Help! ESA has been taken away...

Verity wrote: Hello everyone. I have been in receipt of ESA (limited capability for work on health grounds) for the past 10 years. Last year I improved a little, (I have M.E/CFS) and as I was in the work related activity group, I took up some permitted work, just 5-10 hours a week. I had to stop and could no longer work after 11 months due to a relapse, and they have stopped my ESA completely, saying the 52 weeks of permitted work has now finished and they will no longer give me ESA even though I am no longer working and have no other means of supporting myself. I am desperate to know how to approach them to ask for my ESA to be reinstated. I have asked my local MP to write in on my behalf too. Any ideas would be hugely appreciated. Thanks

You've posted and the end of our last session of the week!!!

Your post suggest that you are in the WRAG?

Did you tell the DWP that you had stopped working and if you did, was this in writing?

Permitted Work at the higher rate for claimants in the WRAG can only be done for 52 week after which there has to be a 52 week break before a new period of PW can be started, the 52 weeks starts from the first day that you earn above the Lower Limit.

If you did not tell them that you had stopped the PW then they have likely assumed that you are still doing it, alternatively if you did PW at the Higher Limit, stopped for a while and then started again then the 52 weeks will have started from the first day of the first period and your may therefore have gone over the 52 weeks.

In either case you need to contact the DWP to find out hat is going on and to explain that you have stopped the PW.

Without more information about what you have been doing and when it is difficult to give more detailed advice.

Gordon