Help advice with ESA

mikee. wrote: »

Thanks for your reply poppy I've edited it and hopefully it's a little better, some of the reason's I hope are clear in my post but perhaps a better way to put it is that it just seem's futile. Also that I find it hard to leave the house and going to the doctor's and any other such place is daunting. I start to shake profusely in certain situation's and it's gotten so bad I even so much as almost forget how to physically put one leg in front of the other or my brain stop's working, once I'm out of the house and had an anxiety attack like that it doesn't go away. I guess I could send the letter by special delivery if they will accept it that way.

Yes better to read, thanks. Do you not have anyone to support you when you go out? My concern is that you haven't filled that form in and you only have 3 days left for it to arrive and they're very complex to fill in. I always advice others to get help to do this and always have help from CAB when i have mine. They're very strict with ESA50 forms and they won't extend the time either. You can try recorded delivery (signed for) it will still take the same amount of time to get to the correct department but at least it will be signed for to say it's arrived, it may or may not help. Others may have some advice for you. Good luck.

Ok, I read all that, And I note from your other reply to my questions what your sick note says.

A few facts for you:
1. You have been granted an entitlement to ESA, And assuming you did claim the correct one which is ESA IR, and not claimed only ESA Conts. You will -or should be- entitled to payment of ESA but you will need sick notes to get paid. You say you sent one in for 2 weeks... Well that should have gotten you 1 week of payment, £57 - £73 if you have not had payment it means they did not receive your sick note, you should phone ESA and ask them if was received and if payment was issued..if not why not... You should then get a new sick note from the **same doctor ** who will be able to back date your sicknote to the expiry date of the 1st one, you should then hand the sicknote in to the jobcentre who should scan it to ESA... If you do this you should get a few weeks of payment from the start of your claim.

2. You have 3 days to return your ESA50. However, as your sicknote says depression, the deadline for the ESA50 does not apply to you, it will not matter if it is late. But obviously, you need to get it done by someone who can help as soon as possible. This is why your previous claims to ESA were not closed for fail to return form, I assume from what you wrote above, you made a claim to ESA, you did not send any sick notes, you did not get paid (because you did not send sick notes) you did not return the ESA50 and the DWP did not close your claim for Fail to return the ESA50 (because you have mental health issue) instead they eventually closed your claim for FTA. You can confirm this by phoning CHDA and asking them is my referral marked with Mental Health = yes? Or ask ESA to confirm this for you. But at the end of the day if your sick note does say that and that is the medical condition on which your claim was made, then it should say "yes" to mental health whether or not you can get anyone to actually confirm it to you.

2a. Also CHDA can help you to fill in the ESA50 over the phone 0800 2 888777 they will make an appointment with you to call you back, where upon you can dictate your answers to the questions to them, they can explain what the questions mean but they cannot advise you what to say. They are not impartial like the C.A.B. would be so you might not want to do it this way, but if you really are stuck then this will be better than not returning the form at all.

3. I am not an expert in filling out an ESA50 for Mental Health, so I am not going to comment on that. Others here should be able to advise on that, or you should go and see your local MIND (if there is one) or local Welfare Rights office or local CAB office.


4. To be sure not to miss the next WCA (medical) you should ensure that any change of address is notified by you to ESA.
You should also make sure ESA and CHDA 0800 2 888777 have your correct mobile number.
You should also phone CHDA 0800 2 888777 every week on the same day every week and ask them "Has an appointment been made for me yet?" if you do this, it will be impossible for you to not be aware of when your medical assessment appointment will be.