4 years in ESA assessment phase

My client applied for ESA in July 2017. She failed HRT, challenged it and won. She was sent a questionnaire but never returned it. Never had a medical. She kept getting assessment rate plus SDP. She was never placed in WRAG or SG.

She then claimed UC, September 2021. She has now been sent an appointment for medical + UC50.

I don’t have a slightest idea what is the best tactic here as it seems there are issues on both sides, like client not returning questionnaire and DWP not monitoring the claim but paying out for 4 years the assessment rate.

I don’t want to harm my client accidentally, if for example her ESA should have been closed when she did not return the questionnaire.

So is it better to let the sleeping dogs alone or can anything be done to backdate….but backdate what? If she is found to have LCWRA now, who is to say she’s had it 4 years ago.

No idea how to bite it.

There have been a few of these cases where someone has managed to slip under the radar in terms of assessments for several years. I am sure if you dig around in the archives here, there have been people who have gone 5-6 years without an assessment. In those cases, where the person is eventually assessed, the relevant component always goes into payment from the end of the assessment phase - i.e. they get several years worth of backdating.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t look like it is going to happen for your client. That’s because she has now claimed UC and her ESA award no longer exists. If your entitlement to ESA ceases before the WCA is carried out, that is just the end of it and you don’t get an award of a component. The WCA which is now being carried out for UC purposes is distinct and it’s not clear that there is any basis on which it could now result to a component being awarded on the historic ESA award.

I suppose it would be open to her to complain about the consequences of having not been assessed more quickly,

Oh Lord, this Universal Credit just keeps on giving…
If she did not move the address, she’d stayed on ESA. Blimey.
Thanks Elliot, we will try the complaint route.

See post #8 from Martin at CPAG here https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/13163/  We were eventually successful with this (although it turned out that the relevant ESA claim had actually been for a period considerably shorter than 5 years in the end). I’m not sure if DWP ever understood the legal argument but it was desparate to clear the request once escalated and backdated the ESA claim as well as the UC one anyway.

A ray of light :)

I must try that!

BC Welfare Rights - 29 November 2021 04:42 PM

See post #8 from Martin at CPAG here https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/13163/  We were eventually successful with this (although it turned out that the relevant ESA claim had actually been for a period considerably shorter than 5 years in the end). I’m not sure if DWP ever understood the legal argument but it was desparate to clear the request once escalated and backdated the ESA claim as well as the UC one anyway.

Oh dear. Well despite seemingly having remembered the thread, I’d clearly forgotten about that argument or the outcome!

Good. Otherwise most of us here would think that you are perfect. At least we can see you are human 😊