Buried Alive!

Hello, now it’s my brothers turn to be buried alive. He has just been found fit for work. He has made a miraculous recovery from heart disease. He scored no points. He’s been told to claim uc. He has made an appointment with his local community centre to get help to appeal. Unfortunately they can’t fit him in for two weeks. I am trying my best to help him in the meantime. He’s reluctant to claim uc while he appeals. I have told him he can make a nil income claim to keep his housing benefit. He’s thinking of living off savings while his mr is sorted out. He is currently in receipt of pip and also sdp. Tomorrow we will ring dwp for a copy of the esa 85 and follow up with a request in writing.

Could I please ask, that that he’s been found fit for work will he lose his sdp? Are there any circumstances in which he could keep it? Also am I right in thinking that after they turn him down at mr stage and he goes on to appeal, can he get his esa reinstated at assessment rate whilst on appeal if he has not claimed uc?

I do hope all that makes sense. I’m in a bit of a state, as although I am now retired all this has brought back bad memories of when I had a fight on my hands with these wonderful folks myself.

Regards PP:)

Thank you so so much for your reply Gordon. Options seem to be far better for him than I thought they would be. I have just a few further questions to ask, but as my head is absolutely banging with all this I may leave it till Monday. I just wanted to say I big big thank you for now.

My brother brought his decision letter round today and I photocopied it to read over the next few days. It’s quite lengthy, esa65. We rang DWP to get the Esa85 sent. They asked if we wanted to put in for a MR. We said no just to send the esa85. I hope we have done things the right way round.

Anyway as I said I just wanted to say a big thank you till I can get my head to stop banging before I ask another question. So thank you so much. Hope you have a good weekend

Kindest regards PP:)

Hello Gordon.
I understand just about everything you told me in reply to my question on Friday. I am a little confused though as to which benefit he needs to be on to keep his SDP. In first sentence you say SDP is paid through ESA claim. Then later you say he would receive JSA, SDP and the Disability Premium. When you say JSA did you mean ESA? Was it just a typo or am I being totally thick and simply not grasping what you have said? It’s so easily done ha!

Does he claim JSA first and then get the fit note? I’m sure I read on here sometime that that’s the case. Also to confuse even more on the ESA 65 it says he can claim JSA or new Style JSA. Would he be best just claiming JSA? I don’t know the difference.

To my knowledge he hasn’t received a letter from Housing Benefit yet to cancel his claim. When he comes to deal with this, is it simply a request to have the claim reinstated and not a fresh claim?

So sorry to ask all these questions. When I retired I threw all my ESA guides out cos I thought I would never need them again. I will print off new guides later this week including the appeals guide so we can go through them slowly and over the coming weeks/ months put a good case forward. But for now we just wanted to know the above questions and in which order he should deal with them. I have to be careful not to let myself get into the same state I was in when I had to deal with my own ESA problems, but I cant let him deal with it on his own. He’s getting very stressed because after the heart attacks and he made his claim he was left on assessment rate for almost two years and they never left him alone, he’s was constantly harassed by them.

Kind regards PP:)

Thank you so much Gordon. Thats put my mind at rest. You’ve actually answered more than I asked in a way. That’s brilliant. I just don’t know what we would have done without you. My brother has asked me to say a massive big thanks to you also.

Could I just ask one more question please? Does the fit note have to be dated after the day he claims his JSA? He was thinking maybe he could get fit note first but not present it until after he makes claim for JSA. Think that’s the last bit of my kaffoodledness now. Ha!

Regards PP:)