ESA appeal and court judgement.

I am a general advisor with an advice agency (which is itself a member of this website) and I am an individual member. This came up and I wondered if anyone has any thoughts on it. The DWP made a decision in February 2012 which was appealed. That decision was set aside at the appeal. The appeal was heard in February 2013 - exactly, to the day, 1 year later. The appeal was won with the tribunal (first-tier) commenting that it had found for the appellant on exactly the same set of facts that the DWP had used. The tribunal also RECOMMENDED that the appellant should NOT be reassessed for at least 12 months. Within 3 months the appellant received an ESA50 to begin the assessment process all over again.

MY question is, should the recommendation run from the date of the appeal (Feb 2013) when the tribunal said, "the appellant should not be reassessed for at least 12 months" or does it run from the date of the original decision 12 months earlier?

It seems mad that the tribunal should make that particular recommendation at the end of the relevant period. Does anyone have any thoughts, advice, please?

Hi emjay,

The tribunals started making these recommendations regarding reassessment to try and prevent the 'revolving door' situation of claimants starting the procedure all over again shortly after the appeal.

However, there are 2 associated problems -

Firstly, as tribunal decisions remake the original ones, DWP date reassessment periods from the date of the original assessment (as they do for all other claimants)

Secondly, these are only recommendations, they carry no weight in law and DWP are free to ignore them

Thanks for that, both. I understand the rationale that has been described. However, from the claimants point of view it's bonkers! He/She gets a notice of decisions, one of which says that no further assessment is necessary for 12 months. "Good, lets get on with our lives." Then discovers that the 12 month referred to by the tribunal started..... 12 months ago. It's Alice in Wonderland.

It seems mad that the tribunal should make that particular recommendation at the end of the relevant period. Does anyone have any thoughts, advice, please?

It's a pity the First-tier Tribunal only made a recommendation. I used to sit on Tribunals, but only for DLA and AA. A Tribunal is a Court of Law albeit an informal one, and it does have the power to make directions as well as recommendations.

Whether or not ESA Tribunals do this I don't know. However, all Tribunals should follow the same rules of law whatever jurisdiction they sit in.