ESA Contributions, WRAG 365 days + support group

justanotherday2

Welcome to the forum.

You can certainly try arguing that the Decision should take effect from an earlier date, but the relevant legislation refers to the date that the DWP are informed of the change, I suspect that they will take the position that at the very earliest this would be when ATOS received your GPs response.

I am afraid the argument that your GP would have made the same reply in 2011 is moot, they didn't and you had the opportunity of challenging the original Decision at the time and did not.

With regard to a second claim for ESA(CB) I am afraid that the DWP only have a responsibility to check whether the claimant is eligible for ESA(IR), it is the responsibility of the claimant to make a new claim for ESA(CB) if they believe that they can re-meet the three Contribution Conditions.

If you are placed in the WRAG again, then your payments will immediately stop as you have already used up your 365 days on this claim, whether you can make a new claim for ESA(CB) will depend on when this occurs as ESA(CB) uses the two full Tax Years preceding the year the claim is made so for a new claim this year (2014), the Tax Years used are 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Gordon