change of circumstances, now esa50

Amonia

I am afraid there are very very limited circumstances under which a Change Circumstances can be backdated, being advised not to submit one by a member of the DWP staff would not count as Good Cause. The normal procedure is to apply any change to benefit from the date that the DWP are notified.

Even though you cannot back date your current claim, it would still be worth your while sending the DWP notification of the Change as it should ensure that any new Decision on your claim would apply from now rather than from when the Decision is made. I would recommend that you send your letter to the DWP by Recorded Delivery and ask for written acknowledgement of their receipt of it. You may need to chase the DWP for this.

You do not need to inform ATOS, who will have issued the ESA50, but should include details of your "new" problems when completing the form.

Please refer to our ESA Claim guides for information on how to complete the ESA50.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/esa1

Gordon

Amonia

Notifying the DWP now of a CofC should mean that they apply any Decision from the date that they receive the letter, if you don't inform the DWP of the CofC then the Decision will apply from the date it is made.

So purely as an example; if you notify the DWP on 1 March 2015 of the change, complete the ESA50, are assessed whether this is a face to face or not and a new decision is made on 1 September, then...

With the CofC the Decision should apply from 1 March, without the CofC it would be 1 September.

Reporting a CofC will not affect how the assessment process operates, you are being assessed on your conditions as they are now, that includes any deterioration that has occurred, whether there is a requirement for a face to face assessment or not, will be based on your ESA50 and any evidence attached and any information that they may seek from your doctors.

I hope this explains it

Gordon

Amonia

I am afraid I can't tell from the multitude of topics you have started whether a Decision was made on your claim after the ESA50 you completed 18-24 months ago. If it was then then there will be no way that the DWP will look at back dating it as that Decision will have taken into account those changes. It would also introduce further issues (see below).

If no Decision was made then the issue will be that the DWP initiated the re-assessment and not you, it may be possible to argue that your ESA50 contains information that would place you in the Support Group, but unless a recommendation could be made only on that original ESA50 and the information attached then there would be a problem determining whether any SG award was the result of how you are today or whether you would have qualified if immediately assessed after the ESA50 was returned.

As I mentioned above, if a Decision has been on the old ESA50 then it creates a new problem. Each Decision resets a claimants conditions, so changes in your condition will only be considered from the date of the last Decision, basically you can't argue that the change you now want to be re-assessed under pre-dates that last Decision. To try and explain this in simpler terms; if your condition is now twice as bad as it was then it would have changed 100%, if the last Decision was made when you were half as bad (i.e. 50%) and that Decision did not place you in the SG, then any re-assessment will only consider the second 50% (since the Decision) not the full 100%.

Gordon