mpmap
welfare benefits caseworker, money advice plymouth, devon
Member since 25th Jul 2007
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Failing to attend a WCA and making new ESA claim
Thu 15-Apr-10 02:57 PM |
Hello all Been to see a client today who has had her ESA stopped beacuse of failure to attend a work related assessment. Client contacted ESA to say she could not go, due to he rmental health isues and having regular epileptic fits. She even sent in a doctors letter stating that she was to ill to attend, but the benefits agency say they have not received the letter, but do have a record of the call she made stating why she could not attend.
As decision well under 1 month, I thought appeal and client would receive ESA in the meantime. However ESA told me that as ESA was stopped due to failure to attend a WCA, that ESA does not get paid during the appeal period, so the client would have to make a new claim for ESA, which I dutifully did. However now I have time to think about this, I am wondering if this advice is correct,as advice from ESA has not always been accurate, and it does seem a strange clause. Is this correct, do you not get ESA during the appeal stage if it is a failure to attend, unless you make a new claim.
The client was to distressed to complete a telephone claim, so ESA are sending her a form, so I could stop the new claim should the advice be wrong.
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