ESA

Hello in 2012 I was in receipt of ESA and was in the WRAG group. I then had a change in circumstances because after my mother's death I had some inheritance. I reported this straight away and my ESA payments stopped, however they did not close my claim fully and continued to pay NI credits. During the five years since, my health has become considerably worse and I now have multiple chronic illnesses. I have not been able to work all the past 5 years since I last claimed ESA and have been living off my inheritance. I found my self well under the threshold again to qualify for ESA so again I reported a change in circumstances , that was at the beginning of May. After sending in lots of bank statements they accepted there was no deprivation of capital issues. And after 3 months of basically dragging their feet decided that they couldn't go off my old claim and I should have been advised to open a new claim. So 2 weeks ago I did the telephone claim listing all my new illnesses all my medication etc. I am now in receipt of ESA and backdated for 3 months. On Friday I received an appointment letter for a work focused interview. They have not even sent out the ESA50 forms to me yet! So they have no medical evidence as yet from me, which I have plenty. So I telephoned them for an explanation. I was told I have been placed in the WRAG group for 3 months going off evidence from my previous claim! Surely this can not be right? Any advise would be welcome. Thankyou

Thankyou Gordon for your reply. What you say now does make sence, I was just baffled as to why they have placed me in the WRAG group for 3 months without an ounce of evidence from me. In regards to the work focused interview I telephoned the job centre explaining my health situation and they agreed a telephone interview would suffice, that happened today. I must say the lady was lovely and when I told her of my health conditions she was in complete agreement that I was to ill to attend the job centre. She told me to leave things with her not to worry and she would make some phone calls and help me to sort things out. She also said she iwas alarmed after hearing of more and more cases like mine. So I shall wait for the outcome of that. In the meantime I will be arming myself with as much information from this site as I can. I am also currently waiting for a reconsideration from PIP I have had standard care, enhanced mobility since 2013 and after a medical assessment in July I have had all my mobility taken away, I asked for a reconsideration by letter about 2 weeks ago but as yet I've not heard anything. All this added stress is really taking a toll on my health but you just have to keep fighting them.

Thankyou Catherine