ESA Renewal

When I was going through IB to ESA I was awarded WRAG. I appealed and managed to get the decision overturned at the Mandatory revision stage and was awarded Support Group with a review in 3.5 years. It did not help the DWP that the F2F report referred to me as "him" instead of "her".

Two weeks ago I received the ESA 50 renewal form but over the years I had kept my records up to date and it was a case of pulling everything together. I posted the form back and it is now a waiting game.

But I have been reading this forum for a while and it has often been said to treat the ESA 50 as a new claim and resend all medical evidence as there is a chance that the people at
Maximus will only see the new ESA 50 and not any of the previous medical reports.

I had a letter attached to my ESA 50 and they specifically said "*PLEASE SEND RECENT INFORMATION, NOT DOCUMEMTS THAT WE MAY ALREADY HOLD*" (this was a handwritten note on the letter and and all in caps. Basically any copies of any previous medical reports that they would already have on file from the previous ESA50. They also said that they did not want copies of appointment cards, xrays, etc. All the DWP wanted was the completed ESA 50 and a copy of my medical prescription.

When I think about this the first thing DWP will do is send my paperwork to Maximus but they will have no idea about the three previous years when the actual diagnosis was made.

The one thing I did though was write down all the appointments I have attended during the last 3.5 years. And as I see a Neurologist (every 3 months), Rheumatologist (every 6 months), Pain Clinic (every 4 months) and a Psichatarist (every four months) there was quite a list.

I have just got to hope that DWP send my whole file to Maximus, with the old medical evidence, as well as the new paperwork.

I attend a f2f late December 2016 where I was asked what medication I was taking, and names of Consultants/Doctors I was seeing. I was asked to touch my nose and then the f2f ended. A round trip of 160km (I live in Spain). So now it was down to the waiting game. Brown envelope received this morning an have been placed into the support group again with a review in 2 years. So people with fibromyalgia should not give up. But thanks for all your wonderful guides.

But I am now going through the DLA to PIP with the form waiting to be completed. Since I rang the number given originally to enable the PIP2 to be sent I have received two "courtesy calls" asking me how I am getting on with the form and that they will make a note on the system to call me in a month times to see if I am OK. I do not have MH problems so strange.

But thanks for help in enabling my Support Group to be renewed.