WCA questionnaire confusion over dates

Hi all

my client has received a letter dated 11th June.  It tells him that his ESA has been stopped because he failed to return the WCA questionnaire sent on 11th June, and that a reminder was also sent on 11th June.  My client is obviously bemused by this and also says he has not received any questionnaire or reminder dated 11th June or otherwise.

I phoned Cosham where the letter was sent from and spoke to a man who refused to acknowledge anything was wrong with the dates the letter refers to.  I suggested perhaps some clerical error has occurred as the dates clearly do not make sense, and if the questionnaire had been sent on 11th June he has been given no time to reply to it.  He said that the dates were ‘irrelevant’ and that client has to make a written request for a reconsideration on the grounds that he claims not to have received the questionnaire, and that he should not refer to the issue of the dates in his letter.

Am faxing reconsideration request today but will refer to the dates in the letter, any opinions would be welcome please?

cheers

It is never really a good idea to take advice from the Department whose decision you are about to challenge on what arguments can be used, is it…..

Perhaps worth referring in your letter to Reg 22 of the ESA Regs 2008 (SI 2008/794) which provides:

Failure to provide information in relation to limited capability for work
22.—(1) Where a claimant fails without good cause to comply with the request referred to in regulation 21(1)(b), that claimant is, subject to paragraph (2), to be treated as not having limited capability for work.

(2) Paragraph (1) does not apply unless–

(a) at least 6 weeks have passed since the claimant was sent the first request for the information; and

(b) the claimant was sent a further request at least 4 weeks after the date of the first request, and at least 2 weeks have passed since the further request was sent.

So any decision to stop your client’s ESA where the 6 weeks (4 plus 2) have not passed since the notifications were issued is incorrect. It is for the DWP to prove that they sent the notifications.

Thank you for this, Martin, you are right about not taking advice from the DWP and you’ve saved me some time by advising which regs to quote : )