ESA Appeal Question

Kirsty2010

My partner got called in for a medical again in may, it was a pretty horrible interview, with the questions asked being manipulated to try and catch him out which distressed him, and the assessor turning me making comments like "is he always like this?! unable to answer questions and being confused?" which I replied yes as it's part of his condition, and saying "oh you should be in a wheel chair" the whole interview was belittling and condescending.

So in June we found out he failed the medical and ESA would stop and drop to I think jobseekers amount? I'm not sure as it was never explained nor did we get a letter. After a lot of phone calls and the wrong appeal form being sent out two years out of date and being told we wouldn't get a letter on the things we failed on, we finally got one of the letters to state where he'd supposedly failed, and the assessor had completely lied and made things up! She hadn't listened at all to what we said but picked up on he can use skpe to call people so he's fine, he can watch a bit of tv so he's fine. He goes out alone, which I said up teen times he does not he never goes out alone and sometimes comes out with me, as I do everything.

Anyway after me writing a 3 page letter followed with a fit note which they lost! and a hell of a lot of phone calls a few times a week, being repeatedly lied to over the phone, I got a phone call to clarify some info from my letter. Then the decision was over turned by the processing department, so we didn't have to to have a tribunal. We got the letter on the 8th to say we'd won, so I rang up dwp to tell them as they hadn't been notified. Now they say they have, and I was told it will all go back to normal and we'll get the back pay in 6-8weeks. Anyway on Friday just gone we are still on the lower payments. So I rang up and was told our claim was being rebuilt as something had gone wrong so they had to do an urgent bank transfer so we'd get our benefit at the reduced rate, and was told even though we won the appeal etc it's going to take 6-8weeks for the money to return to normal so after arguing with this person I asked for a call back from the relevant department (still waiting). I was not told this, I was told the back pay was 6-8weeks why would it take that long for our claim to return to normal when the appeal has been won? I just don't know what to believe and i'm struggling to keep up with the bills, food etc and i'm not sure what to do? Can someone tell me if what they are saying about taking 6-8 weeks to sort out is correct please?

Than x :j

epitome

The 6 - 8 weeks is a general ball park figure of how long it could take for someone to take action on your reconsideration being overturned.

As long as there is a note on your file (when you phone them) saying that your reconsideration was successful then you have to wait for them to action it. 6 - 8 weeks is how long you have to wait before it should be chased up by yourself and by the person you speak to on the phone.

The person you spoke to on Friday should not have offered a callback as long as there is a note confirming what your letter says.

If there is no note confirming what your letter says then a callback would be appropriate to have it confirmed that the recon has really gone in your favour but you will still have to wait for the award to be corrected.

Why? Because they have a lot of work to do and you are in a queue.

If you haven't had a callback by now (from Friday) you won't be getting one you should have asked on Monday after 1pm why you hadn't been called.

My advice, call and ask if there is a note confirming what your letter says.
If there is ... wait. If there isn't, ask for a callback from appeals to confirm the letter is correct.