Question about backpayment of ESA

Hi - I am writing on behalf of a friend who I have been helping with an appeal for many months, which has just succeeded in getting her moved from WRAG award to Support Group, (at the Reconsideration stage after supplying extra evidence).

What I am unclear about though is when her backpayment should extend to as she lost her WRAG money in April due to the changes in the law (had had it a year then and was on Contribution based ESA and didn't qualify for Income based).

Her assessment was in March, but she didn't get the result until June. Am I right in thinking that because they took such a long time with her result that her backpayment of the extra amount will only go back to the decision in June? Or should it go back to the assessment date in March?

The DWP seem to be insisting that she should fill in an Income Related form for the March-June bit, and that doesn't seem to make any sense to me, as she is almost certain that she doesn't qualify (husband works 24 hrs).

Let's just check that I have got this right - your friend was already in WRAG, was reassessed in Marxh but payment stopped in April, whilst awaiting the decision, due to the 365 day rule. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct Mrs H. - she was in WRAG already, but I forgot to say that her reassessment was a paper one only - she didn't go for a medical in March. She was put in WRAG on a previous assessment, and I had advised her to try for the Support Group, and so in the new application she had put a lot of info about how her situation had worsened.

Once she got to April her money was stopped due to the 365 day rule, but the decision didn't come through until June.

I cannot seem to remember or find out for her if the back pay should go back to June when the decision was made, or back to March when ATOS actually did the paperwork and sent it to the DWP (who took a long time to make the decision). I can't remember how she knows when ATOS sent the paperwork to the DWP but it was done within a couple of weeks and still in March at that point.

Obviously she is very grateful to be put into the Support Group, but if it goes back to March then it would amount to quite a few hundreds of pounds, as she had nothing from them after April. (Obviously the March payment would only then be the difference between her WRAG payment and her Support Group payment, but April-June would be quite a lot of money).

All the DWP keep saying to her is to fill in the Income based form for between April to June, which makes me think that the backpay only goes back to the decision date in June?

Thank you Gordon. Much appreciated.

Seems unfair that she has lost out due to their slowness of decision, but I guess that their argument would be that she should have asked for Supersession at an earlier date.