NS ESA

Hi we wanted to know howmany months before prognosis date due a review they choose to defer or not? Are they currently deferring peoples assessment due dates?

What we'd like to know if your review date is april 2026 how long before it would you know by phoning up if its been deferred? And are they deferring people at the moment? on NS ESA Contribution based

info wrote:

What we'd like to know if your review date is april 2026 how long before it would you know by phoning up if its been deferred? And are they deferring people at the moment? on NS ESA Contribution based

As above, there is a considerable backlog and the WCA date entered on the ESA system has little bearing at present on when your next WCA might be.

However, based on the information I have (via Subject Access Request / Right Of Access Request print outs:

When you have a WCA, the date of the next WCA is set from the date of your assessment and is usually based on the prognosis given by the health care professional at the assessment company. For example (based on my last WCA), the WCA happened on 29 April 2024 and the prognosis was 12 months. My next WCA date was therefore set as 29 April 2025. Due to the backlog situation, the WCA date was advanced by 2 years and it now shows as 29 April 2027. It;s impossible to say if I will have a WCA by then. Most likely (hopefully) not. Also note that the ESA system sets another date when the WCA date is set, this one being 8 weeks before the WCA date. This is (in theory) when the ESA50 (now WCA50) is meant to be automatically sent to you and is when your file is sent to the assessment provider. In practice, at the moment, this isn't happening and it is likely it is at this point that the deferral happens and the WCA date is changed. In my case, every deferral has always been for two years. The significance of the 8 weeks before the WCA date is that this is meant to allow enough time for the actual WCA process to happen, from the ESA50 being sent out to the actual assessment taking place to a report being written and a decision being made.

If you want to know what your next WCA date is, you'll need to phone up. If you are looking for the date if (like in my case) the WCA is deferred then you'll need to wait until either the WCA date has passed, or possibly the other date I mentioned (the one set for 8 weeks prior to your WCA date) has passed. In your case, as your WCA date is in April 2026, this would mean either waiting until then or possibly 8 weeks prior to then. If you phone now, you'll still get told the same date in April.

Incidentally, if anyone is wondering what happens in Universal Credit for people who have a work capability assessment, the above system for WCA dates and (in my case, two year) deferrals doesn't happen. The date of the last work capability assessment is noted on the system and the length of time of prognosis is also noted (in months) and that is it. No future WCA date is set as the prognosis time is all that is needed. As a result, no WCA deferrals are made (ie no future WCA date is set and therefore there is no need to amend a WCA date). All future UC50 / WCA50 action is done "behind the scenes" by a WCA team.