Can a point of appeal be a decision maker call

0124katee wrote: I ve lost my ESA at a medical , I ve been informed today that the Decision maker had tried to phone me on wed 30 Nov, and couldn't get through , .. The reason being I do the permitted work they allow me to on that day ! And so bring as its in a school exam rule I couldn't answer my phone ..

Is this point worth a mention in my appeal to them ? They never left message or tried the next day .. So never got my point of view ..

Please advise , thank you

The Decision Maker trying to call you is not required by law, so no it would not be something that you could use at appeal.

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our ESA MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the ESA area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/esa1

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report (ESA85) if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon