TRIBUNAL success - ESA Support Group

After years of my son being in the WRAG of ESA we decided to appeal that he should be in the Support Group. This was as a result of a 69 minutes long face-to-face assessment (his seventh assessment) that was absolutely atrociously stressful for both my son and myself. I came out of the assessment saying that I could not ever face having to do that again.

So we went through the procedure to appeal starting last June (2024). The hearing was scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday 12th March. Two hours before we were due to arrived we received a phone call saying that the Judge had looked through all our evidence and had decided in our favour. The letter the week after confirmed that the Judge had advised that my son was not to be reassessed 'unless there was a change in the law'.

We have been using the Guide provided by this website for years when filling in the ESA50 and to guide us through the appleals procedure, we could not have managed without the help they gave us. Thank you for all the work you do for all of us. It is invaluable. I will just add that we kept sending in more evidence and with each cover letter we mentioned that there would be more evidence to come. We feel that the extra evidence, gathered from people who had worked with my son at Autism Centres, Support workers, OT's etc really did make a difference. Wendy.