ESA medical report used for DLA decision

i had a client refused DLA and part of the reason given was the report from her ESA medical in which she was scored 0 points.

she has now had her ESA appeal allowed and has satisfied the consition that she wasnt and still isnt fit for work. might the successful appeal now have a different bearing were my client to reapply for DLA again? in that as the ESA examination was later found to be inaccurate it now wouldnt be relied on as acceptable evidence towards the DLA decision

I would advise appeal against the negative DLA decision if you feel client meets the criteria rather than a new claim. Include a copy of the successful ESA decision notice with the appeal and point out that the ESA medical assessment was not a true reflection of her disability/difficulties, etc. Any additional supporting evidence you can obtain (from GP, etc) would, as always, be helpful (your client may have supporting evidence used for the ESA appeal which would also be helpful for the DLA challenge).

unfortunately she’s out of time to appeal so it’ll have to be a new claim

however i suppose i could include a letter stating that the ESA appeal was won and include some of the confirming evidence from her GP and specialists etc

excellent idea

Perhaps a little more risky could be to apply for A WSOR for the successful ESA appeal and use this as evidence for the DLA. The panel is a lawyer Doctopr and oral and observational evidence is taken. This could give good grounds for DLA and a defective ESA medical but if client statements and reasoning by court provide evidence for ESA not DLA then it could back fire. Don’t forget absolute timelimit for DLA appeal rather than month and consider if client condition has changed. I’ve used this successfully.

Another tatic is when you see a client who has failed ESA medical consider applying for DLA after GP medical evidence is received for that appeal.  Advantage is that at least the case will be considered against the all medical evdemcve but paid later rather than DLA refused further appealled and then possibly paid from a earlier date several months down the line.