Hi hope you are all as well as can be expected. I have been claiming esa for 9 weeks. I still have 4 weeks left of the assessment phase. Should I have received letter inviting me along to face to face assessment or do they wait until 13weeks is up. Also what is the chances I might not be asked to attend face to face and they just assess me on my ESA50 questionnaire. I did submit GP and MS Nurse letters with form both states how I had to give up work due to progression. Also had PIP assessment last year and receive enhanced rate for both care and mobility. Should I phone them as I can not think of anything else and stomach goes evertime I receive mailā¦ Also received letter from my Employer this week to say was dismissed due to ill health. This was to be expected as been off sick since january and told employer couldnt see me being able to work again. Should I inform DWP that i have now been dismissed.
Hi Violet
I donāt know how long they would typically take, and in fact Iām sure thereās no such thing as a time limit for them or an average time!
However, as for not having to have a face to face assessment, I didnāt. I was put into the support group on the ESA50 form alone together with supplementary evidence I provided.
And at that time (and still to date), Iād not been migrated from DLA to PIP. So in actual fact, Iāve never had a face to face assessment for Incapacity Benefit, ESA or DLA. Every one has been based on the forms. (And Iām keeping my fingers well and truly crossed that my luck holds up when I am migrated to PIP.)
I should think itās a good idea to send the DWP a copy of your employers letter. But keep your covering letter quite brief, donāt highlight the fact that youāve not had a face to face assessment; assume your ESA payments keep going until and unless they tell you otherwise.
Obviously, this is my opinion, not necessarily exactly what will happen. If you want to check the rules, hereās the link to the CAB guide: Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) - Citizens Advice or you may have already joined http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/
Sue
Thanks Sue. Its just waiting again to go for assessment making me very anxious. And I am wary of phoning them just in case they are not planning on sending me for face to face. My call might end up triggering an appointment x
I migrated from DLA to ESA and didnāt have a āface to faceā - and I know two people that have serious mental health conditions who did not get called for interviews either - their GPs were just contacted to confirm they had chronic conditions.
Soā¦
Do you mean DLA to PIP or IB to ESA?
Thatās always the way my paranoia works too, thatās why Iād avoid too much contact until they make contact with me. Not saying Iām right, just wary of anything the dam DWP do!!
with all the benefit changes, no wonder folk are getting confused.
IB to ESA to which ever group they place you
DLA to PIP with differing levels
where`s that darkened room?
pollx
The fog is lifting.
Okay, so IB becomes ESA.
On the face to face interview debate: what is the aim or logic of a face to face interview - why is needed?
There is already legislation on MS under the Equality Act 2010.
āYouāre disabled under the Equality Act 2010 if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a āsubstantialā and ālong-termā negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities.ā
On āProgressive conditionsā ā¦
"A progressive condition is one that gets worse over time. People with progressive conditions can be classed as disabled.
However, you automatically meet the disability definition under the Equality Act 2010 from the day youāre diagnosed with HIV infection, cancer or multiple sclerosis."
Perhaps this is why - if we just say [and provide evidence that we have MS] we are automatically put in the ESA Support Group - without a face to face interview.
Just guessing here.
Yes, you can automatically be classed as disabled once diagnosed with MS (although thatās a matter of choice), it means you are covered for example by the Disability Discrimination Act.
But, just having a diagnosis of MS, and therefore being disabled, does not automatically put you into the support group for ESA. Being put into the support group is more to do with your personal circumstances with regard to your ability to work.
So the need for a face to face assessment is based not on your having MS (or not), or any other diagnosed condition, itās got more to do with the way youāve completed the ESA50 form and the evidence youāve supplied to back up your statements. Letters from neurologists, MS nurse, physiotherapists, GP, other professionals can all be used to support your statements. And of course, having a documented diagnosis of MS is part of that.
So the news this week that once put into the support group, and given the presence of a degenerative condition that isnāt likely to have improved your ability to work, means that you wonāt be asked for another assessment again. How this will work in practice hasnāt been declared. And of course, if the DWP in their wisdom decide to scrap ESA and replace it with yet another benefit with completely different rules, all bets will be off as far as future assessments are concerned.
The fact remains that the aim of everyone who is significantly disabled as a result of MS, and who claims ESA, is to be placed in the support group. So when claiming, it makes sense to either get help with the ESA50 form, or use a good guide to help you through it, such as one from the CAB, Benefits and Work or another reputable source. And the same applies if you are asked to go for a face to face assessment.
Sue
pollx,
dont forget the disability discrimination act, which is now the equalities act
my brain hurts
paul
Sue - for your file.
A govt. report on of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and Work-Focused Health-Related Assessment (WFHRA). These form parts of the assessment process for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
This report is from 2010 - I wonder have the descriptors changed since then??
Here are some comments in the report re MS.
āAnother condition identified as being problematic in the WCA was multiple sclerosis (MS) and several HCPs said that claimants with MS were difficult to score above the 15-point threshold for entitlement to benefit, despite substantial difficulties with locomotion and limb co-ordination which meant that they felt they were not well enough to workā (page 28)
Andā¦
"HCPs stated that they were seeing many more severely disabled claimants than they previously had in PCAs (under IB, fewer of these claimants would have been called for a face-to-face assessment) and some had found that some severe disabilities, such as generalised motor impairment due to degenerative conditions, were incompatible with the guidelines and descriptors, which made the assessments more difficult.
āI think the fact that we examine people with very significant disabilities that donāt fit into the guidelines and descriptors that we work with. Itās difficult, as a nurse, to see people that are quite unwell but with all the information that weāve got, they donāt fit into categories for ESA.ā (Atos Healthcare HCP) Some HCPs also felt that the WCA dealt less well with customers with multiple conditions, as this quote illustrates: āSome of the ones that weāve been aware of were customers with multiple conditions, multiple physical conditions, all of which are mildly disabling but in combination are quite difficult.ā (Atos Healthcare HCP)" (Page 28)
"5.5.4 The WCA compared to the PCA Staff who had previously worked under Incapacity Benefit (IB) recognised that the WCA was intentionally stricter than the Personal Capability Assessment (PCA) and that the threshold for benefit eligibility has risen significantly. However, in some cases, staff felt the WCA had gone too far the other way. Although overall, staff were very positive about the move to ESA, some HCPs felt they would like the option of temporarily scoring a customer above the threshold in the short term while they were either recovering from or waiting for an operation, undergoing treatment or experiencing severe mental health conditions. Some conditions, such as severe mental health conditions and some learning disabilities were noted to be better assessed by the WCA, but others such as cancer, fluctuating conditions, and multiple sclerosis (MS), were seen as harder to assess with the WCA." (page 49)