ESA Reassessment

Newcad

of the total number of ESA WCAs completed in the quarter to March 2024, 58% were initial WCAs (22,000) and 42% were repeats (16,000)

Whilst I do realise that this thread is about ESA Reassessments:
It's important to remember that those ESA WCA percentages are somewhat skewed at the moment.

That's simply because many new claims and thus most initial WCA's are for both UC and NS ESA, or for UC only.
Those initial WCAs are UC led and so do not appear in the ESA statistics.

The latest available UC WCA statistics show a quite different percentage ratio of initial to repeat WCA's:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-work-capability-assessment-statistics-april-2019-to-june-2024/universal-credit-work-capability-assessment-statistics-april-2019-to-june-2024

In the quarter to May 2024, 17% of UC WCA decisions were Repeat decisions, wherein an earlier UC WCA decision had been made for the same claimant. 83% were Initial UC WCA decisions.

Once everyone still on IR ESA has been migrated to UC then the relevent statistics will be more representative of the true picture, which is somewhere between the 2 sets of current statistics. ie. there will be a lot less percentage repeat WCAs in NS ESA, and a lot more percentage repeats in UC. (Unless WCAs have been scrapped altogether by then of course).
At the moment both sets of statistics are being somewhat skewed because many (most?) of those on long term ESA and  thus needing reassessment haven't been migrated to UC yet.

TimeLord1

Hello, Newcad, when they say 16,000 that's just over 5000 a month I wonder how many are just completed by paper only, quite a lot I think. And lowering the stats by shifting people around this reminds me of how they reduced unemployment by calling training as employed or the miners being told to claim Incapacity benefits to reduce unemployment figures. I wonder what the cost of one assessment roughly costs to complete, fairly expensive unless it's done by paper decisions.

TimeLord1

That's also strange how they're doing the stats every 3 months next one due in December 12th is this so it looks like improvements are being made from moving people around so by December it could possibly hit 3 million.


The number of people on Universal Credit in April 2024 was 6.7 million. This has been increasing since March 2022, when it was 5.5 million. 😳

poppy12345

TimeLord1 said:

The number of people on Universal Credit in April 2024 was 6.7 million. This has been increasing since March 2022, when it was 5.5 million. 😳

I'm not surprised at all about that due to the amount of people migrating from Tax Credits and other benefits. 

TimeLord1

Yes Poppy those people who didn't consider themselves to be benefit claimants now are all on the good ship Universal Credit. Not to mention the people who didn't claim that previously did on legacy benefits.

Table 2: Migration Notices sent and claims made to UC between July 2022 and February 2024

	Individuals	Households
number claimed UC	532,250	358,680
percentage claimed UC	66%	68%
not claimed & legacy benefits closed	277,750	172,380
percentage not claimed and legacy benefits closed	34%	32% 🤔

 

Tuxedocat99

Just phoned the Dwp regarding my Esa 50 form which I sent in January and not heard back. There was a message saying before you spoke to anyone that those who sent a Esa 50 form you will be contacted to see if you need an assessment and your claim will continue as normal.

TimeLord1

Did you go any further than the recorded answer to actually speak with them ? The recorded response is just to get the numbers down.

zaklah1964

Good evening everybody l.I am after some advice.I have been on esa sg since 2019. i have sent an esa 50 form december 2023 i haven't heard anything snice.I have submitted uc on the 18th of December2024.Is it common uc triggers health assessment appointment on the end of january.Thank you

KxMx

No that's not common, what exactly is the wording for this appointment? 

zaklah1964

the message states that.we have been asked by the dwp to carry out an assessment for your esa.this is part of wca.I have just come cross goverment sites that states that if esa review dates has passed. i believe my assessment was due December 2023. uc will apply 3 months referral from the date of uc claim