length of support group inclusion

Hello my son has recenly been transfereed from incapcity to esa and was put into the support group without a medical for which we as a family owe this site a lot of credit. i do not want to sound ungrateful but his lenght of inclusion was only 12 months. without going into to much of his medical hisory my son has suffered from severe depression for 20 years, has had ECT stays in mental health wards, has taken two significant overdoses in last two years and seriously self harms on a regular basis requring hospital treatment. He also suffers from arthritis which prevents him being able to walk far at all. To underline this he currently receives DLA higher rates for both care and mobility. All his proffessional people involed in his care have given good supporting letters and mentioned that he is unlikely to ever recover comletely regarding his mental health and any medication and care is probably aimed at improving his quality of life rather than cure him. He list of medication is overwhelming and this alone sedates him so much he often falls over, effects his memory and concentration tremendously. He was also attended a medical reveiw recently regards his company ill health pension which was given by CAPITA of all people who again confirmed that he is unlikely to ever recover etc. My question is, surely faced with such overwhelimng evidence is he only included for 12 months? and have you heard of anyone actually unhappy enough to ask the DWP to reconsider the lenght of award? I know there are thousands of people who would gladly except this award and i do not wish to antagonise anyone with this post but the stress that another set of forms in 12 months time will have such a negative impact on his health again. I have requested 85a etc and other forms from the dwp to try and understand how this descision was reached. Good luck to all those people still awaiting their descision and id recomend to anyone who is yet to transfer or re test, to follow this sites guides maticulously as we have done.

skyblue wrote: Hello my son has recenly been transfereed from incapcity to esa and was put into the support group without a medical for which we as a family owe this site a lot of credit. i do not want to sound ungrateful but his lenght of inclusion was only 12 months. without going into to much of his medical hisory my son has suffered from severe depression for 20 years, has had ECT stays in mental health wards, has taken two significant overdoses in last two years and seriously self harms on a regular basis requring hospital treatment. He also suffers from arthritis which prevents him being able to walk far at all. To underline this he currently receives DLA higher rates for both care and mobility. All his proffessional people involed in his care have given good supporting letters and mentioned that he is unlikely to ever recover comletely regarding his mental health and any medication and care is probably aimed at improving his quality of life rather than cure him. He list of medication is overwhelming and this alone sedates him so much he often falls over, effects his memory and concentration tremendously. He was also attended a medical reveiw recently regards his company ill health pension which was given by CAPITA of all people who again confirmed that he is unlikely to ever recover etc. My question is, surely faced with such overwhelimng evidence is he only included for 12 months? and have you heard of anyone actually unhappy enough to ask the DWP to reconsider the lenght of award? I know there are thousands of people who would gladly except this award and i do not wish to antagonise anyone with this post but the stress that another set of forms in 12 months time will have such a negative impact on his health again. I have requested 85a etc and other forms from the dwp to try and understand how this descision was reached. Good luck to all those people still awaiting their descision and id recomend to anyone who is yet to transfer or re test, to follow this sites guides maticulously as we have done.

Hi sb,

I'm glad to hear that you son was placed into The SG.

Thank you for your positive comments regarding B&W.

Unlike DLA where you can appeal the length of an award, you cannot do this with ESA.

The prognosis, (recommended length of time before reassessment) is only a recommendation, and you therefore have no legal right to challenge it.

You could of course query why a 12 months prognosis has been made ?

The longest SG award that we are aware of is 3 years.

bro58

Can I just state that this process is so demoralising, my appeal to be placed in the support group was upheld last March after waiting 18 months for the appeal to be heard. I didn't know that it would be reveiwed until I received the form through the post on the day that I returned home from the hospice were my mother had just passed away.
I have secondary progresive MS, if and when a 'cure' is found I want to be the first to be told and when I can , with rehab, will return to work quite gladly. In the mean time why oh why have they got to stress me with the same questions that wohn't and will not change for the better

cazdaw wrote: Can I just state that this process is so demoralising, my appeal to be placed in the support group was upheld last March after waiting 18 months for the appeal to be heard. I didn't know that it would be reveiwed until I received the form through the post on the day that I returned home from the hospice were my mother had just passed away.
I have secondary progresive MS, if and when a 'cure' is found I want to be the first to be told and when I can , with rehab, will return to work quite gladly. In the mean time why oh why have they got to stress me with the same questions that wohn't and will not change for the better

hi c,

Sorry to hear of the bad news regarding your Mother.

Not very good timing by ATOS.

The whole ethos of ESA is to carry out regular reassessments, which IMO is a waste of tax payers money in some cases.

The say that the claimant may have adapted better to their limitations or they may have been prescribed new medication, that diminishes their limitations.

I understand exactly where you are coming from, though.

I don't know whether you have recently received this new ESA50, if you have you should be aware of the different ESA claims Guides, as seen here :

ESA Claims Guides

bro58