ESA 98 Letter

TimeLord1

I was trying to find a template of the above letter online but cannot find an identical layout is anyone familiar with the above letter ESA98 
About Your Employment and Support Allowance your payments are changing 

Has anyone seen this before? 

rosewalk

These letters have been sent out to many of those moving to Universal Credit from Income Related ESA. Many of those receiving Income Related ESA were in receipt of contribution based ESA with a "top up". The contribution based part is being converted to New Style Employment and Support Allowance and will continue to be paid fortnightly. If you claim Universal Credit this will be deducted £ for £ from your Universal Credit. 

TimeLord1

Hi @rosewalk, I don't recall the bullet points and closing the claimants' claim before if they fail to agree what is being added into the commitments by a work coach. I couldn't find this form layout on the Gov.UK PDF. 

huckster

If a NS ESA claimant commitment is not accepted, the claim could be closed. As this means the claimant is not accepting they need to report changes in circumstances or to repay any overpayment of benefit.

The claimant commitments are basic and are unlikely to include work preparation,(for those in WRAG) activities unless both the claimant and Work Coach mutually agreed.

rosewalk

I don't think that the commitments themselves are any different with a New Style ESA claim than Income related ESA. In effect it is just agreeing the same commitment again. Everyone has to agree a Claimant Commitment for New Style ESA. This can be done over the phone and if you are in the Support Group all the Claimant Commitment says is that you agree to keep the DWP informed of changes of circumstances.

TimeLord1

So also, after looking this form up, it also stated this was no longer used as everything was now online. I guess it's auto-generated in the system by a tick box. 


I think it's badly administered and causes unnecessary stress to people migrating. A simplified statement could easily be drafted from the guidance booklets, not threats to close claims discussions of health issues preventing people from working. It's all unnecessary for people who will have vast amounts of information already.

Newcad

@TimeLord1I have a lot of the ESA forms saved (from the Youreable days) but unfortunately not an ESA98 (my collection jumps from ESA82 to ESA113).
An FoI request would probably acquire one, in a month or so, but it will be the latest version.

As far as I am aware the change from Old Style CB ESA to New Style ESA can only currently happen as a result of a Migration of the IR part of an ESA claim to UC.

Old Style CB ESA on it's own (ie. CB ESA without any IR premiums) should not be being converted to New Style ESA at this time for any other reason than a claim for UC being made.*

All Old Style CB ESA will eventually be changed to New Style ESA. but at the moment there is no legislation in place to allow that change to happen.
The only current legislation that mandates such a change is if/when a claim for UC is made.

*It has become apparent that ESA are actually jumping the gun and changing it if a Change of Circumstances is reported; despite the fact that they have no legal basis to do that. (Although when has having no legal basis ever stopped them trying it on?) 

TimeLord1

@Newcad I'm surprised you've not seen it, but apparently it stated online it's no longer in use, but it clearly is in use or is going to be useful to DWP in the future. A reworked version for the future Unemployment Insurance I don't think it will be long before Conts will be all manageable online. 

HillStreetBlues

Explain how your illness or disability affects your ability to work. 

Read my WCA findings

TimeLord1

It's the impact these old forms suddenly surfacing and being sent out to people unaware of the statement, bullet points and how it comes over to long term disabled https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum/10-dla-esa-queries-results/149475-esa98-letter

TimeLord1

All these calls originate from 0800 numbers, so don't ignore or block them if you're not expecting one. That could be rectified by them giving you advance warning of the numbers they will contact people from.