ESA Special Rules

Hello all

I have a client who has severe memory problems. She has failed to attend two previous ESA WCA and had her ESA stopped, but was reinstated on reconsideration after health workers submitted letters confirming client’s memory problems. Client missed another WCA in March, on this occasion she sent a letter in from her doctor to say she was too ill to attend, but ESA are saying they never received this letter. I sent a letterto them explaining client’s circumstances, but did not send in any further medical evidence as they already have the previous letters. On this occasion the re-consideration has been refused and is going to appeal. I have now sent them additional evidence from the GP. The re-consideration decsion makes no reference to the clients mental health issues, which I beleive they should do.

The two previous sanctions occurred before I first saw the client, and it looks like no-one has ever looked into special rules. Are there any special rules, that would apply, to stop this situation happening every three months, which seems to be the case at the moment.

As far as I can tell, you have 5 working days to show “good cause” from the date that you are notified by the DWP that a claimant has failed to attend. In my experiance it is best to make a phone call, log date and time and persons name and then put it into writting. This is i believe Regulation 53 of the ESA regs.

Decision Makers must consider any appropriate facts that are relevant when considering “good cause” but there are no special rules applicable as far as i know.

The 5 days only applies to JSA, failing to sign on, etc.  There is no time limit in ESA (or in ICB for that matter) for showing good cause.