New style ESA

My husband made a claim for new style esa in March last year as he was unable to work due to his health and had paid his N I contributions for many years.
He had a telephone assessment in August. They wrote to say he will have to have a f2f assessment.
Despite ringing HAAS ( Maximus ) and DWP several times he has got no further. He has had a letter saying his benefit will stop in March.
He has made a complaint and has support of the local MP.
Any ideas to what else he can do?
Cheers

Thanks Bis. I will post back if he gets a reply to his complaint and what happens from here.

My husbands benefit has now stopped. He was told by DWP his telephone assessment transcript had nothing much on it.
After filing a right of access he has still not received the report. No one seems to care that he has lost his benefit. It’s a shambles.

Dealt with for client at start of year whose ESA was about to run out - he had telephone assessment but was told he now needed a face to face assessment - who said he could provide additional evidence - I phoned Assessment services to find out exactly what kid of evidence they were looking for and got nowhere - contacted local JC+ and got following email

I have been advised that the issue with face-to-face work capability assessments is one that DWP is still considering and that there is no resolution as yet.


In the specific case of Mr ????, CHDA advised me that a face-to-face assessment was required as he had been unable to supply sufficient information during his telephone assessment. If Mr ???? has further evidence that he can supply, he can submit this by post

Raised it with local MP who got following response

Dear Kenny,Thank you for your letter of 8 Februaryto the Secretary of State on behalf of constituents who contacted you about face-to-face disability assessments. I am replying as the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work.

It was necessary to suspended all face-to-face assessments for sickness and disability benefits in March 2020 to protect people from the unnecessary risk of coronavirus at the outset of the pandemic. I would like to assure your constituents that we have worked closely with our assessment providers to ensure appropriate arrangements will be in place for resuming face-to-face assessments as soon as it is possible to do so.

We are working with Public Health England, the Health and Safety Executive, and the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure we have appropriate guidance in place, and that assessment centres are COVID-secure before reopening. Sadly, given the public health situation has not yet improvedsufficiently, face-to-face assessments remain suspended.During the pandemic we have continued to assess people on paper evidence as usual, using this route as often as we are able to.

We have also introduced telephone assessments and are working closely with the Work Capability Assessment provider to ensure as many claimants as possible receive a telephone assessmentand a decision on their benefit eligibility. We are also in the early stages of testing video assessments.

We expect the COVID19 situation to continue to present challenges for the coming months, and I do appreciate the difficult circumstances that this can place people in. We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that people get the support they are entitled to as quickly as possible, whilst keeping people safe.I hope your constituents will find this reply helpful.Kind regards,

Justin TomlinsonMP