What happens if i fail my esa tribunal

Professional Members. We support both claimants and professionals. These are just some of the organisations who have subscribed to Benefits and Work:. Over 80, claimants and professionals subscribe to the UK's leading source of benefits news. They accept i have problems, but not bad enough, even though my doctor is prepared to do as many sick notes and whatever back up letters i need to prove i do have problems.

It seems our doctors word means nothing now! What can i do now? I filled my limited capability for work questionnaire in on 26th August and had my medical assesment on 12th December , they kept referring back to my questionnaire, even though my health has deteriorated since then.

If i sign for JSA im admitting i am fit for work. By therealgeorgebush Started August Thread Locked. Start your own new thread. That way you will attract more attention to your story and get more visitors and more help. You just put in a new application, send in un fit notes and then it all starts again.

There's at least one person here who has to keep doing this. No if its more than 6 months from the initial WCA decision then ESA can be reapplied for as long as fit notes are provided. No they don't. They will just close your claim. They can not put a claim in JSA for you. So if I fail it what happens next. I am just trying to find out were I am going to be if I fail. I dont know the process. I believe you can appeal if the tribunal hasn't considered the evidence that they were given.

On the assumption I fail next week. What happens to my ESA. Is my money stopped? What could I do if this happens to me. If you fail you do two things. Firstly make a new claim for ESA - but you may need to wait for the old one to be closed down, make sure you send a fit note from your GP.

Secondly write to the Tribunals service and ask for a statement of reasons for their decision - this is the only way you can see if they properly considered all evidence. If you think from the statement of reasons that they did not consider all of your evidence properly, then seek specialist help CAB, welfare rights in order to take the matter to upper tribunal.

So if I fail and the Esa is closed down. I reapply, is there a disruption to my monies, e g current assessment ESA and housing benefits. Bit stressed. There may be a small wait for the new claim to be processed. As long as you keep the housing benefit dept up to date with what is happening, and provide any details they ask for, there should be no issue with HB.

I reclaim How could I make it so that monies are paid as normal should I fail? I am going to be without money? What is a small wait Estellyn? You can ask for one online or using the SSCS1 form. If you have used our mandatory reconsideration tool, you can copy and paste wording from the letter generated to help you make your case. If you did not need to have a mandatory reconsideration, or did not use our tool, see our advice as to what wording to use to ask for an appeal on How to ask for an appeal below.

In addition, make a note of anything important relating to your impairment or illness which has not been included. Sometimes after you have appealed, the DWP phone you up and offer you a new award because they recognise that you will win your appeal. Accept their offer if you believe it is what you are entitled to. If it is lower than the award you were hoping for, you can either accept the award and then appeal that decision without asking for a mandatory reconsideration or politely say no and continue to appeal.

See What to prepare before the Hearing for details. Step 7 - You will be told the date of the hearing. Keep a copy. They will make a new decision. See page What will happen at the hearing? See If one month has already passed. If you do not need to ask for a reconsideration, it will say so on the letter that the DWP sent you about the decision. If you want to ask for a mandatory reconsideration and an appeal at the same time you can, but it is likely to get confusing.

It is best to do one or the other. We would advise you to go straight to appeal. Remember any advice they give you is likely to be incorrect and may be self-serving. We suggest you get independent advice if you can, or follow the information in this guide. When you ask for the DWP to look at their decision again, people are often told that they need to provide further medical evidence or there is no point.

This is technically true, but it is not common. Be aware that the DWP are trying to put you off. We suggest that you look at the descriptors that you meet and the points that you think you should have got - if you get far more than 15 points, it is unlikely that you will lose your award completely. Technically you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration over the phone, but it is definitely better to do it in writing. Only ask for a mandatory reconsideration over the phone if you are about to miss the one-month time-limit.

If you do this, follow up your request in writing. There is a form you can use but we suggest that you write a letter using our free Work Capability Assessment Mandatory Reconsideration Tool. If you have any more evidence that you think will help for example, a letter from your doctor, social worker, support worker, or carer, or any other recent reports you have had send that too.

If you need a few weeks to get more evidence, you need to decide if it is worth waiting. Instead, as you will probably need to appeal, get the evidence ready to send with the appeal form. If you have not heard back after 6 weeks, you should ring them and find out what is happening. If they have changed their minds, congratulations! Your award will be backdated to the date you claimed. If they didn't change their decision, or they did but still didn't give you the award you think you are entitled to, you should appeal.

You need to ask for one within one month of the date at the top of the mandatory reconsideration notice. Have you been phoned by the DWP? Often the new award was not as high as the claimant was hoping to get at appeal.

The DWP had to change their guidance. Now, if the DWP changes your award after you ask for an appeal they are supposed to make it clear that you can accept the new award and still appeal it without having to have a reconsideration again. It will help a great deal if you can explain that the delay was unavoidable or a result of your illness or disability. For example, if you were unable to deal with it until now because you need help to deal with your post, you have depression, you get confused, or you were very unwell.

Longer delays will need better explanations. Similarly, if you miss the one-month time-limit to appeal, you can ask for an appeal anyway.

You will need to explain your reasons for missing the time-limit. It will be helpful if you can explain that the delay was a result of your impairment, illness or disability see above for examples. Other good reasons might be that you did not receive the mandatory reconsideration notice safely, or were away from home when it was delivered.

A judge will then decide whether to allow the appeal despite its lateness. The DWP then has one month to object to your reasons for missing the time-limit. If they do not object, your appeal continues. If they do object, a Judge makes the decision of whether or not to accept your late appeal.

Your appeal will only definitely not be accepted if 13 months have passed since you were sent the decision. You can find both the online system and the latest form to use on GOV. Both are easy-to-use and understand. If you use the online version a record of what you have said gets sent to your email address.

If you use the form try to keep a copy, or take a photo of each page with your phone. If you used our Mandatory Reconsideration Request Tool to produce a letter, go to your email or your account where it is saved. Look at your decision letter.

And then you can copy and paste the wording from your mandatory reconsideration request letter that explains the difficulties you have with that activity for example, I cannot cope with minor unplanned changes as I get very stressed and feel that I cannot cope.

It the bus stop is closed for example, I will get upset and need to go home. For less confident computer users, you do that by highlighting the text you wish to copy and pressing ctrl and C at the same time. Then go to where you want the text to appear and press ctrl and V at the same time.

If you did not need to ask for a mandatory reconsideration first, you will also need to add the following wording to your appeal form:. You can still use our Work Capability Assessment Mandatory Reconsideration Tool to help you with the wording that sets out which activities and descriptors you should have got more points for if you like. You will be asked whether you want to attend a hearing or whether you want the case to be decided on the papers alone.

Almost everybody wants to choose the paper hearing because it seems less scary. However, you are much more likely to win if you have a chance to speak to them. If social distancing measures are still in place as a result of the coronavirus, you may be offered a telephone or video hearing rather than to go to a face-to-face hearing. We expect claimants to have a higher chance of success with these than those based purely on the paperwork. If they offer you the award you were hoping for, accept it.

Often this results in a better award. The DWP must do this within 28 days, although they can ask for an extension. You will receive a copy of their response in your appeal bundle.

It is often around pages. Keep it safe. You will need it to prepare for your hearing. Sometimes the DWP recognise that you will win your appeal and phone you up to offer you a higher award. If this happens to you, accept their offer if you believe it is what you are entitled to. This is different to suggested changes to your award offered by a tribunal judge who has looked at all the paperwork as described on What to prepare before the hearing next.

The guidance below assumes you are preparing for a face-to-face hearing. You should still prepare for the hearing in a similar way.

Sending new helpful evidence and a statement sooner rather than later may increase the chance of the tribunal judge suggesting the right award if you are offered a preliminary view. There are a lot of things for you to do over the next few months.

So it is important to start preparing as soon as you can. Some things can take a long time. If you have not already tried to get advice, do so now See How to find an adviser.

Some advisers may be able to help do some of this preparation for you. If you are lucky enough to find someone who can help with the preparation, make sure you are clear which things they are going to do for you, and which you need to do yourself. Do not wait until you know the date of the tribunal, as most advice centres have a long waiting list. How long it takes for the hearing to be scheduled varies from three to 12 months, depending on where you are in the country.

It is useful to know how long you have to prepare for your appeal. You can phone the tribunal centre dealing with your appeal and ask them how long you are likely to be waiting for a date for the hearing.

HM Courts and Tribunal Service are rolling out a new system that makes it easier for you to track your appeal. This new system will send you texts or emails at crucial points in the process, when evidence has been received, and when your hearing date is. If it is available in your area, you should have received details of how to register when you completed your appeal form online or with your appeal papers.

You could also ask when you call your tribunal centre. If you are not getting any professional help to prepare for the hearing, you might want to ask somebody else to help you. You may not need any help, but it might stop it from feeling too stressful.

It might be particularly useful if you are not very good with paperwork or deadlines. If you do think it might be useful, think about who you could ask - do you have a family member, friend, neighbour, or someone who helps you who is good with paperwork and organising things? Look at the big pack of papers that you were sent by the DWP explaining why they made the decision they did.

Many people get very confused by the inclusion of relevant test cases at the beginning. The most important part is the report from the medical assessment. Read through it and look for anything you don't agree with. Make a note of all the things that are wrong. If you can, say why they are wrong. You can include this in your statement to the tribunal. This seems to happen horribly frequently.

We have heard of completely incorrect diagnoses being recorded, easily verifiable physical conditions being ignored or incorrectly recorded, and records of whole conversations that never occurred. It happens to a lot of people. Appeal panels know how bad assessment reports often are and so it is easy to get them set aside in favour of other evidence. If you are angry about it and have the energy for two things, put it in a complaint to the organisation who did the assessment. If you only have the energy for one thing though, focus on your appeal as that is the only thing that will change your award.

Support groups can sometimes be very helpful. There are likely to be other people there who have had the same problems, who can give you emotional or practical help. There are also online communities that can offer you support in the same way. There are also lots of Facebook groups for people with particular conditions. For most people, the thing that is of most help is written evidence from their doctor or other professionals. If you have a social worker, community psychiatric nurse, occupational therapist, support worker, or any other professional, evidence from them will be very useful too.

The most useful evidence will explain how your illness or disability affects you, and the help you need paying particular attention to the descriptors that you meet. Look at How to write useful evidence for a Work Capability Assessment appeal. This is a guide for your doctor, social worker, or anybody else writing evidence for you.

Mark the particular activities and descriptors you believe you meet on this page, and write the date of the DWP decision in the box. When you ask them for evidence to support your appeal, give them these pages and ask for them to comment on those specifically.

It will help them to write evidence that will be really helpful to you. The best evidence will come from people who know you well and who understand your situation. If your GP does not know you well, you should still ask him or her for evidence, but try to get evidence from other professionals too.

This could be your social worker or community psychiatric nurse, a paid support worker, a personal assistant, your occupational therapist, somebody who works at a day centre you go to, support staff at your school or college, or somebody else. You could also get evidence from a carer, friend or relative who helps you a lot.

You are appealing the decision the DWP made on a particular date on the top of the letter. You need to prove how your illness or impairment was at that time, not how it is now. Write the date of the decision you are appealing in the box on How to write useful evidence for a Work Capability Assessment appeal , before you ask anybody for evidence. Then show them the guidance. GP's and other medical professionals are allowed to charge for evidence and many do. However, if they know you cannot afford it they are often willing to do it for free.

Reassure them that it will only take the time of an appointment. Use How to write useful evidence for a Work Capability Assessment appeal and mark which descriptors you meet. Ask them to read it, so that they are sure of what you need from them. If they insist on charging you, consider whether you can find the money or whether they would provide useful evidence. If they will, it might be worth the money. If you cannot afford the fee, ask for the last two years of your medical records and for your patient summary record which lists your conditions, medications and the last three appointments.

They will give you this for free and it may contain some useful evidence. Evidence from your support worker, personal assistant, carer or anybody that helps you. If there is somebody who helps you a lot this might be somebody you pay, or who helps you at college or work, or it might be your partner, a family member, or a friend , they may be able to write some very useful evidence too. Ask them to write a letter to the tribunal panel explaining what help they give you and how often.

Show them the section for doctors and other professionals on How to write useful evidence for a Work Capability Assessment appeal - it will help them to remember everything. It can be very useful for this person to come to the hearing with you - so that the panel can ask them questions.

They may be asked to wait outside until their evidence is needed - so you may need to be prepared to go in alone at first. There may be useful evidence you already have or can easily get. Maybe you have letters from doctors or support services already that support your case. Perhaps you have had an occupational health assessment at work or for adaptations at home?

If you have recently been assessed and awarded PIP it is well worth requesting that report and sending it in. Similarly, if you have successfully appealed a work capability assessment decision previously, send in that previous tribunal decision, or ask the tribunal office to find a copy of it and pass it to the new tribunal. You should think about keeping a diary of the difficulties and help you need each day. It will help the tribunal panel to get a proper understanding of your situation.

It is particularly helpful if your illness or disability isn't the same every day. How the Touco app can help you get support around money and mental health. How banks are helping during the Coronavirus period. Tips for managing your money and mental health in Managing your mental health and money after government cuts.

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