Please HELP I think I have done everything wrong!

Oh my goodness I simply don't know whether I have made a huge mistake and am totally confused. Here is brief history:-
1. Been in receipt of IB since 2000 with chronic anxiety and depression and a lot of problems besides.
2.Completed questionaire before finding this site and attended ATOS medical in Jul/Aug 2012 as part of conversion process
3. Notified Aug that ATOS had given 6 points and benefit would stop
Sept 28 2012
4.Found site and became member and followed guides to appeal while claiming assessment rate ESA
5.Tribunal 4.5.13 which I attended and was told I had been successful and given 18 points ie.6 points over 3 descriptors
6. Thought problems were over and waited for DWP to increase payments
7.Been pestering DWP and still waiting for any payment increases or backpay
8. DWp say no notce from tribunal to them and have involved MP to chase up who asked for copy of my letter to hurry things up
9.Looked again at my letter and this time noticed that it said I was to be put in WRAG group and have only just realised that this will mean work interviews and the like. Also tribunal recommend no further assessment for 2 years.

Here is my problem and why I am now terrified about everything after the initial euphoria thinking I had won and that everything would be back to normal - I would find attending interviews etc completely overwhelming and upsetting (a point which I felt the tribunal had recognised at the time) . As I was previously on IB since 2000 I am worried about my NI contributions and whether they now count as my understanding is that WRAG only entitles you to ESA contribution based for 365 days and that depends on previous 2 yrs contributions (are they considered if you have been on IB for over 10 years?). Therefore will my backdate actually mean that I owe them money? I will not qualify for Income related as I half own a holiday cottage with my brother which was gifted by my mother as part of her tax planning but this does not provide any income. In fact my income is so poor that I have gotten into debt since they stopped my IB in sept 2012 and put me on assessment phase ESA.

I have only just realised that it was not really a victory at all by being placed in WRAG and it is now more than 28 days since May 4th 2013 to appeal to be put in support group and now I am scared to death that the DWP will be asking me to pay back any ESA at the assessment phase .
I cant believe I have been so stupid for not realising that my win was a win with conditions. I do feel I shoukd be in the support group but is there anything I can do now. All of the stress so far has already taken its toll and I honestly thought I had won but now feel more stressewd than ever.

Hi beepeez,

Please try not to panic, I will answer your questions as best I can.

If the decision not to allow you ESA runs from Sept 28th 2012 then the tribunal result will also apply from that date.

As you were placed in WRAG, the 365 days allowed on contributory ESA will also run from 28th Sept, so you have not exhausted that allowance yet.

Rather than you owing DWP money, they owe you the difference between the assessment rate and WRAG (or the amount of IB you were previously getting, whichever is the greatest) from September 2012 until they start paying you the higher amount.

As you have been transferred from IB, you are deemed to have the necessary NI credits for contributory ESA.

It is sometimes possible to have Work Focussed Interviews carried out via the phone or, vary rarely, in your own home. When the first appointment letter arrives, from your local JobCentrePlus, you should phone and speak to the advisor about this. This course of action is entirely at the advisors discretion. Any activities asked of you should take into account your impairments.

Work Focussed Interviews

You can also be referred to the Work Program

Work Programme

As you said, it is too late to try and take this any further regarding this decision. However, as long as you remain on ESA (even if only receiving NI credits) you will be subject to periodic reassessments. it is possible that you could be put into the Support Group due to one of these in future and payment would recommence.

It is probably worth filling in the ESA3 to see whether you would actually qualify for income-related benefit. Failing this, you could try and get some face-to-face advice from somewhere like CAB. You could also look at the 'turn2us' website to see if there is anything else you might be able to claim.

Please come back to this topic thread if you have any further questions as it helps us to keep everything in one place.

Thank you so much I feel more calm after dissolving into tears just now. I can't believe I overlooked something so important but to be honest this whole process is draining, upsetting and extremely confusing especially when many of us have no confidence left anyway. Thank you for such a quick response.

Hi,
Been thinking about things over the weekend. Is there anything I could do to get into Support Group (as I feel I should be) even though I have missed the four week deadline since my tribunal on May 4th 2013? By the way I still have not received a letter or a bean from DWP regarding the outcome from my tribunal. Got a letter fro HM tribunals within a week but now after 8 weeks I have my MP chasing the DWP for backpay! Meanwhile totally broke, confused, depressed and stressed just like eveyone else here!!

forgot question mark on last post sorry

Hi beepeez,

I am afraid that there is an absolute limit of 4 weeks for requesting the Statement of Reasons from the Tribunal Service as a first step towards appealing. Even then, claimants can only take things further if they can demonstrate an 'Error of Law' at the Tribunal hearing.

The only way you would be able to access the Support Group is if you were placed into this group following a future reassessment. You can wait for the DWP to contact you (I would anticipate this being no later than 22 months following the first DWP decision)* or, if you can show that your condition has worsened since the first decision was made, you can contact DWP yourself and ask for a 'Supersession'.

If you were to ask for a Supersession, it would be up to you to prove that 1) Your condition has worsened and you now meet the Support Group criteria and 2) this has happened since the date of the first decision.

* You could phone DWP and ask whether the 'prognosis' is on your computer records. Forms are usually sent out a couple of months before this.