ESA work assessment

IAmWales

Hi rvj,

I notice you are in Nottinghamshire. Can I suggest you call Disability Nottinghamshire? They're at Mansfield but will help anyone in the county. There are also advice centres based in the city area that can help.

epitome, I'm pretty knowledgeable on benefits but have cognitive difficulties, and honestly, your posts go right over my head. I can't imagine how daunting they are to someone in distress and/ or with no knowledge of the system. Your excellent advice is largely lost due to all the jargon.

atolaas

rvj87 wrote: »

I will have to do this on my own. When post is delivered it's left in a communal area so I suppose it might have been thrown out by accident. I want to call them tomorrow because I want to know where they sent my esa50 and letter saying I have to attend an assessment.

If you don't live too far from the Job Centre, you could ask to pick up letters from there - rather than having them delivered to your address, where they maybe thrown away by accident. Good luck tomorrow. Do let us know how you get on!

epitome

Rvj87,

Ok if you are going to phone...ask them a couple of questions
You don't have to ask about the ESA50 as I said above it could complicate matters.

only these...and only if you want to.

• Was my medical appointment letter sent to my correct address?
• What date was it sent?

I ask you to find out the date it was sent because it must be sent 7 days or more before the appointment. So it must have been sent on or before the 20th Sept or 21st Sept to have been properly sent (it depends on where the 7 days are counted from _I don't know exactly).


How about something like this.... The bit in blue to be reworded only if it is true...Did you give the DWP your mobile number? 3 years ago did you go to your medical assessment without any issues of missing any appointments? Have you been assessed before 3 years ago or was that your first?


"I am sorry I have missed one of your assessments, I did not receive an appointment letter, a phone call or text about the appointment.
The ESA enquiry line has confirmed that Medical Services did not hold my correct mobile number, this explains why I got no text, but they did have my correct address. As you can see from my previous assessment 3 years ago, I have shown good faith in that I did attend to the first appointment I was given at that time.

I wanted to attend my next assessment and I would have had no problem in attending. I believe this has happened because my letters are delivered by Royal Mail into a shared hallway and I think they may have been taken by other people who live here or who have visited here. I had no idea that I might have been losing post until now. To stop this from happening again, I am willing to change my address that you have to a correspondence address, my xxxxxxx 's address is yyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyy

My health problem has gotten worse recently, I'm currently in contact with the crisis team, and now, this letter has made me panic about what will happen to my benefit. In order to reply to you I have asked someone to help me to explain this to you."


Where xxxxxxx is family member or friend or local help centre who will be willing to keep your post for you...but you must check often..

Also you asked earlier..do you have to use their letter that they sent you....no you don't, you can write your own letter, but you might decide to put on their letter/form "Please see attached reasons" then have their letter scanned and your letter scanned, or dictate over phone, (you may have to insist that you want this to be done by phone).

Alice_Holt

RVJ87,

It is obviously not your fault in any way. Please don't get too distressed.
It can be sorted.

At my local CAB, we do see examples of DWP letters going astray (particularly if your post is left in a communal area), if you contact the DWP they will generally accept this and reschedule.

There are a few things you can do to get this sorted:-
Write a letter saying that you didn't receive the letter with your appointment date, that you didn't receive an ESA50 form, that your post goes to a communal area, if you are in the support group on grounds of mental health tell them this, that you are very distressed and worried about this, if you have had other post going astray then mention this, that you don't have family nearby who can help you, etc - I'm sure you get the picture!
As Epitome suggested use this when you ring them tomorrow.
Then post the letter you have written to the address on the DWP letter (do remember to take a copy for yourself as proof!) include your NI number as a reference.
So then you have phoned the DWP and written to them with your reasons (and have proof that you have done so).

I would also suggest you go to your local CAB / advice agency / or the organisation IAmWales has suggested - there will be some support out there for you - explain what has happened, show them the copy of your letter. Then ask them if they will be able to help you if you do need further help with this. It is possible they may be able to make a telephone call on your behalf if it's needed in the future.
The other thing the CAB may be able to help you with is writing the ESA50 form (which you should have got before the appointment letter) when it eventually arrives.

Please try not to worry (I know it's easy for me to say that). You can get help with this.

Best wishes
Take care of yourself

BTW - Is there a local MIND group who might also be able to help?

Edit I was slow writing this - Epitome has good suggestions of what to say / write in his post above.

Alice_Holt

Your Housing Benefit can be paid regardless.
Make your council housing benefit dept aware of what has happened.
It won't stop if you tell them - you may need to show them some recent bank statements.

rvj87

Thank you everyone for your kindness and supportive messages. I rang the DWP today. After asking the questions you suggested, epitome, I started getting somewhere. Apparently, what happened was my form and letter were sent to my mother's old address. This is because she was still listed as my appointee; Even though she relinquished appointeeship several years ago they still had her details for some reason. The representative I spoke to told me that a message would be sent, and my mother's details would be taken off my file, and the form and letter sent to my address. She left a note on my file explaining what had happened. I also sent my letter with proof of postage, so with a bit of luck I should be given a chance. Apologies if I don't reply to any further queries right away; I've had a bit of a busy day today.

epitome

Ok great news you got there.

I understand you are busy, reply when you get a chance. I won't read it until tomorrow evening anyway.

My advice...

You can, if you choose to, trust that person has done the recommended actions...but seeing how important this is that your benefits do not get stopped...I recommend you to err on the side of caution and do the following tomorrow. Tuesday. I cannot stress enough how much I recommend that you do this.

Phone ESA and ask them to check that a handover was sent yesterday stating your reasons for fail to attend Work Cap Assessment.

If they say that a handover has been sent. ask them to read to you, the contents of the handover.

If they say that a handover has not been sent ask them to tell you what and where the person from yesterday wrote for you on the system notes? Then you should insist that your reasons are sent in a handover to "Maintenance - WCA" (if you have a phone, tell them you want a call back -you can insist on a call back if you have to...they are not allowed to refuse your request/insistance). You want a call back to be sure that your reasons of fail to attend have been received by "Maintenance WCA" and have been sent to the Decision maker. They should call you within 24 hours to confirm this....


By the way, I am just curious, because the Step 1, Step 2 Step 3 and Step 4 letters are all sent by Medical Services, so if what you say is true then...either

* at step 4 they must have sent it to the wrong address because their system was saying your appointee mum's old address, they made a mistake and by chance sent it to your residential address - which would have been a mistake, but that mistake has saved you a lot of stress, because otherwise Step 4 letter would also have gone to your mum's old address and the first you would have known about this would be in 3 weeks time when you did not get paid.

* OR someone fixed the MSRS system address between steps 3 and 4

* OR the person you spoke to yesterday made a mistake.

Incase it was the last one, I would be asking the person you speak to tomorrow to confirm the dates the letters were sent and the address each one was sent to.


I'd also like you to keep updating this thread until the decision has been made and then I can keep giving you advice, because it is not over yet.

rvj87

Hi,
I just rang the DWP. The representative confirmed that the reason for my failure to attend had been passed on to the decision maker, and that my letters were sent to my mother's old address. My mum's address is also being removed from the system today. Apparently the details were left temporarily so that the decision maker could see that they were outdated (or something like that).

epitome

When it comes to the DWP, I know very well the tricks that they play, to give a caller (you) the impression that everything has been done properly when it has not, or when it could have been done better but it hasn't. Which is why I am about to say what I am about to say, you may think I am being pedantic or annoying or anything else, but I don't care, because all that matters to me is that I give you the benefit of my knowledge, so that you do not have your claim closed next week.

This is entirely your decision, only you know what they said to you, I don't know what they said, I don't know why they said it has been sent to a DM.

But I recommended that you ask them if a handover was sent on Monday. Your reply does not mention if they confirmed a handover has been sent or not.

I asked you -if they say a handover has not been sent- to find out what they have done, what method of communication has been used to relay their finding "the wrong address was used" to the decision maker.

I said if it has not been done by handover, you should insist that it is sent by handover, and you can request a call back from the horses mouth (Maintenance WCA) to confirm to you that the reasons have definately been sent to a DM.


Over to you.

rvj87

Hi epitome,
I took your advice. I called again today and asked if it was specifically a handover that had been sent. The representative confirmed that it was a handover that was sent yesterday. So what's the next step? Is it a case of watch and wait til the 9th?