Change of circs while receiving ESA pending an appeal

My client is receiving assessment phase rate cESA pending an appeal against a decision made last October that the problems she has with a bad back are not sufficient for her to transfer to cESA from IB. Since lodging her appeal (and more than 12 weeks since the IB/ESA transfer decision) she has been diagnosed with cancer and is about to start a course of chemotherapy, the nature of which would enable her to be treated as having limited capability for work-related activity. My client would not qualify for ESA on a new claim made on the strength of this new development. She has not worked recently enough to qualify for cESA on a fresh claim and her husband works full time so she can’t qualify for irESA. But can the award she is receiving pending her appeal be revised and increased on the basis that she now satisfies criteria that would enable her to be put in the Support Group?
If it can’t happen now, could it happen if her appeal is duly successful?

Thank you

No need for a new claim - can be superseded. Have a look at schedule 2 of the “conversion regs”. Para 15 introduces a modified reg 147A very similar to the standard one in the ESA regs. Para 3 allows a new determination of LCW where a persons condition has changed. There is no need for a new claim – he already has an award which can be superseded.

A separate issue but related to the same regulation: anyone got any thoughts on whether para (1A) (which is the bit that treats the NI conditions as met) applies where someone is appealing to the Upper Tribunal? I note it doesn’t have the qualification ‘until the appeal is determined by the First Tier Tribunal’ that appears in para (2) and reg 30.