appeal date but no longer on benefit s

intrested wrote: hinsep llo once again here a tricky one , my son lost his application for transfer from incapacity benefit to esa ! So in September he started a teacher traning course against doctor advice , as each week went on he got more an more tired and was taking tramadol like sweets he has a spinal disease which means he has no feelinhin his right side which is made worse by stress.anyway to putalong story short he has now lost the sight in his right eye which hospitol state s was caused by stress.hecant get any benefit s as he is in training and yet his doctor has put him back on sick ,but he now got an appeal date which he asked for at the begining of this year .?
Confused

I am afraid your son has not made it easy for himself.

In regard the appeal, assuming he wins then he will receive back payments from the date that he was found Fit for Work until the date that he closed his claim to start his training course.

If he is no longer able to continue with his course due to his health and his GP is willing to provide Fit Notes, then he can make a new claim for ESA but he will only be entitled to Income Related ESA which will look at his household income, assets and savings and any hours that a partner works.

Further, if a new claim for ESA(IR) is made within six months of his failed transfer then he will only be paid once he has attended a Work Capability Assessment or six months have elapsed, unless his GP declares he has a new condition or that his original conditions have worsened since the Fit for Work Decision.

There is a very limited opportunity for him to re-claim Contribution Based ESA, this is dependant on two factors;

- whether he wins his appeal, and
- when his appeal is heard.

If he has been on the training course for less than 12 weeks, then in principle he can use the Linking Rules to link a new claim to his previous IB claim, but this will only be possible if he wins his appeal. Also if the appeal is not heard for some time, then he will have to argue that such a new claim should be backdated, but this is likely to require the assistance of a trained advisor, as the DWP will likely argue that this is not valid.

I understand that the above may be confusing, so if you have any questions on it, please reply to this post.

Gordon