Esa and mental health

Hi,

I have received my esa reassessment form in the last week, i am in the support group.

Today, I had an assessment and was approved for long term psychodynamic therapy. Unfortunately, the waiting times to start is a6 to 9 months, will this affect my esa reassessment.

Thank you for your assisstance

Michael wrote: Hi,

I have received my esa reassessment form in the last week, i am in the support group.

Today, I had an assessment and was approved for long term psychodynamic therapy. Unfortunately, the waiting times to start is a6 to 9 months, will this affect my esa reassessment.

Thank you for your assisstance

Hi M,

Welcome to Benefits and Work Forum

It should not make any difference to your current ESA reassessment ,as you will reassessed on how you are now, not how you "May" be in 6-9 months time when you "May" have benefited from the therapy.

If you go through the therapy and you find that as a result of this your limitations are reduced to such an extent that you didn't qualify for the same ESA "group" that you were in at that time, you would have to report a Change of Circumstances to ESA, but that is something for the future, not now.

Just to make you aware that : The Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) (aka HAAS) (Maximus) who took over the ESA WCA Contract from ATOS on 02/03/15 now carry out ESA Assessments/Re-Assessments.

There have not been any changes to ESA Legislation since January 2013, however you should always use our most current Guides.

There have been some changes to The ESA50 itself.

Now that you have The ESA50, you may want to consider :

Using The PDF Version Of The ESA50 Questionnaire

Whilst referring to the guides on this page, 2nd & 3rd links down :

ESA Claims Guides

See also :

How long do I have to complete the ESA50?

ESA50 too big for the envelope

&

Sending Documents to the DWP or Maximus. (aka CHDA, aka HAAS.)

You should treat this re-assessment as if it was your first assessment and not assume that The Assessor will have access to any of your previous evidence. They may not even know that you are currently in The SG, so you should make it clear that you are.

It is therefore important that you reiterate how and why you still qualify for The SG, in that the limitations that you suffer as a result of your medical conditions have not changed nor diminished to such an extent that you no longer qualify for The SG.

Nor have you learned to deal with or adapt to your limitations since your last assessment.

If you are aware how and why you were placed into The SG last time, you could cite that also.

If you want to obtain fresh evidence such as a letter of support from your G.P., obtain it yourself and post it with the ESA50.

Do not rely on Maximus/DWP contacting your G.P. , even if you request that they do so.

They seldom do and are not legally obliged to do so.

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.

See : This Topic also !

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

bro58

Hi,

First, I would like to thank you, for all the help you give me and other people, it is greatly appreciated.

I had my assessment today and ut was the most strangest thing ever. If it lasted 7 minutes, that was a long time. I was a liittle bit upset before I went in, I was accompanied by a friend and they were shocked as well. The lady told me she had read all my reports, I informed her I had a new one re my long term therapy, asked could she photocopy it, looked at my tablets. Asked who did shopping?, who paid bills and that was it.

I panicked when she stopped, she said not to worry, "she was on my side", "she doesnt make the decisions, but she was in my sde and her report would say it". She walked us to the door and at the door, she said really dont worry, but please beware you might not hear anything for 6 to 8 weeks, as they are very long delays at the moment.

As you can imagine, I am really worried about this, i read your forum a lot and i cant remember seeing anyone been in and out in under 10 mins.

Thank you for your help

Thanks Gordon,

I think I would go up the walls, if I had to wait 6 to 8 weeks for a response on this.

I will let you know as soon I know, in case it happens to another person in future

Got ESA decision 3 Working days after assessment .