Contribution based ESA to UC and fighting for backpay help needed

lee1973

I will try to give as much detail as i can as at times this has actually made me physically sick trying to do it all my self so really do need some help now please
Mid 2018 i got released from work due to mental health illness went onto Contribution based ESA for 365 days after a WCA they put me in WRAG, March 2019 my wife went onto Universial credit June 2019 i migrated onto Universial credit my self as a joint claim due to my ESA would finish in August 2019 .

September 2019 i get a WCA referal from DWP for my ESA claim i could not attend due to worsening mental health so my doctors supllied a letter stating i need a home vist (this is where it gets really intresting) now we jump over a year to December 2020 i get a phone call from nowhere its a Work cababilty assesment from DWP ESA long story short decide to keep me in WRAG please still bear in mind i have been on Universial credit in all this time as well so i ask for a Mandatory reconsideration got a phone call MR on the 25th Feb 2021  The decison maker within 5 minutes decided to reverse previous decison and put me straight into support group backdated to the WCA from December with 12 month review the relive was unbelivable but very short lived..

Ever since i have been fighting with Universial credit i notifed them of this decison on the 25th feb 2021 i got a message back of my case manager then saying thanks for letting her know ok fine but then 16 days later still nothing has been changed on my UC i have to push for this to be sorted out 8th March 2021 my CM is finally sorting it out but decides to tell me after her and a collague had descussed this they would back date to December 2020 she then proceeds to do this whilst i had been arguing that it was wrong and should go to my very first assesment in the mean time from 8th untill now it has been sent to a specialist decison maker to look at....

I have been shocked at how i have been treated by my case manager i have massive sympthy for them as i understand the workload they are under but it seems mine either didnt understand or didnt want the work load but from day one of my UC june 2019 they have broke so many basic rules not once in nearly 2 years was i refered for a WCA by them whilst in all of this period providing sick notes completly forgotten excues like blaming the work coachs as that was there responsability totally condridicting her own information on numrous occassions with journal responses in one phone calling me a worrier as i was sending all relevant evidence to my journal totall disrgarding my mental health and vunribality having Agrophobia PTSD Anxiety and Depression my very last phone call yesterday she put the phone down on me after she had a rant at me about being very busy and is tired of all the messages i previosly sent and i should be gratful in some way that she sent a template off to the Specialist decison maker i am trurly gobsmacked.

I hope i have given enough relevant information for you lot to dig into hope it all makes sense and sorry for the long post.

NedS

All backdating decisions must be made by a decision maker - I think this is why the CM has been unable to do it. The CM can implement from the date the MR decision was made to move you from LCW (WRAG) to LCWRA (support group) but a decision maker needs to formally make the decision to backdate that decision to the start of your claim, even though it looks like the outcome is a formality.

calcotti

Quite difficult to follow but this is my interpretation of what you have written

• You claimed ESA in mid 2018 and were found to have LCW (ESA WRAG)
• You subsequently claimed UC in June 2019 (before the ESA ended).
• Sept 2019 you had an ESA WCA referral (unclear why as the ESA had ended). You are unable to attend.
• December 2020 you have a telephone ESA WCA (again I am not clear why this would be ESA as your ESA would have ended more than a year prior to this). Decision again that you have LCW.
• You request an MR
• February 2021 you are informed that the December 2020 decision has been revised to LCWRA.

lee1973 said:.. not once in nearly 2 years was i refered for a WCA by them whilst in all of this period providing sick notes completly 

If I have followed your narrative correctly you would not have been referred for a WCA when you claimed UC because there had already been a WCA determination that you had LCW. That decision should have carried over  - however you should not have been required to provide Fit Notes. Another WCA would only have taken place if DWP wished to carry out a review or you told them that you wished to be reassessed.

I cannot see on what basis the new WCA decision could be backdated to the date of a previous WCA decision. That would have required an MR of the earlier decision.

lee1973

NedS said:

All backdating decisions must be made by a decision maker - I think this is why the CM has been unable to do it. The CM can implement from the date the MR decision was made to move you from LCW (WRAG) to LCWRA (support group) but a decision maker needs to formally make the decision to backdate that decision to the start of your claim, even though it looks like the outcome is a formality.

my biggest concern how many times has this happened to others aswell but just taking the CM first decision without knowing what they are actually owed,i do hope my outcome is a formality but i have massive concerns still.

lee1973

calcotti said:

Quite difficult to follow but this is my interpretation of what you have written

• You claimed ESA in mid 2018 and were found to have LCW (ESA WRAG)
• You subsequently claimed UC in June 2019 (before the ESA ended).
• Sept 2019 you had an ESA WCA referral (unclear why as the ESA had ended). You are unable to attend.
• December 2020 you have a telephone ESA WCA (again I am not clear why this would be ESA as your ESA would have ended more than a year prior to this). Decision again that you have LCW.
• You request an MR
• February 2021 you are informed that the December 2020 decision has been revised to LCWRA.

lee1973 said:.. not once in nearly 2 years was i refered for a WCA by them whilst in all of this period providing sick notes completly 

If I have followed your narrative correctly you would not have been referred for a WCA when you claimed UC because there had already been a WCA determination that you had LCW. That decision should have carried over  - however you should not have been required to provide Fit Notes. Another WCA would only have taken place if DWP wished to carry out a review or you told them that you wished to be reassessed.

I cannot see on what basis the new WCA decision could be backdated to the date of a previous WCA decision. That would have required an MR of the earlier decision.

The backdating is for my UC claim from june 2019 because of the change at MR to support group if that now makes sense?

Spoonie_Turtle

lee1973 said:

calcotti said:

Quite difficult to follow but this is my interpretation of what you have written

• You claimed ESA in mid 2018 and were found to have LCW (ESA WRAG)
• You subsequently claimed UC in June 2019 (before the ESA ended).
• Sept 2019 you had an ESA WCA referral (unclear why as the ESA had ended). You are unable to attend.
• December 2020 you have a telephone ESA WCA (again I am not clear why this would be ESA as your ESA would have ended more than a year prior to this). Decision again that you have LCW.
• You request an MR
• February 2021 you are informed that the December 2020 decision has been revised to LCWRA.

lee1973 said:.. not once in nearly 2 years was i refered for a WCA by them whilst in all of this period providing sick notes completly 

If I have followed your narrative correctly you would not have been referred for a WCA when you claimed UC because there had already been a WCA determination that you had LCW. That decision should have carried over  - however you should not have been required to provide Fit Notes. Another WCA would only have taken place if DWP wished to carry out a review or you told them that you wished to be reassessed.

I cannot see on what basis the new WCA decision could be backdated to the date of a previous WCA decision. That would have required an MR of the earlier decision.

The backdating is for my UC claim from june 2019 because of the change at MR to support group if that now makes sense?

But why, though?  The decision you challenged was from Dec 2020 not from June 2019.  If you thought the original decision in 2018 was wrong you should have requested an MR for that.

poppy12345

I agree that your timeline makes no sense. When you claimed UC in March 2019 you were in the WRAG for ESA which would have been LCW for UC, so no extra money there. The WCA assessment which took place in December 2020 was LCW, which was then overturned by MR on 21st Feb, so backdated money is owed only from December 2020 and not from all the way back as far as you claim it is.

lee1973

poppy12345 said:

I agree that your timeline makes no sense. When you claimed UC in March 2019 you were in the WRAG for ESA which would have been LCW for UC, so no extra money there. The WCA assessment which took place in December 2020 was LCW, which was then overturned by MR on 21st Feb, so backdated money is owed only from December 2020 and not from all the way back as far as you claim it is.

Are you taking in to account migration rules from old style cont based esa to uc or have i miss understood them myself??

poppy12345

When you claimed UC you were in the WRAG for ESA, which for UC is LCW, as advised. There's no extra money for this if your claim for ESA started after April 2017.

Your WCA was December 2020 and the decision for that was LCW, you requested the MR for that decision and the MR was successful and you were then awarded LCWRA from Feb 2021, which means your LCWRA element is from December 2020 and not as far back as you think it is.

lee1973

poppy12345 said:

When you claimed UC you were in the WRAG for ESA, which for UC is LCW, as advised. There's no extra money for this if your claim for ESA started after April 2017.

Your WCA was December 2020 and the decision for that was LCW, you requested the MR for that decision and the MR was successful and you were then awarded LCWRA from Feb 2021, which means your LCWRA element is from December 2020 and not as far back as you think it is.

so am i wrong in the assumption that this wca in december was the original assesment that should have happened sep 2019?

poppy12345

You didn't attend that assessment so therefore no decision was made. The WCA didn't happen until December 2020, which means the extre money is paid from this date and not before.