ESA Appeal & WFI's etc

If you were in the WRAG but on the next re-assessment scored nil points at the interview (condition unchanged & actually got worse) & moved off on ESA & on to job seekers (whatever the terminology) should you be made to do all the WFI's, attend weekly to job searches etc even though you are appealing?

Have finally been asked to send evidence & the appeal is only at the mandatory reconsideration stage, which was asked for straight away, (even though the job centre side of things were saying that had been failed, it hadn't & has added a few months to the whole debacle).

Just find it really unclear, I'd have thought if you were appealing you'd have carried on with ESA during that process. Incidentally the advisor seen while in the WRAG thought should be in the Support group so was only doing phone check ins, now there's a lot of pressure (on top of the appeal) about being worried about sanctions.

Hi Cat,

I am sorry you are going through this

You may know that the ESA regulations were changed early last year, so it may be that you have fallen foul of this. Make sure you are looking at the correct regulations when formulating your appeal.

If you have been found 'fit for work' then you will not be paid any more ESA until the MR has been carried out and your formal appeal has been accepted by the Tribunal Service, then you will only get the assessment rate. As you are not being paid, you cannot be expected to undertake any work focussed activities or interviews. This will still be the case when payment of the assessment rate has restarted.

Thanks, it's not actually me going through this (I'm in the support group myself) but a close friend is & it's getting to the stage where he doesn't know what to believe. He was totally broke, always living hand to mouth (very long term mobility affecting disability that has got worse with age) so had to go onto job seekers as he couldn't be without money. He's actually worse now 'officially' - had delayed hospital appointments eventually so had new mri's etc as evidence, so will be sending all that off as requested.

It just seems like they've upped the pressure on him & we're worried that because he's attending all these appointments that they'll say if he's fit enough to do that he's fit enough to work,. It's crazy as just a couple of weeks before the advisor that he saw when in the WRAG had been apologising to him because he realised he couldn't even sit long enough to attend some similar things.

He's got to get the evidence in by mid-August for the reconsideration, but the added stress /actual pain from attending these things he's getting about looking for a job isn't helping.

Cat, I'm sorry, I had missed the fact that your friend had had to claim JSA. In that case my comments about not having to undertake WFIs is mistaken

Gordon wrote:
both the DWP and the Tribunal panel can only consider his condition as it was when the Decision was made.

However, a deteriorated condition does allow him to make a new claim for ESA immediately, this can be done in parallel to his challenge to the original claim, the ESA Assessment rate should be the same as what he is currently receiving with JSA and the DWP should be able to do a rapid claim with no waiting time.

Thanks, that's good info to know. He hadn't had the tests done at the time of the original decision but he'd already had the referrals from other hospital depts as they knew he was getting worse and the treatments they'd already tried weren't helping. Of course no medical reports were looked at along with his new ESA claim - I'd told him to send ones anyway, but he didn't believe me that they wouldn't ask - & it really did hinge on the interview (though personally knowing his condition/answers he should have easily got enough points to remain in the same group anyway - & I think be moved to support group - on the form alone). Unfortunately he felt she wasn't listening to his answers & had just made her mind up what she was selecting.

The option of making a new claim will hopefully relieve some of the stress. He's just infuriated that even though he has a clearly visible disability no-one seems to be asking him about it (though he does tell them, he feels they don't believe him). He can't even sit still for any great length of time, so these job centre appointments are causing him a lot of pain and then he's unable to cope with everyday tasks during the rest of the week.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I will no doubt be back if the reconsideration stage fails, he has said he'd fight all the way through appeal process if necessary but I didn't see how he could cope if he was having to deal with all these JSA requirements as well. So looks like that deterioration might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.