ESA TO JSA

karon

Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

To try and provide some assistance. In order of priority.

If her ESA has just run out then your first priority is lodging an appeal against the Decision to place her in the WRAG in the first place. There is an absolute limit of 13 months from the date of the letter notifying her that she was being placed in the WRAG to make a Late Appeal. You need complete a GL24 Appeal Form and send it to the DWP office that normally deals with her claim, the address to use should be on any of the letters she has received from the DWP. Have a look at the following.

How to submit an appeal

Qualifying for the Support Group

Our ESA Appeal Guide

Your sister may be eligible for Income Related ESA, if she is then her payments will continue. ESA(IR) is dependant on your household income, your savings and assets, and any hours that your partner works. See

Asset rule for ESA(IR)

24 hour work rule for ESA(IR)

If you think that she is then you need to request an ESA3 form from the DWP.

With regard to the sanctions, first of all I am afraid I have to tell you that a Fit Note will be of little assistance, a Fit Note declares a patient Unfit for Work, having been placed in the WRAG there is already an assumption that she is Unfit for Work, The doctors letters may be of more help but they need to be specific as to the problems, so for example; if your your sister has problems going out then confirmation of this by the GP may help.

However, there is an assumption that your sister is capable of doing some Work Related Activity simply because of her being placed in the WRAG, so you will struggle to exempt from doing anything. That said, any WRA must take into account any limitations that result from her conditions, so if you feel that this is not being done you should escalate the problem to her advisor's supervisor.

If she has been sanctioned then your only choice is to appeal the Decision, if a sanction was applied before 28 October 2013 then you can appeal it directly, if was on or after then you must first request a Mandatory Reconsideration. Our ESA MR and Appeal guide explains the process in more detail.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/esa

You need to be aware that there is a legal process associated with challenging a Decision, if you do not follow the required process then nothing will happen and the sanction will remain in place, so if you are not doing this already then you need to.

Sanctions are accumulative, so it is possible to have multiple sanctions applied, payments will be reduced as long as their is one outstanding sanction in place. If the sanction is not removed by an appeal then it will only be removed by the claimant carrying out the specific action that caused the sanction, so if your sister has missed an appointment, then the sanction will not be lifted until she has attended that appointment, her attending the next appointment will not remove the sanction.

I'm unsure as to the reference to a JSA appeal, hopefully the above will remove the need for her to claim JSA, but if not, could you explain further.

If you have any more questions or more information, please reply to this post and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

karon

Just to confirm your post, your sister has had a Reconsideration in regard to her appealing from the WRAG to the Support Group. This being the case then DWP are unlikely to take any further action until the case is heard by the Tribunal Service. This obviously means that they will continue to view her as being capable of Work Related Activity.

You said in your original post that her ESA had "run out", if she still receiving payments, I assume, if she is, that this is for ESA(IR). If she is not receiving any payment then she is no longer required to participate in WRA.

I think it unlikely that your continuing to send information to the DWP will have any effect in the broad sense, if her appeal is now with the TS then you must send all further submissions and evidence to them and they will distribute it to all parties, however, this does not mean that you should provide documents in regard to any specific activities that she is asked to do, but these documents will not be counted as part of her appeal unless they are also sent to the TS.

I am as confused by the letters as you are, both require a specific application to be made, so the claimant has to apply for a Hardship Payment to be made, the DWP do not just offer them. As to any JSA claim, there is no automatic transfer of a claimant from ESA to JSA, a specific application has to be made. I have to ask, is it possible that your sister has done this without your being aware of it?

Gordon