Appeal/WFI/ESA benefits.

Hiya,
We are as many of you in the midst of an appeal from WRAG to Support group.
My c arer, my husband called the Benefits Office & spoke to a nice chappie.
His response below is very good for all concerned.
1. Although we are all given a month to sort out paperwork to send in re an appeal, we are at present given approx 13 weeks to do so.
2.Whilst on an appeal, there are no , I repeat no stoppages or reductions on benefits i.e ESA payments.
3.Whilst on appeal,if it all goes over the 365 days, your payments will continue until Tribunals, etc are seen and dealt with.
4. You do not have to attend WFI meetings etc as long as they are notified you are doing an appeal and that it is on their computer.

This I trust is helpful and good news to those that are worried about the situation and all the rumours abound.

pusscatsmum wrote:

Hiya,
We are as many of you in the midst of an appeal from WRAG to Support group.
My c arer, my husband called the Benefits Office & spoke to a nice chappie.
His response below is very good for all concerned.
1. Although we are all given a month to sort out paperwork to send in re an appeal, we are at present given approx 13 weeks to do so.
2.Whilst on an appeal, there are no , I repeat no stoppages or reductions on benefits i.e ESA payments.
3.Whilst on appeal,if it all goes over the 365 days, your payments will continue until Tribunals, etc are seen and dealt with.
4. You do not have to attend WFI meetings etc as long as they are notified you are doing an appeal and that it is on their computer.

This I trust is helpful and good news to those that are worried about the situation and all the rumours abound.

Hi PCM,

Although the information that you have been given over the phone may seem gratifying to yourself and other members, as always such information is only as accurate as the knowledge base of the DWP employee who is on the other end of the phone.

1. As far as I am aware, there is still only a 1 month deadline from the date of any ESA award decision letter, for a claimant to make an appeal.

See page 10 of the GL24 Appeals Form from this link :

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/gl24dwp.pdf

Any appeal lodged after this 1 month deadline will be treated as a late appeal.

It is true that a late appeal can be lodged (see page 10 again) upto a maximum of 13 months after the date of the adverse decision letter, but there is no gurantee that this will be allowed and accepted.

So our advice regarding this matter is to adhere to the 1 month deadline.

2. It has always been the case that a claimant appealing an award of ESA in the WRAG, to gain entry into the Support Group, will still receive the WRAG rate of ESA for the duration of the appeals process.

3. As far as I am aware, a claimant's entitlement to Contributary ESA in the WRAG will cease after being in receipt of it for 365 days.

4. There is nothing written in the ESA regulations, that states that an appellant trying to gain entry to the SG from the WRAG will be exempt from having to attend WFI's or WRA. Many members have had to attend WFI/WRA, whilst appealing WRAG to SG.

A claimant cannot be compelled to attend WFI's or WRA if they are appealing a "Fit for work" decision, see :

Do I have to attend WFIs while I appeal?

And the link on the above page to the Benefit News article.

We are aware that some claimants are being informed by the DWP that they do not have to attend WFI's and WRA whilst appealling WRAG to SG, however, there is no legislation to cover this, and this "Procedural" decision seems to vary from area to area, and from one Benefits Office to another.

I am sorry that I seem to be putting a dampener on the content of your post, but these are the "Rules" as I know them.

If for some reason the ESA legislation has changed regarding the above, without my knowledge, I am sure one of the other Moderators will correct me.

Cheers

bro58

I can confirm that the information contained in the previous post is entirely correct, and as such there have been no amendments to the ESA regulations to countermand the original legislation.

Agree in part.
One can only state what one is told by a member of DWP. We have listed our times and dates and who we spoke to,from what location they are working from,for our records in case they in their wisdom change their minds or more likely call me a fibber. Well hubby really, as he talks to them as he is my carer.
As I mentioned, we have found by keeping in contact with them, although not the same person each time or the same location, I presume when they check on the computer on what was said previously to us, that is why they have continued to support the same explanation each time we have contacted them. It may be a postcode lottery situationI suppose.
I think we have spoken to DWP advisors the length and breadth of England over the last three months.

It is probably worth asking for anything they say on the phone to be confirmed in writing, so that you have some hard evidence if needed.

Hiya, Yep that makes sense.
We did mention that at two phone calls, but were told emphatically that that is beyond their remit.
So we have made sure we have what we can listed,we also found they are not at liberty to provide family last names either.
So our list has names like Sue from Honiton, John from Newcastle, Barrie from Doncaster etc etc.
Would be better if they let you just talk to your WFI advisor each time from your designated location, but this seems to be far from the norm. By the way our assessor for a desicion when we sort out our paperwork is from Doncaster, do they expect me to go from Dorset to Doncaster to see this man or will he be paid to come down to see me. Begs a question does it not - where this waste of our money is going amongst others?