Esa stopped after face to face assessment

Banness wrote: Lost esa after assessment

I have ms and have been in support group since 2012. After attending face to face interview I received a phone call saying I had received 0 points and esa claim closed. Where on earth do I go from here

Do you know how you qualified previously?

The ESA Descriptors have not changed but the guidance for Significant Risk have been updated and it is now more difficult to qualify through this route.

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 had a face to face or ESA85A if you did not, 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

Banness wrote: Thank you Gordon. I received my letter yesterday stating what the decision maker had based my claim on. I received a phone call when I was in hairdressers from a man whose accent I couldn't understand. Basically stating I had received no points and had my condition changed since medical on 28th Jan.This was followed by a text saying claim was closed. I have rung dwp and asked for a copy of assessors report as I wish to have a reconsideration.
I have qualified for standard rate pip.
The assessment statement is based on everything I can do on " good days". Any advice would be appreciated

Without an understanding of how you qualified previously all I can say if you to go back through your ESA50, the assessment report and the ESA Claim guides to make sure that you have shown that you meet the legal Descriptors.

Many of the ESA Descriptors have multiple elements and all of these must be met to meet the criteria. Also make sure that you understand the requirement, some of the questions on the ESA50 suggest different criteria from the actual Descriptors.

Gordon