Fresh ESA claim and advice needed

Dekota

I need to start a fresh ESA claim for my mum as she has a mental illness. If I print the ESA1 claim form and fill it in, do I need to include all the doctors notes and reports with this form or do I hand in all that when called for an assesment by Atos? Confused.

Topshelf_2

Hi
in my experience the whole ESA thing is a way to pay the French company, Atos, £3bn in contracts [Private Eye] to make your life infinitely worse.

See benefitsandwork.co.uk for some guidance

See The Guardian for notes on fines for claimants

Keep copies of all correspondence and notes, do not hold phone conversations with DWP - their memory is different to yours.

Remember they are looking at what you can do, it doesn't matter that a suitable job is not available. That is not their worry, it is up to you to find the work, any work.

Just think, a corpse could get a job as a still life at an Art School. How you it get there on Public Transport is not the DWP's problem.

I wish you luck

PippaGirl_2

Dekota, not initially, just complete the form and sent that off. You can include the names of the people who provide medical and psychiatric care for your Mum so the DWP can contact them directly. ESA is all about what your Mum is able to do rather than any information on what her conditions are.
You say 'fresh claim' when did she last claim and why did that claim end?

Dekota

PippaGirl wrote: »

Dekota, not initially, just complete the form and sent that off. You can include the names of the people who provide medical and psychiatric care for your Mum so the DWP can contact them directly. ESA is all about what your Mum is able to do rather than any information on what her conditions are.
You say 'fresh claim' when did she last claim and why did that claim end?

Hey, thanks for that I will fill out the form

The problem is that mum was in receipt of incapacity benefit/IS until last year when she got savings which meant she wouldnt be able to carry on with her benefit so that benefit was closed. I understand that had that claim remained, it would have been transferred to ESA because mum received paperwork for ESA by error as they didnt know the income support claim was closed (call it lack of communication between the IS and ESA departments!)

Now shes under the limit of £16,000 again so should be abled to apply for ESA because her illness remains, so I'll also need to get a sick note from a doctor aswell at some stage?

Will any payment be made before the assessment takes place?

thanks

rogerblack

Dekota wrote: »

I need to start a fresh ESA claim for my mum as she has a mental illness. If I print the ESA1 claim form and fill it in, do I need to include all the doctors notes and reports with this form or do I hand in all that when called for an assesment by Atos? Confused.

You include everything possible, from the first stage.
This gives them the best opportunity to make the correct decision first, and may in some cases avoid the need for a medical.

Photocopy, and send _everything_ tracked.

You may also want to extract bits from her IS file.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/privacy-policy/data-protection/ to obtain this.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/m-06-11.pdf is the criteria that she must meet.
Either 15 points from the first part, to get into the work-related group, or any of the second part to get the support-group. (where she will not be expected to prepare for work).

Payment starts soon after you supply the form with a note from the doctor.
(If she has significant savings, there may be seperate things that will delay this)

Dekota

rogerblack wrote: »

You include everything possible, from the first stage.
This gives them the best opportunity to make the correct decision first, and may in some cases avoid the need for a medical.

Photocopy, and send _everything_ tracked.

You may also want to extract bits from her IS file.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/privacy-policy/data-protection/ to obtain this.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/m-06-11.pdf is the criteria that she must meet.
Either 15 points from the first part, to get into the work-related group, or any of the second part to get the support-group. (where she will not be expected to prepare for work).

Payment starts soon after you supply the form with a note from the doctor.
(If she has significant savings, there may be seperate things that will delay this)

thanks alot rogerblack

PippaGirl_2

Yes you need to send in (un)fit notes from the GP from the start of your claim and throughout the assessment phase. Yes she should get money from the date of the claim though it will take a while to set up.

rogerblack

In the event that a claim can be backdated (you have a doctor williing to sign a backdated note), there can also be an initial lump sump.