We have been recieving a number of appeal bundles from DWP where the ESA50 is not included and apparently cannot be found. Is this something anyone has come across already? and if so were you able to sucessfully challenge it?

Any tips/advice welcome!!

Thanks

I've had a number of these too, but in every case none had ever been sent to the client. In most of them the EMP had remarked on this in the medical assessment.
As far as I am aware there is no legal requirement for an ESA50 and the lack of one can in my experience be more of a help than a hindrance.

I just saw a new client who was never sent an ESA50. A form had been sent to GP and the claimant was sent straight to a medical after that.

I actually quite like that - at least my client has not said anything yet that could harm her case and I am drawing up a statement for her setting out what she would have said if she had received the ESA50.

But I just wanted to check that there really is no requirement to have an ESA50 sent, or whether there is anything I need to say to the tribunal about this lack of ESA50.

The Tribunal will have noticed. There are usually two reasons for the absence of the form: either one was never sent, or it was not sent back and the reason for the failure (usually mental health issues) was such that the failure was not penalised. It isn't that uncommon, or certainly used not to be with IB cases.