ESA and when it’s best to apply for UC

Good morning,

It’s been a while since I’ve advised on someone getting CB ESA and them getting turned down after assessment, I just wanted to check what the best procedure might be.

Client is self employed joiner, so physical work. He has bad knees and took a tumble as a result and damaged his shoulder. The shoulder is now worse after an operation that went wrong. He has been on CB ESA since March, on the assessment phase, had an assessment a couple of weeks again and has now been turned down for ESA.

I imagine the next best thing is to just call the line and enquire about CB JSA, you get CB JSA for 6 months, would that 6 months start from when he claims or would he only get it for a couple more months as he has been getting CB ESA?

My next question is; is it worth appealing? I can’t imagine he would be eligible for support group, though I haven’t had that in-depth of a discussion yet. Once established, if it is unlikely he would get in SG should he just be claiming CB JSA then UC and trying for the LCW within that?

If an ESA appeal is successful he would only get backdated money from any gap in benefits right? So if he does go straight onto CB JSA, and we do a successful MR he would only get about 2 weeks worth of money back?

Thank you for any advice/help in advance