ESA; I feel like a Nobody

Betty21

Hi All,
Just want to share my experience and hopefully get some advice about ESA, as Iam totally confused about the whole situation.
I am on sick from my employer and not received any money from them, due to being sick for so long.
HR sent me paperwork to give to the jobcentre, which I did. Was given phone number to complete ESA35 over the phone, and then was sent a ESA 50 to complete with a latter stating it had to be returned by 13 July.
I had my husband take me into the jobcentre on the 11 July to hand in the completed form, I spoke to a lady who told me that the ESA50 needed to be posted to another department which I wasn’t aware off but stated if I posted it now it would arrive late.
The lady took the form from me and told me she would put a note with it and send it to the other department for me.
I have just received a letter stating they closed my claim due to not receiving the form in the time indicated. In this latter it states that the ESA should have been returned by 4th July, while the letter with the pack says 13 July.
I rang them up and explained what had happened and was told rather sharply that I had a month to complete the form so had plenty of time to return it.
I said I felt that I was being unfairly punished as I wasn’t aware it had to be sent to another department, but reminded the lady that in my defence I believe it was handed in 3 days before the cut of date.
She stated my claim had now been passed to a decision maker to see if my reason for late arrival of the claim would be granted and my claim reopened.
She said this can take 5/6 working days and asked me to phone back next week.

I have had other problems with them, ie they lost my sick note from my doctor and sent me a letter stating I wouldn’t be receiving any contribution based ESA, this took days to sort out and in then end they rang my doctor to confirm that period of sickness.
I am so fed up of the way they talk to me, its totally unacceptable, I am in my fifty’s and am totally unaware how the departments work and have never been down this route before, at the moment I feel as though I have been left dangling and not sure how things are going to end. People don’t need the extra stress.

Muttleythefrog

THey seem to be especially poor for advice at DWP and there seems to be a total disconnect between them and customer base. Sorry to hear about your troubles.. sadly the losing sicknotes is a commonly reported problem too. I'm a little confused regarding the ESA50... I would have expected this required posting (or taking) to ATOS HC (their local assessment centre) and not the DWP... it is usually sent out to begin the Work Capability Assessment where effectively ATOS HC are typically contacted as the medical services providers regarding the process. The confusion over dates is something others have reported as a problem too.. being told they are out of time because of date x yet having a letter telling them to return it by y.

Hopefully you will have success with regards the DWP reopening your claim... you hopefully have the letter giving date y (keep it and make sure you don't send orginal to anywhere it could get lost unless you absolutely have to)... you returned form with a couple days to spare... I'm not sure you've taken it to the right organisation... but even if not hopefully they'll see sense and reinstate your claim.

grummps

Muttleythefrog wrote: »

THey seem to be especially poor for advice at DWP and there seems to be a total disconnect between them and customer base. Sorry to hear about your troubles.. sadly the losing sicknotes is a commonly reported problem too. I'm a little confused regarding the ESA50... I would have expected this required posting (or taking) to ATOS HC (their local assessment centre) and not the DWP... it is usually sent out to begin the Work Capability Assessment where effectively ATOS HC are typically contacted as the medical services providers regarding the process. The confusion over dates is something others have reported as a problem too.. being told they are out of time because of date x yet having a letter telling them to return it by y.

Hopefully you will have success with regards the DWP reopening your claim... you hopefully have the letter giving date y (keep it and make sure you don't send orginal to anywhere it could get lost unless you absolutely have to)... you returned form with a couple days to spare... I'm not sure you've taken it to the right organisation... but even if not hopefully they'll see sense and reinstate your claim.

Personally, I can't see the point in sending in the ESA50 in the first place. As far as I am concerned they never even looked at it.

It is just another 'hoop' to jump through that means failure if you don't comply.

In my case, I had had my telephone call from ATOS to arrange a face to face assessment, and actually had it two days before the date on the letter that said it had to be returned by!!

During the assessment I was asked what was wrong with me, what medication I was taking and what was the dosage - I told him that the information is shown on the ESA50 that they should get within the next week! I had no idea what all the names of the drugs are, never mind the strength.

He told me that 'the ESA50 should have been returned by now'!
'You are likely to have your claim closed.'

Huh??? "Oh for god's sake man, get a life, the letter says to return it no later than Wednesday (assessment was on the Monday) - what ever!!"

sniggings

Seems the Government want to reduce the claims anyway they can, seems cancelling the claim is their number one way to do this as they know the appeal process is upto a year.

My claim is cancelled too and I was told the appeal will take 6 months to a year and that I can not claim again untill the appeal has been done,so I asked what am I to do for benefits, she said to claim JSA I said I wouldn't be claiming ESA if I was able to claim JSA as I can't work which is a requirement of JSA, she said "oh then I don't know".

Sound as if she could do with either a different job or some training.

epitome

sniggings wrote: »

My claim is cancelled too

But you are still being paid on appeal?

and I was told the appeal will take 6 months to a year and that I can not claim again untill the appeal has been done,

If you are not being paid on appeal you can claim again and be paid on the new claim if the condition is different or has worsened, if neither of these two apply you can still claim again but not receive any payments until either:

• You pass your new assesment as part of the standard procedure of a new claim (could take about 13 weeks)
• 6 months has passed since they cancelled your claim
• You win your appeal

so I asked what am I to do for benefits, she said to claim JSA I said I wouldn't be claiming ESA if I was able to claim JSA as I can't work which is a requirement of JSA, she said "oh then I don't know".

Sound as if she could do with either a different job or some training.

She was right there, if you are not going to get any payments for the above reasons your ONLY OPTION is to claim JSA and ask to be allowed to look for part time work, either that or starve.

Cpt.Scarlet

grummps wrote: »

Personally, I can't see the point in sending in the ESA50 in the first place. As far as I am concerned they never even looked at it.

It is just another 'hoop' to jump through that means failure if you don't comply.

In my case, I had had my telephone call from ATOS to arrange a face to face assessment, and actually had it two days before the date on the letter that said it had to be returned by!!

During the assessment I was asked what was wrong with me, what medication I was taking and what was the dosage - I told him that the information is shown on the ESA50 that they should get within the next week! I had no idea what all the names of the drugs are, never mind the strength.

He told me that 'the ESA50 should have been returned by now'!
'You are likely to have your claim closed.'

Huh??? "Oh for god's sake man, get a life, the letter says to return it no later than Wednesday (assessment was on the Monday) - what ever!!"

Because, as you well know Andy, and the OP has found out, for the majority of claimants, failing to return the ESA50, results in your claim being closed.

grummps

Cpt.Scarlet wrote: »

Because, as you well know Andy, and the OP has found out, for the majority of claimants, failing to return the ESA50, results in your claim being closed.

For a start my name isn't Andy.
Secondly, I am fully aware that the DWP will close a claim down if the ESA50 is not returned.

But the poster did return it, by handing it in at the local JC before the deadline set down by the letter. The DWP then decided to change that deadline which is totally wrong.

In my case I understood that the ESA50 forms the basis of whether you should be called for a face to face or not.

My letter gave a return date which was two days after the date of the assessment! So filling in the ESA50 was pointless!

There doesn't seem to be much joined up thinking between ATOS and the DWP.

The poster and I, whilst having different problems, both problems relate to the date being wrong on the letter.

My attitude is, given what happened to me, no need to spend countless hours filling in the form as it is quite clear it wasn't used. Might as well just put my name and address on it adding 'sick' across each page before signing it.

The comment made to the poster that he had a month to fill it in is ridiculous. Why bother putting any date in a letter for it to be returned by if the DWP's attitude is 'well, does it matter how long you have to return it, it should only take a day or so to fill it in'.
If the regs say you have 'x' number of day to return it, then 'x' number of days it will take!

Hypocrisy is something I detest.
If I am required to carry out something by a certain date, surely the DWP/ATOS should also be bound to comply in the same way. They never do.
Do what I do, create enough of a rumpus that keeps them busy trying to keep up with requests for info and if no reply is received by 28 days, it goes straight up to the MP.
They ignored my original claim - I waited 28 days (long enough), so every 14 days after I sent in a new ESA claim pack. Last I heard it took someone a day to try and work out what was going on with the 6 different claims and the whole thing had to be done clerically!!

sniggings

epitome wrote: »

But you are still being paid on appeal?

If you are not being paid on appeal you can claim again and be paid on the new claim if the condition is different or has worsened, if neither of these two apply you can still claim again but not receive any payments until either:

• You pass your new assesment as part of the standard procedure of a new claim (could take about 13 weeks)
• 6 months has passed since they cancelled your claim
• You win your appeal

She was right there, if you are not going to get any payments for the above reasons your ONLY OPTION is to claim JSA and ask to be allowed to look for part time work, either that or starve.

No my claim was cancelled so no payment, I have put I letter in today for them to take another look at my case before the appeal, I was also told to put in another claim which I have also done.

I can't see how the rules are so harsh on ESA but they would let me claim JSA and either do no work or part time work.

TBH she said she didn't know if I could claim JSA and you sound you are guessing too.

grummps

sniggings wrote: »

TBH she said she didn't know if I could claim JSA and you sound you are guessing too.

I would imagine that they didn't want to tell you that you have fallen through the crack of JSA v ESA!

You won't be able to claim JSA if they are not happy with the limitations that you would have to put on your jobsearch agreement. They could very well tell you that you are too ill to look for work telling you to claim ESA instead!!

Don't think it doesn't happen - it happened to me - my JSA claim lasted all of 24 hours!!!

As for what you are expected to live on - that isn't their concern, they will tell you that "you caused the situation you now find yourself in - so deal with it!!"

lizzie157

Sadly this is very common. They repeatedly lost our forms and though i did complain and they did agree it was unacceptable there was nothing forthcoming about how they were going to rectify anything so don't really expect anything to change. Unfortunately some of those on the phone don't seem good at customer service it's pot luck some are fine others seem to think they are dealing with scum and don't have any reservations about letting you know it.

epitome

sniggings wrote: »

No my claim was cancelled so no payment, I have put I letter in today for them to take another look at my case before the appeal, I was also told to put in another claim which I have also done.

Yes, but WHY was it cancelled? Did you fail to attend your medical assessments? they usually give you 2 chances to attend so you must have missed 2 of them. Or did you fail to return your ESA50?

Plenty of claims get cancelled (closed) and the claimant gets paid on appeal, but you have to have attended the medical in order to get paid on appeal.

Depending on WHY they closed your claim....making a new claim will make no difference you still will not get paid unless you satisfy the conditions I said in the other post.

TBH she said she didn't know if I could claim JSA and you sound you are guessing too.

How do you work that out? I just gave you chapter and verse on the conditions of qualifying for ESA again....Although you are right I am guessing at why your claim might have been closed, but I wouldn't have to do that if you would just say why it was closed, then you could get specific advice.