Does old supporting evidence apply for ESA claim?

Bea wrote: Hi,
About 18 years ago I claimed income support plus disability premium because of deafness and mental health issues. I stopped claiming when my partner moved in with me (he was working). Now I am in a position where I need to claim benefits again.

I have applied for ESA after getting a fit note from my GP and have been put in the assessment phase and have the dreaded ESA50 form to fill out.

My question is: If my disability hasn't changed significantly since I last claimed, will evidence from then still be taken into account. For example, I have a letter from my then ENT consultant dated 1993. My hearing hasn't changed that much since then.

Sorry if this is a bit garbled, my head is all over the place at the moment!
I

I don't see why your evidence from 1993 should not be accepted providing you can show that your condition has remained the same or has deteriorated, it would be better if you had a more up to date report. Your post mentions that it has not changed much, would this be reason for your GP to refer you for further testing.

Be aware that ESA will assume the use of aids, even if you are not using them, so you will need to consider whether hearing aids and the like would be of assistance and include this in your answers on the ESA50.

Gordon

Bea wrote: I saw my GP today and she said she didn't need to write me a supporting letter because my profound hearing loss and long term depression are long standing disabilities. Is this correct?

I would like to say yes, but based on many years of feedback from the forum, neither the assessors nor the Decision Makers have any concept of a condition being permanent or one that the claimant cannot adapt to given sufficient time.

The only positive thing for deafness (and blindness) is that there are empirical tests that can be carried out and on which a Decision could be based, if your existing evidence includes tis information then you should be OK.

If you have a look at the WCA Handbook, there is a copy in the ESA section, page 98 onwards covers how claimants are assessed for sensory problems.

Ear infections would be a valid reason not to wear your hearing aids, but this would not be sufficient in itself to qualify you for the Support Group, for this you must show

(a) Cannot understand a simple message due to sensory impairment, such as the location of
a fire escape.

Gordon

Bea wrote: Thanks for your advice Gordon. Just one more thing to mention is when I last claimed many years ago, I was turned down initially and appealed. I won the appeal and still have all the appeal papers. Would anything from these be classed as supporting evidence for my present claim?

In principle yes, but you would need to go through the papers and only supply those that are relevant to the ESA criteria.

Gordon