esa50

jane87

hi, a friend of mine has asked me ask the following:-

She has received an esa50 but as she is considering coming off esa, she was wondering what would happen if she did not return it. Would her esa be automatically stopped after the return deadline. Would the dwp write to say a date it was to be stopped in the future or would she not find out until payment did not go into her bank account. I think she is thinking that gettting the dwp to close her claim would be easier than if she phoned them to close it, as she is worried that if she phones them, there will be a delay in them closing it, therefore making it more difficult for her to claim jsa

thanks for any help
p.s she wants to come off esa to get rid of the stress of atos as she thinks they will probably fail her this time as she only had an assessment 5 months ago and she felt lucky to pass that one as the atos appointment was horrible

rogerblack

They will write two weeks (?) before the deadline of the form saying they have not yet had it.
Shortly after the deadline for the form return, ESA will be stopped, and a letter generated saying that ESA has been stopped.
Sometimes this letter can take a considerable amount of time to hit the claimant.

I would advise filling in the form.
It is possible that the DWP will not require an interview again.
Send all evidence with it you can.

As I understand it.

If she actually feels she is able to go back to work - she can simply start the process of claiming JSA - and this will cancel her ESA claim.

jane87

not for this. i told a friend about this forum and she asked me to ask about her esa50.

thanks for all your help

epitome

If she fails to return the ESA50 she will get a reminder letter which can arrive only a couple of days before the deadline (very helpful..... not).

If the deadline is reached assuming she does not have mental health issues her money will be stopped and a letter saying the money has stopped will be issued & the claim will be closed.
If she has mental health issues her claim could remain open after the deadline.

The letter will say from what date the claim has been closed. She may not receive the letter for some days after the date of closure. It often happens that the customer will realise a non payment before they receive the letter. Then they phone to find out that claim was closed from 2 weeks ago.

She will then find it very difficult to backdate a JSA claim to the ESA closure date.


If she sends back the form she may or may not have a WCA, but she will remain in ESA payment until that is decided. When she gets her WCA appointment she could decide to close the claim at that point... and thus avoid JSA for a few more weeks.

Putting the above aside, the most sensible thing to do is once she has decided to end her ESA claim she should do what I told your husband to do, phone and close a couple of days before the payday to close the day after the payday *after checking that the payment has been released* Then phone and make an advance claim to JSA from the day after the payday.