ESA50 Again

I am expecting the dreaded brown envelope to be dropping through my letter box in the near future. It will be the third one for me, with first one i had a medical and was put in WRAG group and when i asked for a copy of HCPs report i received it and it was hand written and most of it illegible and i asked for a typed copy but this was refused as i was told the decision maker could read it with no problem, so moving on second form sent in the following year and no medical but after a fight with the DWP and a complaint to my MP about the whole process as advised by person from the benefits office i was placed in Support Group. Now my question is as my condition has not changed much well a little worse if anything can i just send in a copy of the same ESA50 as last year but obviously change the dates and such like, my thinking being it was enough to get me in Support Group last year so it should be again this year?

BigTam wrote: I am expecting the dreaded brown envelope to be dropping through my letter box in the near future. It will be the third one for me, with first one i had a medical and was put in WRAG group and when i asked for a copy of HCPs report i received it and it was hand written and most of it illegible and i asked for a typed copy but this was refused as i was told the decision maker could read it with no problem, so moving on second form sent in the following year and no medical but after a fight with the DWP and a complaint to my MP about the whole process as advised by person from the benefits office i was placed in Support Group. Now my question is as my condition has not changed much well a little worse if anything can i just send in a copy of the same ESA50 as last year but obviously change the dates and such like, my thinking being it was enough to get me in Support Group last year so it should be again this year?

Hi BT,

You can reference back to information that you have previously provided.

However, this does not mean that you could just send the same evidence, and state something along the lines that there has been no change, therefore I should still qualify for The SG.

You must bring the information up to date, and treat it as if it was your first ESA50, and assume that ATOS have no prior knowledge of your medical conditions and resulting limitations.

I don't know whether you used the PDF version of The ESA50, but if you have, the ESA50's have changed from 28/01/13. the old ESA50's were ESA50 03/11, the new ones are ESA50 01/13.

The new version PDF can be downloaded from the link on this page :

Using The PDF Version Of The ESA50 Questionnaire

If you do have a PDF copy of the ESA50 03/11 and you need to fill in The ESA50 01/13 this time, you could copy and paste relevant sections over.

Apparently, in some cases the DWP will be using up any stocks of ESA50 03/11, so you wont know which version that you will have to return, until you receive the paper version through the post.

There are now ESA Claims Guides to cover the different ESA50's, here :

ESA Claims Guides

You may also wish to review our : ESA FAQ’s

bro58