ESA

Hi I was wondering if someone could help me I was working until September and then started claiming ESA in febuary this year it's income ESA, I filled in the medical questionnaire and sent back does the weeks start from when you sent the form or received or when I started claiming ESA?
I have now been ones a for 21 weeks would you contact them about the outcome and if I have been put in a group?
I won my pip in April this year enhanced on both mobility and living?
If anyone can give me advice as I am struggling to know the process of this thanks penny

Hi Penny and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

Your ESA claim started on the day you made the initial phone call. Few claimants have a decision made before the end of 13 weeks. Most people wait several months, occasionally much longer.

At this stage you do not know whether you will need a face2face assessment or not. You can contact Maximus/HAAS and ask how your claim is progressing (you can do this by phone or email, whichever you prefer).

Contact Maximus

When a decision is made, payment of the additional money will be backdated to the first day of week 14 of your claim.

Our ESA guide explains the criteria against which you will be assessed and how the process works.

ESA claims and appeals

You might want to favourite/bookmark this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future. This will allow you to return with further questions/comments without having to start a new topic each time. It helps us enormously when everything relating to the same claim is kept in one place - and I hope you will find it useful too

thank you for your response, i contacted them and said it was still with medical services?? but yesterday someone rang me and asked if i could attend a face to face assessment for esa, I said no i it was to short notice and i needed a carer at the meeting, I rang my carer straight after and he said he could come, when i tried to contact back this was not an easy process the number they rang was 0800 number and would not connect, i rang ESA and they had no record of it?? and gave me the medical services number rang them and spoke to them explained what had happened gave her the 0800 number she also could not recognise? and said that my paper work was still with the medical services for they had not received anything and had no record of an appointment been offered?? now i was totally confused and she said not to worry and an appointment would be sent in due course with a letter, i was amazed that i had received a phone call and no one had any record of it?
i am panicking about it all, and stressed that i have to do the face to face assessment all over again, i have been reading your guides which help me but still very nervous of having to do this all over again.
thank you for your support appreciate it penny

You do not have to accept any appointment that gives less than 7 days notice - although this does include time it takes to reach you in the post. Nor do you have to accept anything that would take you more than 90 minutes to reach by public transport (that is just used to work out travelling time, it doesn't matter whether you actually use public transport or not).

DWP ESA dept will not have any information regarding the progress of your claim while it is with the medical service (Maximus/ HAAS). However, it is reasonable to expect that something on your records with Maximus would indicate that someone had phoned you!

I do hope that this does not drag on too much ;longer for you.