Incapacity stopped - claim ESA ?

hjb123

Feeling ready to scream today, getting different advice wherever I turn!

Had an IB medical and failed it therefore my IB has been stopped.

Have been advised to claim ESA in the meantime while I appeal - what is the process for claiming ESA while waiting for an appeal? Do I have to send in sicknote or will a letter from doctor do stating what my illness is? Will I have to have a medical in order to claim ESA?

Any informatino on the ESA claim process gratefully received, am just getting so lost and wound up with it all

thanks

sunnyone

hjb123 wrote: »

Feeling ready to scream today, getting different advice wherever I turn!

Had an IB medical and failed it therefore my IB has been stopped.

Have been advised to claim ESA in the meantime while I appeal - what is the process for claiming ESA while waiting for an appeal? Do I have to send in sicknote or will a letter from doctor do stating what my illness is? Will I have to have a medical in order to claim ESA?

Any informatino on the ESA claim process gratefully received, am just getting so lost and wound up with it all

thanks

if you have failed an IB medical you dont have a chance of coming close to passing an ESA medical because its much, much harder and it deals with what you can do and not what you cant as IB did.

You used to claim reduced IS when you appealed a IB medical but I dont know if thats still possible or if you fulfil the other criteria for claiming IS.

hjb123

thanks for that, Im just so wound up with the whole process

i read somewhere that while the appeal is ongoing i can claim either jobseekers allowance or esa. with jobseekers i would have to say I am fit and able to work - but Im not able to commit to many hours due to illness and this was highlighted when I tried to apply for JSA instead of going through the appeals process

the thing is if they would help me I would be able to few hours but I just dont seem to fit into any categories etc

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i'm not sure (i know it applies to IS) that if you fail a medical, and appeal, then you can kepp recieving IB at a reduced rate whilst appeal is ongoing. but financially its a pittence rate and wont cover much of your outgoings, you can claim jobseekers, at interview explain that you are awaiting an appeal and decision for IB, they will guide you through the rest. at the rate appeals and tribunal are at the moment, dont expect things to be over and done with soon. theres a huge backlog of tribunal cases so you could expect atleast a 6-14 month wait to have a tribunal hearing giving you ample time to seek advice from cab, or shelter they have ben advisers and some shelter offices will also represent you in tribunal, cab is a hit and miss on whether they can represent you as resourses are very limited unfortunately.

during you waiting to hear of an appointment phase, ask via letter to your local DWP IB department for all documentation including the medical report so you can take it along to CAB/shelter to go through, any supporting documents that you have about your illness(s) from consultants and doctors specialists, this will be your evodence that you can submit, also any whitness statements from friends that know your illness how it affects your day to day living (its impotant not for them to over do the statment) tell them to keep it brief but informative also focusing on the things you struggle with daily.

the tribanal cant considder anything "after the fact" and only for the period of your claim till they suspended it. so after they suspended the claim and say for e.g. you had an appointment for a new consultant who says i say you have this and shouldnt work at all and i recomend these tabs and this operation etc they wont considder this as its "after the fact" (to give you a full brief rundown on what they can and cant do). if anything like this does happen this is considdered a "NEW" illness/disabilty and after you've been to the tribunal if it dont go in your favour you can then make a new claim to IB based Apon the fact of a different illness/disability. i know you havent mentioned a new illness etc but to give you an idea of how the system works in regards to anything outside of your claim of original IB claim.

many poeple think that because they have been diagnosed ill or broke an arm during the tribunal waiting game that this will automatically be considdered in a tribunal and it isnt as the tribunal and atos med staff can only go on info provided to them through your claim. hence why everything should be added to your original claim at the first instance by informing as and when.

did you have anyone with you at the medical? its advised you have someone at them for support whitness purposes if so sit down with them and when you get the med report from DWP go through it together making sure that the questions asked were the answers you gave in respond. if not then not all is lost it just means that you have a harder job of trying to remember the answers you give.

enabledebra

Your options are to claim JSA or Income support at 20% of the usual rate. IB claimants failing the PCA used to be able to claim ESA whilst awaiting appeal but the regulations were amended to stop this earlier in the year.

Claiming JSA instead of IS won't harm your IB appeal and is paid at the full usual rate rather than reduced as IS but you would need to sign on etc.