ESA mandatory reconsideration to start October 28th

epitome

ESA mandatory reconsideration (MR) will come in on October 28th

Decisions made before this date will be under old rules - when appealed
Decisions made on or after this date, will have a MR period.
No payments will be made during the MR period.
There will be no time limit on the MR period. It could be 2 - 6 months without payments.

Once the recon descision has been made against the claimant it will be the claimants responsibility to appeal directly to the courts. When an appeal is submited to the courts then the court will write to DWP. When DWP receive this letter from the court then ESA payments will be backdated to the date of disallowance, providing there is sicknote cover and any JSA that was paid interim will be deducted.

*this post has been edited to be more acccurate (read the thread)

portly1

epitome wrote: »

As far as I know ESA mandatory reconsideration (MR) will come in on October 28th

WCA decions before this date will be under old rules
WCA decisions on or after this date will have a MR period of 28 days from the date of receipt of the appeal or recon request. No payments will be made during the MR period. But there is a fixed timescale of within 28days for the recon decision to be made. Whether DWP will stretch this to mean 28 working days remains to be seen.

Once the recon descision has been made and an appeal is submited, then payments will be backdated to the date of disallowance, providing there is sicknote cover and any JSA that was paid will be deducted.

I haven't seen anything about a 'fixed' 28 day period?

I thought that the period of MR would last as long as it has to until a reconsideration is carried out with the proviso that it should be of reasonable length and not be excessive?

Maybe what you are saying has now been written into the Regulations.

Taking the DWP operation as a whole, I have yet to find ANY decision or reply to a letter that I have sent be dealt with within 28 days beit actual days or working days. On average replies to letters (that is if they do actually reply) take upwards of 8+ weeks and decisions have been known to take up to 6 months to be issued. The worst of which was a suspension of benefit on the 11th August and it took until the following February (6 months) before a termination of benefit was made despite the DWP issuing a warning in August that there was a 1 month period to submit some details about income. That 1 month in this case turned into 6!!

rogerblack

I don't understand where the legal authority for this is coming from - the required legislation still isn't there. However, assuming for the moment that it's passed, or my understanding is incorrect.

There is _NOT_ a fixed timescale.
The 28 day timescale is for the DM preparing a response to the tribunals service once the mandatory reconsideration has been done, and it's moved onto appeal.
And this doesn't come in - the time limit - until October 2015. (It may be April, I'm unsure).
The repeated mantra has been 'It's unfair to impose a time limit as that may make decisions rushed'.

Claiming JSA is problematic for a number of reasons - but may be the only way some people will be paid - even after the period of mandatory reconsideration. (If they miss a medical appointment without having found to have good cause they would not be paid till they win an appeal, and if they do not win that appeal - no backpay would be paid.)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=63240852&postcount=71 goes into some of the issues around claiming JSA after an ESA refusal.

epitome

This is only my current understanding. I don't have anymore info or confirmations. It remains to be seen, but this is what I have heard will be happening.

sja75

Is this going to be rolled out nationally on 28 October? I thought there were to be six pilot areas.

pmlindyloo

This link does mention the 28 days:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/appeals-process-changes-for-dwp-benefits-and-child-maintenance

portly1

pmlindyloo wrote: »

This link does mention the 28 days:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/appeals-process-changes-for-dwp-benefits-and-child-maintenance

Time limits for DWP to return appeals responses to HMCTS – DWP has agreed to the request of the Tribunal Procedure Committee to introduce time limits for the return of appeal responses to HMCTS. DWP has undertaken to provide an appeal response within 28 calendar days in benefits cases, and within 42 calendar days in child maintenance cases.

The 28 calendar days relates ONLY to the exercise that the DWP have to carry out when and after the reconsideration has taken place. The DWP have these 28 days to lodge the appeal with the Tribunal service.

The time taken to get to that stage (the reconsideration period) can be as long as is a piece of string - there is NO time limit. For all intents and purposes if the DWP think it appropriate in a particular case to take three months to reconsider the decision then three months it will be. The 28 days only starts after that 3 month period.

rogerblack

sja75 wrote: »

Is this going to be rolled out nationally on 28 October? I thought there were to be six pilot areas.

This is my understanding too.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/477/article/1/made
'The amendments made by rule 27' - do not come into force till Oct 2014.

Rule 27 is the rule which brings in '28 days' - however this is 28 days _after_ the claimant has been refused at the mandatory reconsideration stage - gotten the required paperwork, and submitted their appeal to the tribunal.

It's the time the decisionmaker has to respond to the letter from the tribunal saying that an appeal has been lodged.
It is specifically _not_ a time limit for the period between when the claimant asks for a reconsideration (they cannot go direct to appeal) and the time that reconsideration must end.

Ministers have repeatedly said that such a time limit would be unfair as it may rush claims through, which is in the interest of nobody as it'd be inaccurate.

In some cases - this is a fair enough point - if they have to contact outside bodies who delay their response.
But I see no justification whatsoever for not accepting or refusing reconsideration in a relatively short time - say 14 days, if no outside consultation is required.
You don't make the decision any better or worse if the decision waits several weeks before being looked at for half an hour.

Morlock

rogerblack wrote: »

But I see no justification whatsoever for not accepting or refusing reconsideration in a relatively short time - say 14 days, if no outside consultation is required.

The justification is that the Tories can stop benefit claimants receiving any money for weeks or months at a time, it's an ideological victory.

portly1

rogerblack wrote: »

This is my understanding too.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/477/article/1/made
'The amendments made by rule 27' - do not come into force till Oct 2014.

Rule 27 is the rule which brings in '28 days' - however this is 28 days _after_ the claimant has been refused at the mandatory reconsideration stage - gotten the required paperwork, and submitted their appeal to the tribunal.

It's the time the decisionmaker has to respond to the letter from the tribunal saying that an appeal has been lodged.
It is specifically _not_ a time limit for the period between when the claimant asks for a reconsideration (they cannot go direct to appeal) and the time that reconsideration must end.

Ministers have repeatedly said that such a time limit would be unfair as it may rush claims through, which is in the interest of nobody as it'd be inaccurate.

In some cases - this is a fair enough point - if they have to contact outside bodies who delay their response.
But I see no justification whatsoever for not accepting or refusing reconsideration in a relatively short time - say 14 days, if no outside consultation is required.
You don't make the decision any better or worse if the decision waits several weeks before being looked at for half an hour.

Which takes it back to what I said earlier. The DWP are not known to be very proactive on anything. Even to the point of being reactive they are not known for their speed or efficiency.

Personally if I was placed in this position the last thing that I would be doing is co-operating with the DWP during a reconsideration, thereby adding more time to their already lengthy processes. I would be telling the DWP that there is no other evidence available or anybody else for them to contact. Thereby getting the reconsideration period down to the minimum resulting in a much earlier submission to the Tribunal and my submission of the additional evidence. Doing this would see the ESA payments start up again sooner rather than later.

I simply don't trust the DWP to be able to make a reasoned and fair decision on anything and certainly not without a fight, or putting them in such a position that they could do nothing more than but give the award.

Morlock

rogerblack wrote: »

I don't understand where the legal authority for this is coming from - the required legislation still isn't there.

Minor trivialities such as no current legislation have not stopped IDS in the past.