IMPORTANT CHANGES TO ESA

Gordon wrote: I am sure that many of you are aware that a number of changes to the ESA Regulations (that define how the benefit is operated), and the ESA Descriptors (that define eligibilty for the benefit), come into effect from today, Monday 28/01/13.

Now that Steve has had a chance to go through the legislation in detail we are updating our advice to members in regard these changes.

- Anybody who has already received a Decision on their claim will continue to receive their benefit based on what are now the previous Regulations and Descriptors. Any Appeal or Reconsideration that you make should also be based on the these old Regulations and Descriptors.

- As from today, anyone receiving a new ESA50 either because of a new claim, a re-assessment, or because they are being transferred from another benefit to ESA, will be assessed using the new Regulations and Descriptors.

- Anybody who has already received an ESA50, but is still waiting a Decision, will be assessed using the old Descriptors, however, and this is a change from my tentative advice of last week, they will be assessed using the new Regulations.

- All Decision made on or after 28/07/13 will be made using the new Regulatiosns and Descriptors, irrelevant of when the ESA50 was issued.

The amended Regulations, which will affect all claimants awaiting a Decision, make the following changes.

- The definition of Hospital In-Patient is changed.
- The definition of cancer treatment is changed.
- Regulation 29 (Exceptional Circumstances for the WRAG), is amended to allow the reasonable adjustments of the working environment, and the taking of prescribed medecines, to be considered by Decision Makers.
- It is now only possible to score points for the Physical activities (questions 1-10) if the claimant can show that they have an underlying physical condition, and for the Mental Health ones (questions 11-17), if the can show they have a mental health condition.

Steve is hoping to make updated Claim guides available today or possibly tomorrow, an updated Understanding ESA guide should be avilable by the end of the week.

It is still not clear if the current ESA50 is to be updated because of these changes, so could anybody receiving one, let us know the the reference number which should be found on the botton left of the first page. The current reference number is "ESA50 03/11".

Gordon