jsa

Hi Derek,

I was working on the assumption that in all probabilities it would have been over six months from the date of the decision, hence the advice to make a further claim for ESA.

As I have said on numerous occasions elsewhere in the forum, it is advisable that if the DWP decide that there is no further entitlement to ESA from week fourteen at the outset, a new claim should be made to run concurrently with an appeal against the original decision. The DWP cannot simply decide that 26 weeks have not elapsed since the date of the last decision, and automatically disallow the claim on those grounds.

If a new claim is submitted, the ESA decision maker is obliged to repeat the WCA as soon as is practicable, and cannot simply delay the decision on the new claim until the outcome of the appeal hearing on the original claim. The decision as to whether the new claim succeeds has to be taken in the context of all the (new) evidence, which may or may not involve a another medical assessment. For this reason, it is not necessary for a claimant to declare that their medical condition has deteriorated or indeed that they have a new medical condition, although it would be preferable to do so.

If a claimant does not make a further claim following the initial adverse decision and waits until the outcome of the appeal hearing, if the appeal fails before the FTT and then the claim is renewed after that time, there may be a gap in entitlement particularly if the new claim eventually succeeds.

I hope this all makes sense?

Regards,

CD