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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Work capability issues and ESA  →  Thread

ESA – migration cases – inaccurate IRESA assessments?

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From the other side
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Sorry, nothing received! Have just checked and it was the right email address I gave!!

Mick Quinn
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Have sent you a test e-mail without attachments to see if gets through. Fingers crossed

Andrew Dutton
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I am still hacking away at this, and making quite a collection of cases. DWP carrying on regardless. 3 years now since they said they would look at the problem.

As mentioned by one contributor above, we are also now getting cases of clients who face recovery of NHS charges and the imposition of penalties as they have received free treatment to which they were not entitled - but to which NHS professionals, having seen the ESA letter, said they were!.

So far, NHS have backed down each time when sent a copy of the ESA entitlement letter and challenged, nicely, to work out what sort of ESA the claimant is on.  But it is further evidence of the sheer uselessness and indeed harmfulness of the ESA ‘assessments’.

Andrew Dutton
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Are folks still getting these? We are!

It’s worth sticking at it too - a colleague just pursued a case via Complaints Resolution and the client has been paid IRESA backdated to mid-2012, with EDP and SDP.

Total arrears £17,529.25.

I still think DWP needs to review all cases nationally: I picked up another one today.


 

NeverSayNo
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Andrew Dutton - 17 March 2017 10:18 AM

Are folks still getting these? We are!

Total arrears £17,529.25.

.....when reading this at the same time as I said “Brillaint” she said “Shocking!” which sums it up really - a great result but shocking that the DWP are not looking in to these routinely.

We are still getting these - my last one was going to tribunal this April until I asked in my written submission for the DWP to answer Judge Wright’s comments in CE/277/2014 about there being no claim to ESA on transfer and about why there will be an error of law if the DWP have not investigated IR-ESA entitlement before converting. This was despite setting out this exact case when we first spotted our client had missed out, again at MR stage and a 3rd time on the actual SSCS1.

It is the client who really misses out, but when you think of the resources used by us getting the DWP to do what they should have done in the first place ..... well that gets my goat!

From the other side
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I have a case pending UT as Judge at FtT didn’t believe CE/277/2014 applied never mind DWP accepting it!!

Dan_Manville
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Andrew Dutton - 17 March 2017 10:18 AM

Are folks still getting these? We are!

It’s worth sticking at it too - a colleague just pursued a case via Complaints Resolution and the client has been paid IRESA backdated to mid-2012, with EDP and SDP.

Total arrears £17,529.25.

I still think DWP needs to review all cases nationally: I picked up another one today.

I’ve got a couple outstanding; there’s one back to early ‘13 and I estimate arrears will be sniffing at £14k. Certain charity shops won’t know what’s hit them when that pays out :)

I must have brought in a good £100k in arrears for people this year due to this issue. 5 figure arrears cheques are pretty common.

Daphne
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NAWRA is planning to write to Damian Green about this issue pushing for DWP to do trawl of all conversion cases - will update in due course…

Dan_Manville
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Daphne - 21 March 2017 01:40 PM

NAWRA is planning to write to Damian Green about this issue pushing for DWP to do trawl of all conversion cases - will update in due course…

I don’t suppose you plan to run a book on the answer?

Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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Dan Manville - 20 March 2017 09:04 AM
Andrew Dutton - 17 March 2017 10:18 AM

Are folks still getting these? We are!

It’s worth sticking at it too - a colleague just pursued a case via Complaints Resolution and the client has been paid IRESA backdated to mid-2012, with EDP and SDP.

Total arrears £17,529.25.

I still think DWP needs to review all cases nationally: I picked up another one today.

I’ve got a couple outstanding; there’s one back to early ‘13 and I estimate arrears will be sniffing at £14k. Certain charity shops won’t know what’s hit them when that pays out :)

I must have brought in a good £100k in arrears for people this year due to this issue. 5 figure arrears cheques are pretty common.

Same down here, one around £11, 000.

Daphne
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Dan Manville - 21 March 2017 04:50 PM
Daphne - 21 March 2017 01:40 PM

NAWRA is planning to write to Damian Green about this issue pushing for DWP to do trawl of all conversion cases - will update in due course…

I don’t suppose you plan to run a book on the answer?

There’s probably a bit of an odds-on favourite response I agree! But you have to try…

Andrew Dutton
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I am now finding that not only are these letters sheer nonsense, the figures used on the notorious last page are usually from about 2013….

Dan_Manville
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Andrew Dutton - 29 March 2017 11:00 AM

the figures used on the notorious last page are usually from about 2013….

Yep; one of my clients relapsed last year on reading that they’d gone back onto the assessment rate. Hospital inpatient stay thanks to a sloppy uprating notice. I did suggest the family complained but £50 ex gratia seemed like a hollow gesture.

Lorraine P
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I think this is probably the first time I’ve posted in this forum, (I’m normally more of an observer), however I’ve acquired a collection of these cases, and am interested in the experience of others.  I have clients nationally and with some of these cases the DWP have revised the award from the date of the conversion without any problem, and simply awarded arrears of benefit.  With other cases, they drag on for months, and when I chase the DWP, they tell me they’re dealing with the matter, but can never tell me when.  The latest DWP correspondence I’ve received for one of these cases states “the onus is on the claimant to make a claim for IRESA”, which I had to smile at.  It was either that or cry.  There doesn’t seem to be any consistency, rhyme nor reason in how the DWP are dealing with these cases, and the DWP don’t seem to have any idea what their own guidance says.  I’ve seen that NAWRA have taken this issue up.  Does anyone have an approach that is consistently working with cases like these?

Daphne
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Just for interest - you can see the letter to Damian Green on the NAWRA website. I’ll update when we have any response. If I don’t hear I will write again and some of those case studies might be useful to put pressure on…