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7 years 3 weeks ago #182663 by Suzi
ESA was created by Suzi
Hello,
I was on ESA, in Support Group for several years. I received Questionnaire 7 months ago for reassessment and I had gone through Medical assessment on 19/01/2017 and today some one call me from DWP office saying you are awarded 0 point after your reassessment and your ESA has been ended today and you can apply for Universal credit now. I told the lady that you have to send me the result of my reassessment.

What should I do now I am very confused.

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7 years 3 weeks ago #182685 by Gordon
Replied by Gordon on topic ESA
Suzi

I'm sorry to hear that you haven't received an award.

Dealing with the UC first, as you have been found Fit for Work the only benefit you can claim at moment is Universal Credit, unless you are not in a full service area, where your challenging the ESA Decision will mean that you can only claim JSA, sorry if this makes it more confusing.

Both JSA and UC allow you to present a Fit Note and be excused from any Job Search requirement, for JSA it is 13 weeks, for UC I believe it is only 4 weeks.

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

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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