e s a help

bobbyblade

we have just received a letter from dwp to say that my wife is not entitled to e s a due to the fact that we did not return the limited capability for work questionnaire and gave no good reason for no returning it.
the thing is we went through d i a l to fill the form in a week before the deadline we then left everything with them as they were going to photo copy everything and then post it ,my wife is now in a distressed state and all her benefits stop in two weeks time , any help will be appreciated .:(

rogerblack

A couple of issues.
Firstly - it's possible that it has in fact been returned, and it was caught in the internal mail, but the disallowance letter was generated too fast.
Phone them monday - and find out if this has happened.
If the form was returned under a week before the deadline - this would be the usual thing to happen.

It is your responsibility to return the form on time, if it turns out that the benefits agency did not return the form - you may have problems with 'good cause'.

First step however is to find out if they've already got it.

schrodie

Hopefully the ESA50 is lost at their end and everything will be sorted out. It is always a good idea to send these kinds of documents by recorded signed delivery, then at least you'll have proof that the forms did arrive and were handed over.

System

ring them up - i had a letter [as daughters appointee] to say the med3 certificate hadnt arrived but when i rang they had recieved it, it just takes a while to update the system.

bobbyblade

more worrying is that their is medical notes from mental health team and other letters with it backing up our claim .

bobbyblade

phoned job centre plus this morning and they have no records of receiving the forms so have got to go to d i a l to see if they were sent just hope they photocopied everything as they said they were doing .

bobbyblade

have now resent the forms this time by recorded delivery with a headed letter from d i a l to say that they posted them a week before the deadline yet we still do not now if wifes benefits will still stop or not, anxious times .

bobbyblade

phoned the people i sent the second form too they have no record of it told them it was sent by recorded delivery and the reply was it all goes to a central sorting office so who knows where it is at the moment, i was then forwarded to benefits who then said that due to the nature of my wifes illness that benefits should not have been stopped anyway , what is going on with this service

rogerblack

bobbyblade wrote: »

phoned the people i sent the second form too they have no record of it told them it was sent by recorded delivery and the reply was it all goes to a central sorting office so who knows where it is at the moment, i was then forwarded to benefits who then said that due to the nature of my wifes illness that benefits should not have been stopped anyway , what is going on with this service

The fact that forms have been received may not appear on their systems for a week to ten days.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/financial-redress-for-maladministration.pdf
In addition.
I would encourage _everyone_ who has through action or inaction of DWP staff suffered losses, to apply for compensation, even if that decision is eventually re-made correctly.

'Oh - we lost his forms' - does not appear on the statistics.
Compensation paid does, and may in principle trigger action.
Costs of all phone calls - letters - costs to get those letters to the post office, post them, ...