Focussed Interview, what problems would you have getting to an from the interview, how would you feel about meeting and inter-relating to someone you have not met before, would you be able answer their questions in a coherent way, what would you have to do in order to prepare for the appointment, what would be the after effects of your doing so, further, you need to show that you would still have these problems if the DWP made accommodations for your conditions, for example the WFI was held over the phone rather than you attending at a JC+ office.

Finally, you need to show that those problems existed at the time that the Decision was made, so again using the example of the WFI, you need to show that it was clear that you would have problems dealing with a WFI when you were assessed rather than now, when you are faced with potentially having one.

Gordon