failure to attend pca medical can client claim esa without new condition?

client failed to attend pca medical.  can she claim esa without a new condition.

i think i am right in saying this cant be done within six months if client failes a pca medical but unsure on failure to attend.

They can claim ESA ok if it was a PCA they missed (i.e. previous claim was for IB/IS).

From 28th June the ESA regs were amended making this a problem. The normal situation is that a claimant can be paid ESA before they have the WCA because they are treated as having a limited capacity for work. Where someone has failed a WCA or failed to attend one in the last 6 months they cannot be treated as having LCW until they have a medical so have to wait for the WCA before they can get any money. The amendment from 20th June extends this to cover people who have failed the PCA or failed to attend a PCA so whilst your client could claim ESA they will not get paid whilst waiting for the WCA. Her are links to rightsnet stories on the changes (misleading title):

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/news/story/Payment-of-employment-and-support-allowance-where-an-appeal-has-been-made/

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/news/story/payment-of-employment-and-support-allowance-where-an-appeal-has-been-made1/

Sorry, I missed that. Thanks for letting me know. More problems then.

The commencement date for the amendments is 28th June. Does that mean that if someone failed to attend a PCA in say April was to make a claim for ESA today and asks for 3 months backdating they should be treated as having a LCW from April to 27th June but then treated as not having LCW from 28th June up to the WCA, and get an arrears payment for April to 27 June?

thanks for the link damian.  i was searching for that qukcly the other day but couldnt find it.

from reading that though it seems to suggest that it would only stop those who failed to submit the ib50 rather than to attend an actual medical?  i may well be wrong in my reading of that.

Its this bit:

“8) In regulation 30 (conditions for treating a claimant as having limited capability for work until a determination about limited capability for work has been made) at the end of paragraph (2)(b) insert “; or” and the following sub-paragraph—

“(c) that it has not, within the 6 months preceding the date of claim, been determined, in relation to the claimant’s entitlement to any benefit, allowance or advantage, which is dependent upon the claimant being incapable of work, that the claimant is capable of work, or is to be treated as capable of work under regulation 7 or 8 of the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) (General) Regulations 1995 (“the 1995 Regulations”)(16), unless—
(i) the claimant is suffering from some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement from which the claimant was not suffering at the time of that determination,
(ii) a disease or bodily or mental disablement from which the claimant was suffering at the time of that determination has significantly worsened, or
(iii) in the case of a claimant who was treated as capable of work under regulation 7 of the 1995 Regulations (failure to provide information), the claimant has since provided the information requested by the Secretary of State under that regulation.”.

There is a reference to reg 8 which is the missing a medical reg for incap.