ESA awarded Feb 2012 - what next

My wife moved from IB to ESA in Feb2012. We submitted a 50 page application with every point cross-referenced to a copy of a letter from a consultant. She was not called for an assessment, and placed in the support group.

Am I correct that the award is for a maximum of 2 years, and she will be "invited" to re apply in Feb 2014 ?

We are now sitting on 80 pages of letters and notes, and counting. This time they are already scanned and indexed, I have a personal goal of returning the ESA form within 48 hours.

On a related note, despite 2 recorded delivery letters, the decision maker has ignored requests under the DPA. I just got worn down

I am glad to hear that your wife was placed in the ESA Support Group without a face2face assessment, thank you for letting us know.

Unlike DLA/PIP, ESA is an open-ended award. It can be reassessed at any stage from 3 months following the decision. Claimants in the WRAG have a maximum of 2 years before reassessment, those in the Support Group have a maximum of 3 years. The claimant is not routinely notified when to expect reassessment but it should be on the DWP computer screen. Your wife can phone and ask for the 'prognosis', this will be the expected period before reassessment (although forms will be sent out aprox 4 months prior to this).

MSHusband wrote: My wife moved from IB to ESA in Feb2012. We submitted a 50 page application with every point cross-referenced to a copy of a letter from a consultant. She was not called for an assessment, and placed in the support group.

Am I correct that the award is for a maximum of 2 years, and she will be "invited" to re apply in Feb 2014 ?

We are now sitting on 80 pages of letters and notes, and counting. This time they are already scanned and indexed, I have a personal goal of returning the ESA form within 48 hours.

On a related note, despite 2 recorded delivery letters, the decision maker has ignored requests under the DPA. I just got worn down

Hi MSH,

I am currently aware of several ESA recipients where the end of the recommended prognosis period has come and gone. They have not yet received a fresh ESA50 for reassessment.

With respect to your SAR, if the DWP have failed to comply twice, you could complain to The ICO :

www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

bro58

I am glad to hear that your wife was placed in the ESA Support Group without a face2face assessment, thank you for letting us know.

I am convinced it was because every single question on the form was answered with a reference to an independent source - mainly letters from consultants. We've always been paranoid about keeping every letter that goes to the GP, and these usually have a summary of the state of the MS and how it's affecting various aspects of health.

I hope the second the bundle dropped on whoevers desk, they realised there was no point in questioning a single statement.

I also ran the pack through the printer a second time, so every page had a header of my wifes NI number, the date, and Page x of y.

Years of dealing with government bureaucracy has trained us well.

bro58 wrote:

MSHusband wrote: My wife moved from IB to ESA in Feb2012. We submitted a 50 page application with every point cross-referenced to a copy of a letter from a consultant. She was not called for an assessment, and placed in the support group.

Am I correct that the award is for a maximum of 2 years, and she will be "invited" to re apply in Feb 2014 ?

We are now sitting on 80 pages of letters and notes, and counting. This time they are already scanned and indexed, I have a personal goal of returning the ESA form within 48 hours.

On a related note, despite 2 recorded delivery letters, the decision maker has ignored requests under the DPA. I just got worn down

Hi MSH,

I am currently aware of several ESA recipients where the end of the recommended prognosis period has come and gone. They have not yet received a fresh ESA50 for reassessment.

With respect to your SAR, if the DWP have failed to comply twice, you could complain to The ICO :

www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

bro58

I wonder if we are drifting back to the old system. My wife has MS which has moved from relapsing remitting to secondary progressive. She is now registered partially sighted, which is more a paper thing, as her vision was very poor in 2012 when we completed the ESA50. This is a condition which is not going to improve, unless there is a dramatic medical discovery. If there is no benefit to the outfit doing the assessment to simply confirm a chronic condition hasn't improved, maybe they just won't re assess ?

I'll try the ICO - thanks.

MSHusband wrote:

bro58 wrote:

MSHusband wrote: My wife moved from IB to ESA in Feb2012. We submitted a 50 page application with every point cross-referenced to a copy of a letter from a consultant. She was not called for an assessment, and placed in the support group.

Am I correct that the award is for a maximum of 2 years, and she will be "invited" to re apply in Feb 2014 ?

We are now sitting on 80 pages of letters and notes, and counting. This time they are already scanned and indexed, I have a personal goal of returning the ESA form within 48 hours.

On a related note, despite 2 recorded delivery letters, the decision maker has ignored requests under the DPA. I just got worn down

Hi MSH,

I am currently aware of several ESA recipients where the end of the recommended prognosis period has come and gone. They have not yet received a fresh ESA50 for reassessment.

With respect to your SAR, if the DWP have failed to comply twice, you could complain to The ICO :

www.ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

bro58

I wonder if we are drifting back to the old system. My wife has MS which has moved from relapsing remitting to secondary progressive. She is now registered partially sighted, which is more a paper thing, as her vision was very poor in 2012 when we completed the ESA50. This is a condition which is not going to improve, unless there is a dramatic medical discovery. If there is no benefit to the outfit doing the assessment to simply confirm a chronic condition hasn't improved, maybe they just won't re assess ?

I'll try the ICO - thanks.

Hi MSH,

I very much doubt that we will return to an "exempt" category, as with the IB PCA.

Current delays are probably down to the fact that ATOS are in turmoil, and both they and the DWP have huge back logs.

Let us remember that the whole IB,IS & SDA migration to ESA process is supposed to be completed by Spring 2014, I think not !!!!

bro58