please help/advise me.

mikey_bach

If you live alone, have no DLA and appeal then you will go onto to ESA appeal rate and should get £71.70 per week. until its heard.If you win and are entitled to transitional protection from IB to ESA then you will get that rate and arrears if due

Am taking it you are over 25

frightenedlady

rogerblack wrote: »

If you went on to claim JSA - they can only sanction you if you cannot keep to a jobseekers agreement.

i don't really understand what this means - sanction me?

what i am worried about is what the consequences are of stating to the jobcentre people from the off that i don't believe i can hold down a job... will i be refused jsa? or do they have to give me some money regardless?

does anyone know the answer to this question please?

mightymole

a sanction is when they suspend your jsa claim and not pay you.

but i cannot see why they would refuse jsa and if you can prove you are actively looking for work as per jobseekers agreement you be fine

epitome

You don't need to phone DWP, you can get an appeal form GL24 from a local jobcentre. You should return it recorded delivery to the address your letter comes from.

If you do phone DWP, might be a good idea to have someone with you who can talk for you if you start getting upset.

You have 1 month to appeal the letter.

You only need to put some basic reasons on the appeal form why you think you should qualify for ESA (look at Rogers links to the descriptors) and write for example "I am unable to walk 50 meters......." & "I will be supplying a more detailed appeal statement after you have sent me ESA55, ESA85, & Statement of Reasons

You do not at this stage need to read your statement of reasons before appealing. You could include in the envelope of your appeal, a letter asking for copies of ESA55 file, ESA85 (ATOS report) & the Decision Makers Statement of reasons, and informing them that you will submit a more detailed staement & evidence letter to back up your appeal once you have recieved these documents.

If the DWP have given you advance warning of the closure of your IS then you are lucky. Because it gives you time to book an appointment with a doctor. Lets say the letter says "We cannot pay you Income Support/Employment Support Allowance from 15/5/2013". Then you will need a sicknote from 15//05/2013 in order to be paid on appeal. You will get £71.70/week on appeal - assuming you are over 25.

A Doctor will not normally backdate a sicknote, a new Dr for you will be very unlikely to do this, your original Dr might - but it has been 5years so he might not.

If you do get a sicknote and it starts within 8 days of your disallowance date then it should not be a problem for payment on appeal, if there is a gap of 8 days or more then a DM will have to decide whether they can allow the gap and pay you or disallow the gap but still pay you from when your med3 does start. Or disallow and refuse to pay anything.

You don't need a medcert for an appeal to go forward, but you won't be paid ESA & you wont win an appeal without medical evidence to support you.

You can claim JSA whilst you wait for your ESA appeal (without sicknotes)
to go to tribunal.

If you can't get a sicknote you should claim JSA ASAP from your disallowance date, but if it is after the disallowance date then backdating JSA is extremely difficult, and this will leave a gap in benefits which will then cause the Housing Benefit & Council Tax Benefit to threaten to take you to court.

JSA will pay you if you
agree to look for full time work,
agree to come to the jobcentre to sign on,
agree to prove to them what actions you did each week to find work
agree a minimum set of actions that you will do each week (be wary of agreeing to phone jobseekers direct every week 0845 numbers are expensive and you can find the same jobs available on the jobcentre jobpoints that are free. or your own internet connection - what they probably make you agree nowadays is that you will log into jobsearch online a certain number of times a week, which they can check that you did do)
JSA will treat you better as a claimant if you have a positive attitude and appear to be doing everything they want you to do.

frightenedlady

dear epitome,
thank you so very much for your overwhelming thoroughness.
you have calmed my soul a little.
it seems i will have to try to find some courage from somewhere & play it by their rules, whether i think it is fair or not.
i know they have twisted the truth - it is easy to pick on the mentally vulnerable nowadays.
maybe they will section me instead of sanctioning me, hehe.
thanks again for your kindness & time.

bigboybrother

frightenedlady wrote: »

........i've been on income support for many years ........i'm middle-aged & worked all my life, i'm not a shirker

How can you have been on IS 'for many years' yet you say that you have 'worked all my life'?

Have you not spoken to your CPN about all of this?

frightenedlady

bigboybrother wrote: »

How can you have been on IS 'for many years' yet you say that you have 'worked all my life'?

Have you not spoken to your CPN about all of this?

you are twisting my words.
obviously i meant i worked all my life until i became ill (about 10 years ago).

frightenedlady

i've been to the jobcentre this morning.
they were actually very kind & told me it was clear to them that i am unfit for work/jsa. they helped me with the appeal form & told me to get a sicknote as soon as possible by seeing a different g.p.
so hopefully everything will be okay for a while now.
thanks again to everyone for the guidance.