Still no ESA WCA

This is my first post as a new member on behalf of my husband who is the claimant.

Due to our ignorance of the benefits system and failings by his ex-employer, he only applied for contribution based ESA in May 2014, despite being entitled from December 2013. His claim was only allowed from February 2014, and he received payment at the assessment rate until February 2015 due to the 365 day rule. As I work full-time, he can’t claim income related ESA,.

Despite telephone calls to the ESA “helpline”, Atos and more recently Maximus at intervals, he is still waiting for a WCA assessment. The last time I called Maximus in July, I was told that his case was in the work stack awaiting assessment, but that they were still dealing with the backlog.

He was awarded ill-health retirement at tier 1 under the local government pension scheme in September 2014. (This means that he has been assessed as being unlikely to obtain gainful employment before his state retirement age, which is now in 6 years time).

In October 2014, we sent a copy to ATOS of his award letter for PIP higher rate mobility for 10 years from 13/01/14. He remained 1 point short of standard rate daily living after reconsideration, and at the time he didn’t feel well enough to continue to the appeal stage.

Earlier this month, we sent Maximus a copy of his IIDB assessment report and subsequent award letter of 50% disability, applicable from 27/08/13 for life. In the accompanying letter, we asked that if they still had insufficient evidence for a paper based assessment, we would like an appointment for his face to face assessment as soon as possible. We also mentioned that we thought that more recent claims were now being assessed in our area, and that if this was to meet targets under the terms of the new contract, this seemed grossly unfair. We have so far received no reply, appointment or any contact since these documents were signed for.

We would really appreciate any advice or tips of anything we can try to speed things up. If you have suggestions of things which may have hurried things along in your experience, we would like to thank you in advance.

Thanks very much.

Hi Petespa and welcome to the forum. On the assumption that you are also new to the site, this link should help you find your way around.

Welcome to Benefits and Work

There has been another post today with the same problem. The advice given here will apply to you too

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=topic&catid=10&id=105447