ESA or SSP

My client’s occupational sick pay finished and a claim for ESA has been submitted. She was paid this for a couple of payments but this stopped. When I asked why on the benefit enquiry line I was told that she had sent off the ESA83 and this was with a decision maker? Client has had no benefit since 5th July.

1) What is an ESA83..have I heard this correctly?
2) Would the client have been entitled to SSP after occ sick pay finished?

Thanks

An ESA83 is what is sent to an ESA claimant who is claiming to have a new or significantly deteriorated condition, following a previous decision that they did not have LCW.

See What can you claim pending a MR of an ESA decision? about half way down the page.

Thus I would guess that as your client has just made a new ESA claim that, at some point since October 2008, she has a previous WCA failure and has been caught by the new rules on reclaiming ESA in these circumstances.

In terms of your other query, I would imagine SSP was paid as part of her occupational sick pay.

Thanks Paul for your reply. Much appreciated

Just to be clear, I would ask DWP to confirm that they do in fact have solid evidence of a previous WCA failure related to not scoring sufficient points. You might need to ask the contact centre to get the benefit delivery centre making the referral to call you back to explain why they’ve done what they’ve done.

It sounds like there’s no more entitlement to SSP. Employers ought to produce a SSP1 in the 21st week (from memory) of entitlement to SSP to tell DWP when entitlement stopped, but often must be asked to do this. If your client has received their 28 week entitlement to SSP, there won’t be any more. As Paul said, SSP usually forms part of occupational sick pay. If, however, your client has only been off for three months, say, with no previous sickness, she ought to be entitled to receive SSP for a bit longer.