ESA85 received

hamida

The first stage to challenging a Decision is for you to request a Mandatory Reconsideration, this needs to be done in writing to the DWP, within one month of the Decision, to the office that dealt with your claim, have a look at our ESA MR & Appeal guide for details of the process, the ESA area also has template letters that you can use to make the request with.

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/esa1

You should contact the DWP for a copy of the assessment report (ESA85) if you have not already done so, I would phone them but again follow up the request in writing. Once you have the assessment report you will have a better understanding of how the DWP Decision Maker has come to their conclusions and will then be able to argue against them.

Your primary task is to show that you meet the criteria, there are many reasons you may have failed, you need to address each of these but don't get bogged down in criticising the assessment report unless you can clearly show that it is incorrect, it is a lot easier to argue the facts of the situation;

"the assessor recorded that I walked 50m, I did but they have failed to document that I had to stop every 10m for a rest due to breathlessness"

than their opinions

"based on my observations of the claimant walking I believe that they can reliably walk more than 200m.

When you have a better idea of the issues with your claim, come back to the forum and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

hamida wrote: Hello Gordon,


Thank you for your reply. I have spoken to the decision maker today which has been posted on the forum today. I am waiting for this in the post and see what it says. and come back again but as explained I have told the DM that I was going away for 24 days from 30th November and I'm not back till Xmas eve therefore I hope that she has recorded this and I will not lose out on my appeal date. and by the way she said that I get 10 working days not a month to appeal but I will wait for the mandatory reconsideration and she said she will try to get this done by phone as I am travelling in few day and I am dreading of that phone call now

The time to request an MR is defined in law the DM has no authority to change this, so you either make a normal request for an MR before you go away or make a late request when you come back with the risk that if it is not accepted then you have no further right of appeal.

Gordon