ESA Appeal Time Limits

Hi,
Please can anyone advise, I have chronic ME and was moved from IB to the wrag group in March and have appealed to be put in the support group. I have used the B&W guides to the letter.

I sent in my completed GL24 plus 2 additional sheets pertaining to question 8 including that I would send further evidence when I had received the documents used to assess me. Along with these I also sent a copy of the template letter asking for all documents related to my case as stated in the B&W guide... that was 56 days ago and I have not received any of the documents pertaining to my appeal.

My question is; It says in the guide that the DWP have a time limit of a maximum of 40 days to respond to this request I wondered if this was a legal requirement and what happens if they do not? Can this be used as a point of law at appeal? And should I write again and ask for these?

I did receive an acknowledgement that my appeal had been received from the DWP within the 14 days and would be reconsidered by the decision maker which I then replied to with a brief letter re the work related interviews enclosing another doctors letter stating his concern that making me go to these interviews would exacerbate my condition but have heard nothing back since. My personal adviser carried out the interview on the phone and said I do not have to attend interviews till after my appeal has been heard. As others will know the stress of waiting is seriously affecting my health.

Hi, and welcome to the Forum.

Any request for personal information, whether by letter, or on a SAR Form should be treated as a formal request under The Data Protection Act 1998.

As such, the DWP should comply with any such request within 40 calendar days. (although they often don't)

You could now give them a nudge by threatening to complain to ICO, this may do the trick, as in the post below :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=top...7688&start=12#103865

See also :

Sending Documents to the DWP or ATOS

SAR :

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/request-for-personal-information.rtf

From this page :

www.dwp.gov.uk/privacy-policy/data-protection/

www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

bro58

Hi V,

Did you send the SAR request in with the appeal? It is usually better to send it seperately, clearly marked as a SAR request as it is dealt with by a different department from the appeal. That might be why you have not recieved the documents you asked for. You can always phone DWP to see what is happeneing but I think you might need to send another specific SAR request ( if you have not already done so).

I am afraid that not getting these documents at this stage will not count as grounds for your appeal but you can complain to the Data Comissioner if a formal SAR request is not dealt with in the allotted timescale.

Now that you have sent in your appeal, and any additional evidence for the reconsideration, then all you can do is wait. Reconsiderations are taking anything from a few weeks to some months. My own took 6 months.

As an aside, it looks as if your username might be your real name. If you wish to change this, in order to maintain some anonymity, you can do so by following the steps in this FAQ

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Please come back to this thread/topic if you have further questions or comments. You will be able to find it easily in future if you bookmark it or make it a favourite now

Edit - I see that I cross posted with bro. Please take his reply on the SAR issue as being the definitive reply as he is more knowledgeable than me!

Just to add,

If your forum name is also your real name, you may wish to change it to maintain some anonymity.

This can be done quite easily by following the instructions on this FAQ

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bro58