ESA question from plzsavemypotential

epitome

plzsavemypotential
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Join Date: Dec 2013
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Urgent help please. Esa review VS new claim??
Hello,
I would like to know which avenue above to go down please. I surprisingly failed my assessment and dwp sent me a letter saying I had. It said I would receive a further letter of explanation. It said after I got the 2nd letter, I would have 1 month to respond back to them. I waited and waited and waited and waited and recieved no letter. That month's end and the next month's end, my landlord said she was recieving all her direct rent so I relievedly thought my esa had been corrected and continued. Suddenly last week my landlord tells me her direct rent has been stopped. I checked my bank and my esa had been stopped way back with the failure letter. I spoke to dwp to see what was happening and also for my outstanding 2nd letter. After a bit of repeated prodding from me the somewhat evasive dwp fone man finally says that there "is no letter". That is what I didnt understand. How can there BE NO letter? Anyway I am terrified of bureaucracies and agents and processes and forms and letters and the whole lot so I wanted to get everything done as soon and simply as possible so I was pretty much much going along with him. Towards the end he kept trying to push me into making a new claim. As usual I was quite willing to go along, but luckily I felt slightly offended by someone tying to bully me into something and I began to feel more uncomfortable and I couldn't think clearly so it mademe reconsider and I decided to hold off to to find out more for myself if 1)that was the only avenue left in that situation, 2)if that was the best avenue left. Best in terms of 1)speed? 2)simplicity? 3)would I lose my past entitlement for the entire period since the 1st letter till now?

Sorry but the rush is that my landlord is old and ill and she is constantly on my back for a quick resolution so she gets her xmas rent for a mortgage and I hate stressing her and making her ill. Please help with any answers and insights. Many thanks all.

epitome

Hi,

The letter says you can ask for a further letter of explanation.

What is the date of the letter that you did get?

Making a new claim would be fruitless, you need to appeal or reconsider the decision depending on the date of that letter.

If the letter is dated before the 28/10/2013 you need a GL24 from a jobcentre and appeal the decision of the date of that letter, explaining on the GL24 why your appeal is late. You will also need to continue to send in sicknotes from the date your last/current one expires.

If the letter is dated on or after 28/10/2013, you will need to phone and ask for:
*a phonecall to explain the decision to you and
*to ask for a written statement of reasons to be sent to you

When you have these request a reconsideration to be done and give a statement as to where you think DWP is wrong about you.

plzsavemypotential

Thanks epitome. That gives me a much clearer view of my correct avenue. It helps a lot that you said a new claim would be fruitless because I can now try to focus on 1 thing and not have different things swirling in my head. Interesting that you say 1st letter said I can ask because the dwp agent seemed to strongly think so as well, but i read my letter to him and it didn't say that for some reason. My letter was from before october so I guess I will use the gl24 you mentioned. Does anything occur to you as to why the dwp agent was so eager and committed to making me get a new claim?

plzsavemypotential

epitome greatly helped me. thanks again. anyone else with any further comments or insights is very welcome. thank you.

epitome

plzsavemypotential wrote: »

Does anything occur to you as to why the dwp agent was so eager and committed to making me get a new claim?

2 possible reasons,

1. If you agree to make a new claim that means you will end that phonecall and phone a different number to make the new claim. This means the phonecall with him will be over and he can take the next call. The DWP does not understand that quality of phone call is better than the length of the call, the agents are heavily pushed to finish the call quickly to meet their call average target.

2 Your decision was more than a month ago maybe he does not know that you can submit a late apeal.

Aswell as your reasons for late submission you need to put some outlines as to why you think you are entitled to ESA. send a photocopy of that letter highlighting the part that made you think there would be another letter that never came.

When you have the GL24 & your sicknotes, ready to go, you can phone the ESA line for an appointment at a jobcentre to have the appeal emailed. So it will be received much quicker than posting it.

It is also important to know what you were doing before being found fit for work...?
Were you on ESA assessment rate?
Were you on Incapacity Beneit or Income Support?
Were you on ESA already in WRAG or Support Grp?

plzsavemypotential

thanks epitome, had an absolutely wretched several days or now couple of weeks rather. getting better now to resume the battle. to answer your question i was on assessment rate. going forward, what would the different implications have been with the 3 different categories please? many thanks.

plzsavemypotential

other commentors also welcome. thanks guys.

Scotsman-5

plzsavemypotential wrote: »

other commentors also welcome. thanks guys.

I was nearly in the same situation 15 months ago .

Within seconds of the DWP claiming I had zero points the Council stopped my housing benefit and even although I appealed straight away by Recorded delivery the Council would not accept that receipt as proof I had appealed so I was stuck.

it was only after a letter arrived confirming I had appealed that I was able to get the Council to start paying again.

A month later I received a letter from the Decision Maker saying they had reconsidered my claim and I did meet enough points for ESA{WRAG}.

This year the Decision Maker kept me on ESA{WRAG} so there was no further problems except the letter telling me I was to remain on ESA went missing - I only found out as the DWP called me up telling me to stop sending in medical Notes - I asked them to send me a letter but they failed to do so - after a few phone calls I did receive a letter confirming I no longer had to send in any more certificates .

Take epitome advice as you will still have to send in medical notes and make a copy of them and send them recorded delivery { or whatever its called these days }

plzsavemypotential

thanks Scot. very interesting experience. dont worry lol, i always do as epitome says. i wasnt asking for alternatives, just more like toppings lol. also there's so much pressure on his time from other people that he doesnt always see my question right away so i need some anecdotes and tips in the meantime while he's saving the rest of the world until my turn hehehe.

plzsavemypotential

hi everyone, in the footer of the post's box, what are the 2 buttons between the 'Quote' and 'Report' ones please?

HB58

If you hover over the buttons an explanation appears - the button with the balloons is for 'multi quote' and the one with the pencil is 'quick reply'.