Thu 27-Aug-09 12:50 PM by Antonina

Hi lovely people,
I am trying hard to deal with a simple case but I am hitting on a rock with the Glasgow DWP.

Client applied for ESA in May 2009, requested a backdate on the 15th June / they say have received it on the 24th June/. Her payments started on the 16th June 2009, was then asked to attend medical / we have send them sick notes already starting 24th February/. Client unable to attend was told to ask for a letter from the GP so she can get assessed at home. Done this and then told by the medical team that they dont need to assess her and have send the file back to Glasgow.

Since then I am fighting with them as they can not see her file with medical notes and are still not paying her the Support component. On the other hand was told that to get backdate she needs to fill in ESA1 form and she can only get backdate from the date they received the request which is 24th June / backdate for 3 months until 24th March/ not the start date of her sick note which is February 2009.

I can not find the papers where it says from when they should be backdated, the date when DWP receives the request or the date from which you are incapable of work.

Also why do we have to fill in this ESA1 form, what for ???? We already submitted one when she made the claim.

Please please help

Thanks

It is certainly the usual rule that an application for backdating can only be taken back for three months from the date it is received, for any benefit. This is the effect of Regulation 19 of the claims and payments regs. What you have to do is put in a late claim for benefit from an earlier date, and until there is a claim for benefit for the earlier date there is nothing for regulation 19 to bite on. I
t is technically not backdating but extending forward the date on which you can claim for benefit for any day on which you would otherwise be entiteld had you claimed in time.
Until you ask for the claim to be treated as made earlier how is anyone to know that that is what you want?

Hi Adrian and big thank you for your help but I am a bit confused. In other words what you say is that we should not ask for backdate but make a late claim from February 2009. How do I go about that one, we will receive the ESA1 is there an option on the form?

Thank you once again

Too late. The maximum time that the time to make a claim for any particular day can be extended for is 3 months. So in order to claim for 1 February, the latest you could claim and make an application for the claim to have been treated as made on 1 February would be three months later, 1 May.

Hi what really gets me worried is that the backdated request once received triggers the 3 months from the date of receipr. I was thinking about cases and say client A receives ESA from June 2009 but in November 2009 makes a claim for backdate from March 2009 until 2009 / the start of his oroiginal claim/, there is a supported letter from GP / sick note/ and backdating request given a good cause of not claiming prior June 2009.
If the Reg.19 states that we can only backdate for 3 months from the date the request was received then Client A will be entitled to 3 months backdate from August 2009 but she already had a valid claim for that times.

Really confused sorry

And why the hell they are sending us ESA1 form ???

Good cause has nothing to do with it, certainly for the contributory benefit. There, you have an automatic right to backdating for up to three months from the date of application.

In the means-tested version, it can be backdated for a maximum of three months from the date of application (ie for backdating) if the reason for claiming earlier was one of those listed in Regulation 19(5) and under no other circumstances whatsoever, however good the reason for the delay.

In the circumstances you have desribed it is simply to late to request backdating to March. It would have been necessary to ask for it at the time of the claim in June.

Hello and thank you for your advice hope to get things sorted will update you on the outcome.

thanks once again