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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Work capability issues and ESA  →  Thread

thinking you’ve seen it all

Elliot Kent
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Shelter

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A new client came in today saying that she claimed income related ESA in 2012 and has been patiently waiting for her medical assessment since. She is still getting the assessment rate..

We ring up the enquiry line expecting to hear some alternative explanation and instead I am told that yes, this is absolutely correct. The case was referred to Atos/Maximus in Spring 2013 and if the client is unhappy about the delay she needs to speak to them directly - the Department won’t be taking any further steps to chase it up.

I await my 24 hour callback…

Mr Finch
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Benefits adviser - Isle of Wight CAB

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Elliot Kent - 29 March 2017 07:32 PM

The case was referred to Atos/Maximus in Spring 2013 and if the client is unhappy about the delay she needs to speak to them directly - the Department won’t be taking any further steps to chase it up.

It’s not as if there was a widely reported 2015 test case which held that they remain responsible for such unreasonable delays…

Benny Fitzpatrick
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Welfare Rights Officer, Southway Housing Trust, Manchester

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Elliott, surely you realise that the DWP are responsible for nothing whatsoever?

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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Benny Fitzpatrick - 30 March 2017 01:18 PM

Elliott, surely you realise that the DWP are responsible for nothing whatsoever?

That’s wholly unfair. They use statistics very responsibly!

Oh, hang on…

Geri-G
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Welfare reform team - North Ayrshire Council

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I have a similar case. Client actually failed an appeal and he is still on assessment rate.I have called DWP several times and they state they have no idea why.They don’t seem particularly bothered. He hasn’t been called for WFI, he has generally been left alone. He doesn’t want to me to chase it up anymore as he gets his pension in a couple of months, so really doesn’t want to go through the whole JSA route. He would get the same payment anyway, just a difference in conditionality.