asa conversion

buster wrote: Please can anyone help
my brother sent his ESA50 in march 2012 and this is the reply he had on 18th January 2013.
Dear MR ******
This is to confirm that from the 17th may 2012 you should have been in receipt of employment and support allowance contribution based and placed in the work related activity group but due to problems possessing your claim unfortunately it has a new date of 7th Feb 2013.Due to new legislation brought in by the government in April 2012 all Employment and support allowance contributions based cases in this group are for 12 months only from the affected date.This means that your entitlement to employment and support allowance contributions will end on the 16th may 2013.

He has not had any letters from DWP to inform him of this until 18th January 2013,so he only has 14 weeks left on ESA is this correct and lawful to do this

On the assumption that your brother is receiving Contribution Based ESA, that he is in the WRAG and that the ESA(CB) payments started on 17/05/12, then his payments are time limited to 365 days by the Welfare Reform Act 2012, and as the letter suggest, he should expect his payments to stop on 16/05/13.

This is not an appealable Decision, however, if he believes and can show that he should have been placed in the Support Group in May of last year, then he may be able to lodge a late appeal. Alternatively, if he can show that his condition(s) have deteriorated since May 2012, such that he would not qualify for the SG, then he can request a SupperSession (re-assessment) of his claim.

Whether he appeals or not, payments will stop as above, unless he satifies the means test for Income Related ESA, in which case he can be transferred to ESA(IR) and his payments will continue, if not, then he will continue to receive NI Credits which count towards a full State Pension, and providing he maintains his Limited Capability for Work, he can still make a request for a SuperSession at a later date.

Gordon

buster wrote: hi Gorden,thanks for the reply,my brother was not on ESA he was on IB this was his first ASA50,and this is the only letter he has had from the DWP also he did not have an assessment,as you can see there is a 10 month gap in the dates

It's not what he was on, but what he is now receiving that counts. If he is stilll receiving IB then this letter has been sent in error, if however, he is receiving ESA(CB) (as the letter implies), then his payments are time limited.

It may be possible to argue that as he did not receive a Decision notice that the limit should not apply until 12 months after notice was deliverd (06/02/14?), but I think it is unlikely to be successful, if he has been paid ESA(CB) since last year.

Gordon