Unusual Correspondence Received

Hi all,

Last week my social worker received a strange piece of correspondence, which I am somewhat unsure as to how to deal with.

The matter relates to my on-going assessment of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). I am presently placed in the Work Related Activity Group and receive the Severe Disability Premium (SDP). In March 2019 I was requested to complete an ESA-50 questionnaire, with this being returned to Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) a month later. My social worker then produced some additional supporting evidence for my claim at the beginning of October, with this being revised with more information at the end of November. These letters were submitted by myself electronically, on his behalf to the CHDA directly, and in submitting this further evidence I had highlighted to the CHDA how the newer letter should supersede the previous one from October. This evidence was submitted twice, and on both occasions, despite the CHDA receiving and reading said e-mails, I was not provided with a formal response.

In any case, last week my social worker received this ambiguous letter from the CHDA, which read as follows:

"Thank you for your letter, in which you have expressed concerns regarding your clients ESA assessment.

I would like to explain that the CHDA customer relations team are responsible for investigating any issues arising from the service we provide to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

If a person other than the customer is expressing dissatisfaction with our service, under the terms of the Data Protection Act we will not be able to investigate or correspond with a third party regarding their concerns without the customer's signed authority.

In view of the above, I would be grateful if [the claimant] could complete the 'About you' section on the last page of the attached booklet and return to us in the prepaid envelope provided.

Would would appreciate a response as soon as possible in order that we can proceed with our investigations.'

Accompanying the letter was a small, A5-sized booklet entitled "Tell us what you think! HAAS Comments, complaints and suggestions".

As far as I am aware, my social worker has not lodged any sort of complaint/concern about my claim, and following a telephone call the appointments team were similarly unaware of any sort of complaint being flagged on their systems.

I would therefore be grateful for any advice on how I should proceed with this.

Many thanks.