ESA - recondideration

Hi I am posting on behalf of a friend.

She was put into the work activity group but asked for a reconsideration in September 2014 to be moved to the support group.

She has completed big questionnaire but never had an assessment

Her year ran out in Oct 2014 so she has received nothing since then. Her husband works so she cannot claim income based. Should she be on some sort of assessment rate?

Whenever she calls, she is told ATOS will contact her in due course.

They are struggling to make ends meet - is there anything else she can do?

Thanks

EMMA wrote: Hi I am posting on behalf of a friend.

She was put into the work activity group but asked for a reconsideration in September 2014 to be moved to the support group.

She has completed big questionnaire but never had an assessment

Her year ran out in Oct 2014 so she has received nothing since then. Her husband works so she cannot claim income based. Should she be on some sort of assessment rate?

Whenever she calls, she is told ATOS will contact her in due course.

They are struggling to make ends meet - is there anything else she can do?

Thanks

Hi E,

Welcome to Benefits and Work

It seems that your friend's payment of Contribution Based (CB) ESA ceased in October 2014 due to exhausting her 365 days entitlement to payment of CB ESA whilst not in The SG :

12 Month Limit for ESA(CB)

They do not seem to have any entitlement to payment of Income Related (IR) ESA as their partner works 24 Hours/Week or more :

24 hour work rule for ESA(IR)

Asset rule for ESA(IR)

It is not clear from your post whether your friend requested a Mandatory Reconsideration (MR)/Appeal of the original adverse WRAG award, or they reported a Change in Circumstances (C in C) in that their medical conditions and resulting limitations had changed/deteriorated since the time of the original WRAG award, and they now felt that they qualified for The Support Group. (SG)

Reporting a C in C, as above would be classed as requesting a Supersession/Review of the existing WRAG award.

Have a look at this post : Here.

In the interim, whilst awaiting a decision on either of the above, I am afraid that there is no entitlement to payment of CB ESA at any rate, which also seems to be the situation for IR ESA payments.

Your friend will continue to receive NI Credits only which go towards their State Pension.

Whilst in receipt of NI Credits only, they do not have to comply with any Work Related Activity/Work Focused Interviews. (WRA/WFI)

As your friend will have returned The ESA50 Questionnaire to ATOS, :

"She has completed big questionnaire"

It would be ATOS that she would need to contact regarding an update of where the process is up to :

Phone : 0113 230 9175. / 0800 2888 777

Or E-Mail : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If ATOS state that they have made a paper based assessment and ruturned their recommendations to The DWP ESA Decision Maker, (DM) you would then have to contact The DWP for an update :

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

See also : Sending Documents to the DWP or ATOS

The important difference between an MR/Appeal, and a Supersession/Review as the result of a C in C, is that if an MR/Appeal is successful, the SG decision would be backdated to the date of the original WRAG award.

If the reporting of a C in C is successful in that your friend is placed into The SG, then this "superceding" SG Award will only be back dated to the date of reporting The C in C.

Under either eventuality, if placed into The SG, payments of CB ESA will continue for as long as they remain in The SG.

If unsuccessful, and their in no further change or deterioration in their conditions in the future that would result in an SG award, then the only other way that they would again be entitled to payments of CB ESA would be to gain the necessary number of NI Contributions from employment.

You should be aware that there are currently huge backlogs with the ESA assessments and decision making process.

As previously stated, I am afraid that your friend will continue to receive no payments until a decision is made, and payments of CB ESA will only be reinstated then, if it is an SG Award.

Please reply to this topic if you have any further queries.

bro58