ESA letter query

I'm currently in receipt of income based ESA. My award was due to be reassessed last August but due to the backlog I haven't heard anything about it yet & am still receiving the money.

I use my award letter to claim back travel expenses from hospital appts but last time I attended one they told me I needed a newer letter because my previous one was dated Feb 2015, so it was over a year old. They said to phone the DWP & request a new letter but I'm worried this could trigger a reassessment which I don't feel I'm well enough to deal with at the moment. Is that a valid concern or am I worrying about nothing? Thank you.

mysti wrote: I'm currently in receipt of income based ESA. My award was due to be reassessed last August but due to the backlog I haven't heard anything about it yet & am still receiving the money.

I use my award letter to claim back travel expenses from hospital appts but last time I attended one they told me I needed a newer letter because my previous one was dated Feb 2015, so it was over a year old. They said to phone the DWP & request a new letter but I'm worried this could trigger a reassessment which I don't feel I'm well enough to deal with at the moment. Is that a valid concern or am I worrying about nothing? Thank you.

Hi m,

Yes, they are late this year in sending out the annual entitlement letters.

There are no absolute guarantees of anything, but ringing the ESA number to request that they send out a current IR ESA entitlement letter should not trigger your reassessment.

The people that you speak to on the phone are just Call Responders based in Call Centres, they have no executive powers.

Whilst on the phone, you could ask them to have a look on-screen to see if the can see the recommended date for your next reassessment.

THE ESA PHONE NUMBER DWP : 0345 608 8545 (Open 8AM-6PM. Mon-Fri.)

bro58

Thank you.