ESA Application

rsdntbplr

So I sent off my application for ESA as advised by my psychiatrist, a couple of weeks ago. My mental health and bipolar are spiralling out of control at the moment, which is making it all the more difficult to finish my application.

Anyway, I got a text a couple of days ago saying I'm missing some required evidence and a letter has been sent detailing what I need to send in. The letter said I need to send in an SSP1 from my employer and around 8 payslips.

Here's the problem: when I filled out the ESA form I was on sick leave but still employed. A few days after I sent it off, I resigned from my job as I knew I wasn't going back and felt I was bring unfair on the employer using the two weeks leave my sick note had said I needed off (I was told by my psychiatrist to claim sick pay for a couple of weeks while I have time to claim for ESA so I still have some income, however I felt this was immoral and so resigned after a few days of receiving the sick note). So the form they've told me to get from my employer I can't get, as I now have no employer.

It's worse still - the first time I was off sick for a week and a half I self certified, AND my employer instead gave me the time off as annual leave. The second time, I got a sick note and took it in to my employer, but once again he said he'd just give me it as annual leave, so the note was wasted (though I did keep it and sent it off with my ESA form). So I never got sick pay - I was just paid as normal and it was apparently put down as annual leave.

As for the pay slips...I never got any pay slips!!! My employer was terrible when it came to formalities - I never got a pay slip, it was just paid monthly into my account. I never signed a contact in the two and a half months I worked there (aside from a confidentiality agreement) and didn't get a P45 when I resigned!

I'm so confused about what to do. Along with being bipolar I'm also autistic (Aspergers) which is making this all the more difficult. I just don't know what to do

I'm living off my credit card because my DLA of £70 a week is paying off my mum, a tiny bit of rent, food, drink, cigarettes, trAnsport and my phone bill! I'm literally getting myself into debt just to afford to live!

Any advice what to do? PLEASE help.

Horseunderwater

What a pickle. Your employer has certain legal obligations and one of those is to issue a P45 to anyone who leaves their employment as it has to tell the employee how much gross pay and national insurance that they have paid for the time that they were employed there. If they fail to do that then tell HMRC about them. They should also give you a payslip each time you get paid showing the same thing. Otherwise how would you even know if you had been correctly paid, or if you are on the correct tax code?
DWP are correct that you are supposed to have form SSP1, but this is usually only issued after 28 weeks of SSP and you did not get any so that is also something that you need to tell them about. In your case I do not think that you need that form. Are you able to ring up DWP and tell them the correct facts? If not then you need to get someone to help you do so. Is your Mum Capable of helping? If not go and see the Citizen advice and get them to help you with it.
http://www.mind.org.uk/ is a charity that may be able to help as well. Click on that link and it will bring you up with their phone number and other information that could help.

rsdntbplr

Update: I phoned up today to explain and was told by the (very polite) man to write a letter explaining what I told him and send that to the address instead of the evidence. Inevitably this is going to confuse and delay the process massively, which is why I've involved mum to help me.

Nightowl

your employer had no right to give you annual leave instead of sick pay. Your resigning I'm sure could be put down to your bi polar. Your consultant should advise you not to make big decisions when unwell. I'm assuming you have a CPN? Ask them to get you some help with your claim. The extra stress could exasperate your mental health problems at the moment.

You are doing really well to be trying to deal with all this. Be kind to yourself and get some extra support.

rsdntbplr

I sent off the letter today. It's about one and a half pages long. For a little bit of extra insurance, I also sent off my bank statements with the letter and highlighted the payments from my former employer. I noted down his details should they decide to contact him to get some information about my pay.

Soon I'll be living off £40 a week, which isn't going to cover it whatsoever. Now is a good time to start one of those fad diets, eh?

On the plus side, my psychiatrist said she backs my decision to claim ESA and I was given the number for the re-enablement team - who should apparently be able to help me with my claim and ensure its judged accurately. So I'll be giving them a call tomorrow (if I can find the piece of paper she wrote it on - here my memory loss becomes very inconvenient).

rsdntbplr

I phoned Jobcentre today to ask them about the status of my claim. The woman I spoke to said they received my letter and bank statements today and she's emailed the new claims team with my number and I should receive a call with an update to my claim today by 4.30pm. By the way was talking it sounded as though I've already been approved for ESA - she said something along the lines of: "Hopefully we'll get it processed now we've received that so we can begin giving you payments".

I've had to sell some of my possessions today to afford to live for a while, it was a heartbreaking moment selling my £800 DSLR for £400. Oh well.