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

Missing pages on ESA3 forms

csmk
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Welfare Benefits Specialist, Frenkel Topping

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Total Posts: 81

Joined: 16 May 2017

Hi,

Little burnt out at the end of the day, so apologies if this may be a silly question; hopefully this doesn’t have anything to do with the UC50 topic below.

Number of colleagues have had clients turn up with ESA3 forms issued due to incorrect ir-ESA assessments that have been missing pages 14-29 recently and have had to call DWP to request forms be resent (which is taking a while).

I was wondering if we could just print out an up to date blank ESA3 form and input the same office code/issue date and send this (completed) to the DWP instead to circumvent the waiting time?

Rather not do this and be told we can only complete forms that have been issued directly by the DWP.

Kind Regards,
csmk

Helen Rogers
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Welfare rights officer - Stockport MBC

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I don’t see a problem with printing out the missing pages and sending them back with the ESA 3.  When I did my Income Support training when I worked at the Benefits Agency (many years ago), the trainer told us about a claim for IS that was written on toilet paper!  All of the necessary information was there so the claim was accepted!

csmk
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Welfare Benefits Specialist, Frenkel Topping

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Thanks for the reply, will try and just print out the missing pages.

Whilst we’re mindful of office costs, I think we’ll use standard printer paper for this!

Rebecca Lough
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Welfare rights - Greenwich Council

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The difficulty is that blank ESA3s are not widely available.

I have previously used an ESA1 and written ‘treat as an ESA3’ on the front which seems to have worked so far too.

csmk
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Welfare Benefits Specialist, Frenkel Topping

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Now that is also a great idea, will definitely try that where we don’t have a blank copy.

I’m currently waiting on a FOI response from someone else’s request to the DWP. Previous versions of ESA3 have been successfully requested through FOI, so thought it might be best to obtain it and use it for this issue.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Ianb
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Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

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There is a downloadable form here https://gmwrag.wordpress.com/new-self-help-resources/esa3-change-of-circumstances-form/ (ESA3 10/14 version) which may help for filling in missing bits.

I am infuriated that the form being issued to review the IB to ESA transfers includes requests about hospital stays, rent, service charges etc - none of which appears relevant. They seem to have tweaked the form to include references to ‘between the dates on the front page’ without also going through it and saying “Do we need this information”.

csmk
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Welfare Benefits Specialist, Frenkel Topping

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Thanks Ianb. I’m currently waiting on this FOI request: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/electronic_esa3_form_out_of_date for the most up to date, will try and post on here when it’s responded to if this helps.

What about the statement: ‘Only fill in this form if your Contribution based ESA has stopped and you want to claim income related or if you’re already getting income related ESA and you now have a partner living in the same household’ for the 09/17 version. Now this would stop many clients from not completing the form at all on the basis that likely their C-ESA has not stopped!

csmk
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Welfare Benefits Specialist, Frenkel Topping

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Up to date ESA3 form (06/18) on FOI request here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/electronic_esa3_form_out_of_date