ESA APPEAL

peter wrote: having previous been in support group, recently, had face to face on 22nd sept, letter came back telling me i had been put in wrag, as a change in circumstance, unknown to me as i have had hemiperris since birth, had 15pts last time after tribunal no points difference mentioned in letter, this time should i query decision.

Do you believe that you meet one or more of the SG Descriptors?

If you do then you might want to consider challenging the Decision. I believe that Hemiperris means that you have some level of paralysis down one side of the body, so one of the questions you need to ask yourself is can you reasonably complete the ESA Descriptors using the unaffected side of your body, as this is undoubtedly something that the assessor and Decision Maker have looked at.

If you do want to challenge the Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our ESA MR & Appeal guide for details of the process and template letters that you can use to make the request with.

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

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report(ESA85), if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon