Need some advice regarding ESA claim

AcidReign

Just thought I'd update. & again, I appreciate the replies/advice given.

I finally got round to making a doctors appointment & saw him yesterday.
I didnt ask about backdating but Ive been given a sick note until the 21st December when I have another appointment.

Called to make the claim for ESA today, so just need to wait for the paperwork to come back. Hopefully I'll receive something before Christmas now.

epitome

epitome wrote: »

When you have your sicknote you will know what date it starts from so phone up and make the claim. You can backdate the claim 7 days before the start of your sicknote (this is called self certification) you don't need anything to self certify for those 7 days.

Hope you heeded my advice and earned yourself another £50 - £71 before your sicknote started.

AcidReign

Epitome - yes I did ask to self certificate for 7 days before the start of the Doctors note. Thank you for that.

I'd had a budgeting loan whilst I was claiming JSA & £30 a fortnight was being taken to repay that. Im sure there'll be taking the same amount pretty much straight away on ESA, provided there no problems me getting that.

All in all, I will have lost out on 3 months money (about £700) for not claiming sooner. I just wasnt in the right frame of mind. &, essentially its financial reasons that forced my hand, coz I cant live on nothing.

My other worry now is, as its December (busiest time for post) by the time my claim is up & running, the sicknote will have run out more or less. If I get another at my appointment on the 21st & send it the same day, it still wouldnt be received until at least the 27th because of Christmas & a few days later is the weekend & New year, so more delays.

I cant be doing with the hassle after finally sorting things out & waiting so long to get anything.
Just another worry I can do without.

AcidReign

..............*they'll*

epitome

AcidReign wrote: »

My other worry now is, as its December (busiest time for post) by the time my claim is up & running, the sicknote will have run out more or less. If I get another at my appointment on the 21st & send it the same day, it still wouldnt be received until at least the 27th because of Christmas & a few days later is the weekend & New year, so more delays..

First of all you should phone up ESA and ask "When does my sick note expire?" You may think this is silly because you know your sicknote expires on Dec20th, however, if your payday is 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 December, then the ESA BC should extend the sicknote to your next payday....(but not all BC do what they are supposed to do) and I think it is to be extended upto 10 days but no more than that, but I have not confirmed this for myself yet..................So you phone up and you may find that it has been extended to your xmas payday and therefore you find you have nothing to worry about.

If however, they say your sicknote expires xx/xx/xxxx and this is before your payday........
When you have your new sicknote from your doctor, phone your ESA and ask for an appointment at your local Jobcentre to send your sicknote by email, citing the fact that it needs to be done this way due to the xmas post and this will be the only way to get your next payment ontime.

Go to the jobcentre appt with your sicknote and make sure they do email it.
For some reason certain jobcentres refuse to email things, they are not allowed to refuse (if you have an appointment) but they do, some of them won't outright refuse but will take your sick note from you and say 'yes thanks' and you will ask will it be emailed? and they will say 'yes' and you go away and then they just send it in the post (and it gets lost) or they lose it and it doesn't even get sent.
So if it was me, I would want to sit down at my appointment and watch the staffmember write onto their computer your name/ NINO/ phonenumber and sicknote details and watch them press the send button.....

You would then want to phone ESA about 24 hours later to confirm it was received....you could ask the jobcentre to request a callback from the BC but 9 times out of 10 the jobcentre staff don't know how to request a callback (they think they do and will tell you that it has been requested, but in reality they are wrong) and the BC thinks it is a non call back message. and so you are left, getting irate waiting for a callback that will never come.

If they do email your sicknote they can give you your original sicknote back again (they don't need it, they can take a photocopy of it if they really want to) but if you get it back off them, you can use it again, if, for whatever reason this one does not reach the BC, saves you going back to the doctor and asking for a duplicate.

AcidReign

Well, I want as little contact (in person) with them as possible. The reason I signed off JSA was because it was making me worse than I was. Just couldnt face going there anymore. I assumed that while claiming ESA I wouldnt need to go to the Jobcentre for any reason?

Havent received whatever documents they send out after making the claim yet. The Cow on the phone said it was a statement which should be read, but didnt need to be returned. Will there also be details of where I should send my sicknote? Also I was asked if I had a P45. Will I need to send this aswell? I got 1 about a week after I signed off JSA, along with letters of my claim being stopped. I have those letters, but do you think I can find the P45!!. It must be here coz I dont think I wouldve thrown it (unless by mistake).

epitome

Any post you send the ESA BC -during a NORMAL working week can take up to 8 days to be received, but over xmas they will be closed 22, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 1, 2, meaning that if you post it on the 21st you could be waiting till 5th of January for it to "arrive".

If you want to avoid this, phone ESA for an appointment at the jobcentre on Fri 21, or Mon 24th, It will be a very busy period so there may not be any appointment slots available.

AcidReign

From making my claim first thing Tuesday morning, I was expecting the paperwork back this week. Nothing today so I was probably being optimistic.. ha ha & thats just not like me.

Theres no way in hell Im setting foot in the Jobcentre. Not an option.
Ill have to play it by ear & see what happens.

Presuming I receive the statement back next week, will I need to send my P45 & sicknote?. Ive read a lot of tales about them being lost etc.
Not that it will get back to them any quicker but should I return what they want at least by "Recorded Delivery"?

AcidReign

Looks like Ill be cutting it fine to receive a payment before Christmas at this rate. Which means, borrowing more money. By the time I get anything Ill be owing it all back out for !!!! sake.

AcidReign

Ill have to have a dig around for the P45 then & hope thats here. My birth certificate I got a duplicate of a few years ago for work purposes which Ive also misplaced. Havent had a new passport for nearly 20 years. Got a provisional Motorbike Licence which should be sufficient. & they want "originals" yeah?

Yes, thanks, I know about checking online with the recorded delivery to see if its been received.
To send a letter next day post is about a fiver, so !!!! that.