ESA Claim still live - ESA50 form received

(I have noted I need to keep all my posts regarding my queries to this one thread).

My partner has discovered that his ESA claim is still live, even though for the last year he has not been in receipt of income from the benefit since living with me, as I work full time. It is live because he is having NI Credits paid, it transpires, and he has been sent an ESA50 to re-assess his capability for work.

I have a few queries, as the prospect of completing the form again, and possibility of a medical, is daunting to him ( he was placed in the support group without medical a number of years ago, thanks to our use of your guides - thank you so much). My queries:

1. He has well in excess of 30 years of NI contributions - does he require the credits to be paid for him by keeping this ESA claim live? And if he doesn't continue to have them paid, could that detrimentally affect future benefits claims?

2. If he does not complete the form, the letter suggests he will stop receiving payments. Does this mean only in relation to the payment of benefits referred to in that letter (ESA / NI Credits) or could it also mean his DLA?

3. If he decides not to keep his claim live, by not filling in the form, could there be another type of impact on the DLA he currently receives (or if not now, then when he is ported / assessed for PIP, which we expect this year)?

4. If he completes the ESA50 and is this time found capable of work (though he has actually suffered worse health in recent times than at the time of the original award), could/will that finding detrimentally affect his DLA?

5. - and this is a curveball. When I phoned to ask for longer for him to complete the ESA50, two separate departments told me that his completed form had been received the week before. He has definitely not sent it, and we don't know whether to suspect a mix-up on their part, an erroneous claim on someone else's part, or an automatic running through the system of his previous form due to him not currently receiving income from ESA at the moment. Any experience of this?

Many thanks for any thoughts or advice/experience you can give. I expect we will complete the form, but want to check what the options might be given that this doesn't refer to current living income.

Hi LPT and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

There are several issues relating to your partner's claim.

Firstly, the NI credits which go towards the State Retirement Pension. I believe that the requirement for a full pension has changed/is changing to 35 years of payments/credits so your partner should look carefully at this. It might be worth asking for a pension forecast, even though this is unlikely to arrive in time to affect the decision regarding the ESA.

Secondly is whether the ESA claim originated as contributory or income-related. If it is a contributory claim, which ceased payment after 365 days in WRAG, there is always the chance that payments would restart in future - if moved to the Support Group after a reassessment. Closing this claim would mean that he could only qualify for contributory ESA after several years in work.

If your partner decides to close the ESA claim, we advise doing so in writing rather than just letting it lapse. We also recommend getting face to face advice from a welfare expert before doing so.Again, I understand that your hand might be forced by the fact that the ESA return date does not leave you time to do this.

Whatever you chose to do about the ESA should not have any bearing on the DLA - which will be changed to PIP at some stage if your partner was below 65 years of age in April 2013

If you do decide to complete the new form, please make full use of our ESA giudes. You can also use the PDF version of the form if you find it easier.

ESA claims and appeals

Using The PDF Version Of The ESA50 Questionnaire

You should Bookmark/Favourite this page in your Internet Browser now.

That way you can return to this topic easily to pose any further queries that you may have by replying to the topic.


Thanks in anticipation of your future co-operation in keeping all your ESA related queries to this topic !

Much appreciated, thank you. I think we will probably go ahead with completing the form, and use the guides again; your observations are helpful.

Have you any thoughts on how they could think they have received his completed ESA50 even though he hasn't completed or sent one back yet? It's an odd one to us, and the person at the 'Further Evidence' team indicated that with the form now being in their system, there was no way for them to retrieve it to check what it was, or who it was from, until it has worked it's way through the system! Hopefully them receiving the actual form completed by my partner will make them look into what it is they think they have already received...

All the best...

Hello there,

an update to this thread I started a few months ago...

My partner and I completed the ESA50 he was sent. Letters from his GP and CPN followed (unavailable before his submission deadline).

He has now been given a face to face assessment date. We made it clear in his ESA50 that his mental health would be extremely vulnerable if he had to attempt to make such an appointment. He is trying to recover from extended difficult periods with his mental health at the moment, and has received support from his GP and health worker while his CPN is on extended leave.

If he tries and manages to attend the assessment, it would seem to undermine the facts about his condition for much of the time. Not attending would seem to finish his eligibility for ESA (which, as I stated originally, is received as NI credits that he no longer needs, not ESA income).

He would only possibly be able to attend when his health worker is able to take him to the appointment and be in the assessment with him.

Our reason for completing the ESA50 for the NI Credits was the worry that to not do so, and to automatically be found capable of work, would endanger his DLA when he comes to be ported to PIP.

Our ESA50 evidence was extensive, with letters from his GP and CPN. I don't know what evidence they think they are missing? In my first post I mentioned concern over being told that my partner's ESA50 had been received before we had even completed it...what if this assessment request is not the result of the evidence we actually submitted??

My partner is asking to see a CPN in place of his regular one, and intends to contact his GP for support, as he is struggling with this bombshell. I propose to call DWP to ask why they feel further evidence is required in this way. We will ask the mental health team whether they can intervene to explain that he is too ill and vulnerable to attend an assessment.

My questions:

1. What are the possible outcomes if his CPN, GP or health worker contact DWP to advise that he is too ill to attend a face to face? Or if we do?

2. Could his future DLA to PIP move (possibly this year) be jeopardised if he either fails to attend this assessment, or if he attends and his ESA claim is subsequently turned down?

3. How can I be sure that DWP have received, and put together, our full ESA50, and the letters from the GP and CPN?

Is there anything else we should be considering (apart from the comprehensive information in your mental health guide about the medical)?

Many thanks for your time once again.

A further thought to my message posted last night (not yet published) after talking with my partner and thinking further about his situation...

This pressure feels too much for him at the moment; he struggled through the difficult period when we were completing the ESA50 three months ago. Does he have anything to lose if he decides to write to DWP and to the assessors to say that the pressure of trying to attend an assessment is too much of a risk to his mental health at the present time, and that therefore because he does not require further NI credits (we are checking this, we believe he has around 40 years worth now), and does not receive an income from ESA, that to avoid further detriment to his health from the claim process, he no longer wishes to keep his ESA claim live?

Could such action result in him being automatically deemed 'capable of work' in a way that could damage his DLA entitlement and receipt either immediately, or when the time comes for him to move to PIP?

Many thanks.