Esa (work related group)

red_girl

Hi,
I am looking for a little bit of advice i have been on incapacity benefit since 1999 and i recently have gone through the transfer to esa.
I attended a medical and on the 15th October i was awarded esa in the work related group.
Today i had to go and see an advisor at the jobcentre plus to do the work related interview.
She seemed to think that i should have been placed in the support group and that i should appeal the decision.
The problem i have is that i am outside of the month time limit for an appeal but she says it will be ok as long as i name her and that i was not aware that i could appeal the decision on the grounds of what group i was placed in.
The concern i have is that at an appeal could i lose the award for esa at the work related group. My advisor said that i would not lose the award.


Any Advise welcome

Thanks

in_for_a_penny_3

red_girl wrote: »

Hi,
I am looking for a little bit of advice i have been on incapacity benefit since 1999 and i recently have gone through the transfer to esa.
I attended a medical and on the 15th October i was awarded esa in the work related group.
Today i had to go and see an advisor at the jobcentre plus to do the work related interview.
She seemed to think that i should have been placed in the support group and that i should appeal the decision.
The problem i have is that i am outside of the month time limit for an appeal but she says it will be ok as long as i name her and that i was not aware that i could appeal the decision on the grounds of what group i was placed in.
The concern i have is that at an appeal could i lose the award for esa at the work related group. My advisor said that i would not lose the award.


Any Advise welcome

Thanks

I cannot answer your query, but have a similar one myself. I do think they confuse us all of the time

red_girl

in_for_a_penny wrote: »

I cannot answer your query, but have a similar one myself. I do think they confuse us all of the time

Ye they never make it easy to understand.:(

Adereterial

The adviser was acting outside of her remit and knowledge. She is not a specialist in ESA and it's rules and shouldn't have given you the advice. Naming her on the appeal will not make the slightest difference. Under no circumstances should she have acted in this way.

You won't lose the award for making an appeal out of time - but you will more than likely be wasting your time.

red_girl

Adereterial wrote: »

The adviser was acting outside of her remit and knowledge. She is not a specialist in ESA and it's rules and shouldn't have given you the advice. Naming her on the appeal will not make the slightest difference. Under no circumstances should she have acted in this way.

You won't lose the award for making an appeal out of time - but you will more than likely be wasting your time.

Do you think that if i went ahead and put an appeal form in asking for them to look at my award again and i state that i was not aware that i could appeal the group i have been placed in they would except it late?

Cpt.Scarlet

If you're going to try and appeal, you will have to show that you meet at least one of the Support Group criteria. Have you requested your medical reports from the assessment? It's unlikely that they will specify what you scored points for, but you may be able to figure it out, you'll need see if one of these descriptors leads to the Support Group and whether any of your evidence supports this.

Adereterial

red_girl wrote: »

Do you think that if i went ahead and put an appeal form in asking for them to look at my award again and i state that i was not aware that i could appeal the group i have been placed in they would except it late?

Unlikely, I'm afraid. You have to demonstrate exceptional circumstances or official error to have a late appeal accepted. Claiming you didn't know will not be sufficient.

red_girl

Cpt.Scarlet wrote: »

If you're going to try and appeal, you will have to show that you meet at least one of the Support Group criteria. Have you requested your medical reports from the assessment? It's unlikely that they will specify what you scored points for, but you may be able to figure it out, you'll need see if one of these descriptors leads to the Support Group and whether any of your evidence supports this.

I have not asked for my medical reports as i was not aware that i could challenge the group i was placed in.
It was only today when i went for my work related interview that the advisor said that i could appeal the decision.
But i am a week over the time limit for applying.

Cpt.Scarlet

There are two issues, getting an appeal accepted and justifying being put into the Support Group. It's not as black and white as others are suggesting with regard to getting an appeal accepted, but it will likely be dependant in part on whether you have good reason to be put into the Support Group in the first place. Did you believe you should be in the SG when you filled in the ESA50? If not, then it's unlikely that your ESA50 and anything you submitted with it, will show that you meet the criteria, so the question is can you get any evidence together in the next week or two that will show you should be, if the answer is no, then probably isn't much point appealing, if yes, then you need to sort it ou as quickly as possible, because whatever window is open, is rapidly closing!

Chorlie

In July this year I appealed about being placed in the WRAG and not the Support Group and after about 8 weeks they decided that a should be in the Support Group, I was moved over all without another medical or even going to tribunal. So it can be done without to much stress, but......



1, With your award letter there is a leaflet explaining what to do if you disagree with them, so saying you didn't know you could appeal or the 1 month limit, will be very hard to argue.

2, The Job Centres Office is not in a position to state which Group someone should be placed in and therefore shouldn't advice and has now power to change this.

3, If you were to appeal and you feel that it was a close call whether you'd get ESA or not, so are worried an appeal may mean you loose your ESA, than:

a.) Is seems the WRAG maybe the correct group, but...
b.) Read all the descriptors and full understand them, then being 100% honest with yourself make sure you can fully get evidence to show you can clearly get the 15+ points.
c.) Read the Support Group descriptors and again being honest can you get evidence to show you meet one of those.

4, Get copies of the ESA Medical report and compare it to points b & c above, where do you disagree with the medical statement and can you get evidence to show its wrong or something not considered.

5, Lastly; if you still feel you have grounds to appeal, fill in the GL24 form. But your appeal will need to be based just on that Support Group Descriptor that you feel you meet, include a letter (typed) full explaining why you feel this and what was missed from the ESA medical report, get evidence to back this up (ie doctors letter / report), keep copies of everything and send it off. Expect a long wait, expect to go to tribunal, expect to need to collect more evidence, expect the appeal to fail and look into your option if that happen, start to prepare for that and just hope they will review it and change it without having to do anything more.