ESA and PIP

Hi,
I have two queries as my son is having to claim PIP as his DLA award ends in August.I have also just had a letter for a new assessment for ESA. He was placed in the support group a year ago with review in the medium term. Can someone advise how long medium term means?. I am his appointee and as he suffers mental health problems and has an appointee are there any guidelines regarding doing a PIP assesement on paper rather than face to face. I remember reading something about vulnerable person would be someone with an appointee and therefore a decision on paper should be carried out. I cant seem to find the relevant guide again. I have a copy of my sons ESA medical from a year ago and it confirms how badly he coped at interview including sweating, not speaking poor eye contact and report etc etc....I worry for his mental health having to attend two interviews, the last one really had an awful effect on him. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thankyou

Hi 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

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I'm sorry you and your son are going through this I will try and separate the issues -

ESA
3 years in the Support Group is the longest usual award, 1 year does sound a little short for the 'medium term'. However, ESA is actually an indefinite award that can be reviewed at any stage after 3 months has passed from the decision. The length of the award does not form part of the decision and cannot be appealed.

Make good use of our ESA guide and don't forget that the assessor will probably not have any prior knowledge of your son or his current ESA award. Treat this as you did the original application, complete the ESA50 in detail and submit copies of whatever evidence, information you have in support.

ESA claims and appeals

PIP
When you phone to initiate PIP,. you will be asked whether your son suffers from any mental health issues - this is so that you/he can automatically be granted an extra 2 weeks to get the form submitted.

Yes, it is suggested that people who are very vulnerable should be assessed on paper if possible. However, if the assessor believes that there is not enough information/evidence on which to make a recommendation, a face2face will be scheduled. The more (relevant) information and evidence you have given, the better the chance of avoiding a face2face.

The criteria for PIP are very different from those of DLA and this has thrown some claimants. Our PIP guide explains the criteria and talks you through the whole process

PIP help for claimants

General -
Yes, send in a copy of the ESA medical that documents how difficult the assessment was for your son. If this can be backed up with a letter form your son's psychiatrist or GP, even better.
Don't forget that you will only see your son awarded ESA or PIP by satisfying the descriptors, so make sure you explain how and why he does this, in detail.

It helps us enormously when everything relating to one claim is kept in the same topic. Conversely, one claim per topic is ideal! So I suggest that you decide which benefit you want this topic to deal with and start another for the other benefit. You will find this easily in future if you bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now

Thank you for the reply and information given .I will use this thread for the,PIP enquiry and make a new enquiry for ESA.sorry to confuse .
Thankyou