No Decision Maker, no SOR

Darlyd

SIL would like to appeal her ESA case.

She attended the medical few weeks ago and was put into WRAG which i must say I laughed at because she is an alcoholic, incontinent, has liver failier (sp), can not walk unattended for more than say 100 yards and she has a very life threatening condition called Esophageal varices. The NURSE who asked her a handful of questions must of been on drugs.

What can she do now? I have not seen the letter yet, and she is not very good at conveying information, I shall pop down tomorrow.

Muttleythefrog

darlyd wrote: »

SIL would like to appeal her ESA case.

She attended the medical few weeks ago and was put into WRAG which i must say I laughed at because she is an alcoholic, incontinent, has liver failier (sp), can not walk unattended for more than say 100 yards and she has a very life threatening condition called Esophageal varices. The NURSE who asked her a handful of questions must of been on drugs.

What can she do now? I have not seen the letter yet, and she is not very good at conveying information, I shall pop down tomorrow.

Should find plenty advice in recent threads as usually a couple per day relate to appealing ESA. But basically she needs to appeal within a month of getting her decision. A GL24 form can be used to do this. Ideally she needs to request a copy of the evidence they've used at DWP to take the decision.. including the face to face ATOS medical report (ESA85) which probably is the basis for the decision and may be the only evidence other than what she herself has provided. She needs to focus her appeal on the Support group descriptors (or any relevant special circumstance criteria that qualify for support group) for ESA that she thinks apply and try to get supporting medical evidence that they apply if possible. Only one is required to qualify for Support Gp. DWP will carry out a reconsideration first before sending off papers to tribunals service if that reconsideration doesn't reach a different decision.

It's important to remember that there is a risk she will lose her award of WRAG. I'd strongly advise against appeal unless she does indeed think she meets support group criteria.

1plus1equal3

i was reading on a site last night , about the rules and regs of being awarded esa.It said that there are exeptions to the rules with regards to having enough points to be entitled to esa, and that though the goverment didnt want to put the clause into those rules , they were forced to.It went on to say that if claimants didnt get enough points to be awarded, and having to work would be detrimental to their health, safty , or wellbeing, they would still be deemed as entitled to esa.I dont know if i read this correctly, but im sure i did, and its quite clear there are many many people on here, who have not been awarded points, who defnitley should of been, can they not use this clause to obtain their legal right.Sorry if this is a bit muddled, im not very computer literate.

Cpt.Scarlet

Ali

Thank you for your comments.

My point is that someone with or with delegated Decision Maker authority makes the decision as is legally required, but that is not what Adereterial is saying, they claim that there is no Decision Maker in most positive benefit decisions, which is not the case. Nor is the case that a SoR cannot be produced in these circumstances, as again, the DWP are legally required to do so when requested.

Muttleythefrog

1plus1equal3 wrote: »

i was reading on a site last night , about the rules and regs of being awarded esa.It said that there are exeptions to the rules with regards to having enough points to be entitled to esa, and that though the goverment didnt want to put the clause into those rules , they were forced to.It went on to say that if claimants didnt get enough points to be awarded, and having to work would be detrimental to their health, safty , or wellbeing, they would still be deemed as entitled to esa.I dont know if i read this correctly, but im sure i did, and its quite clear there are many many people on here, who have not been awarded points, who defnitley should of been, can they not use this clause to obtain their legal right.Sorry if this is a bit muddled, im not very computer literate.

There are various exceptional circumstances that can apply and this is probably what you refer to. They are indeed there as a catch-all I suppose to 'ensure' those who may not qualify due to the regular descriptors, but whom it would be unreasonable to expect to work or carry our work related activities, are not overlooked.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wca-handbook.pdf
Page 33-34

cit_k

If decision makers dont look at cases where atos recomends they should be getting ESA then how come the DWP sometimes overturn ATOS's findings that someone should get esa?

ALIBOBSY

Cpt.Scarlet wrote: »

Ali

Thank you for your comments.

My point is that someone with or with delegated Decision Maker authority makes the decision as is legally required, but that is not what Adereterial is saying, they claim that there is no Decision Maker in most positive benefit decisions, which is not the case. Nor is the case that a SoR cannot be produced in these circumstances, as again, the DWP are legally required to do so when requested.

Ah ok see what you are saying. At the very least someone must input the decision on the computer system to produce the disallowance or allowance. This would then be an official "decision".

Ali x