Migration and special rules

Does anyone know if there is any guidance on esa migration and special rules claims.  I was hoping my clients would all be ignored but I have the first this week.  They have told her that she has to fill in the ESA50 anyway even though she would be if this was a new claim.  DS1500 went with special rules claim for dla 18 months ago.

hi -

written questions and answers in parliament on this subject yesterday -

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will amend his Department’s ESA50 questionnaire to include specific questions on whether the respondent is suffering from a terminal illness. [67691]
Chris Grayling: We aim to treat people with terminal illness (defined as less than six months to live) sensitively and to ensure they are allowed the additional support of the Support Group as quickly as possible, without the need for a face-to-face assessment. To do this, employment and support allowance has special rules that ensure individuals who claim the benefit because they are terminally ill do not have to fill out an ESA50 questionnaire or attend a face-to-face assessment, instead, in the vast majority of cases, they are placed in the Support Group on the basis of medical evidence from their general practitioner or treating health care professional.
Such medical evidence is usually provided in the form of a DS1500. If further clarification or evidence is deemed necessary, requests are normally made direct to the general practitioner or treating health care professional. As a result, we do not intend to modify the ESA50 questionnaire to include specific questions about terminal illness.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether there are any circumstances in which a terminally ill person in possession of a DS1500 form and migrating from incapacity benefit to employment support allowance would be required to undergo a work capability assessment. [67692]
Chris Grayling: Anyone who claims employment and support allowance because they are terminally ill and they meet the criteria for terminal illness (that they have less than six months to live), such as through evidence on a DS1500 form, will not be required to undertake a face-to-face assessment. Instead they will be fast tracked into the Support Group where they will receive unconditional support.
Individuals who do not meet the criteria for terminal illness may have to undergo a face-to-face assessment.

here’s link to hansard

cheers ros

The DS1500 was 18 months ago. DWP may be wondering whether the original diagnosis was correct, since “terminally ill” means that death can reasonably be expected within 6 months. This of course doesn’t at all mean that everyone of whom this is said will die so quickly, but it might at least raise the question of what has happened since.

I have come across (a very few) people originally awarded benefit under the special rules who had become stable thanks to advances in medical science, and were still alive five years or more later: not just alive but not even seriously ill. I think PDCS did a bit of a trawl on this around 5 years ago.

Brilliant Ros - Thanks this is just what I needed. 
And thanks Ariadne - with great forethought her GP has just issued another ds1500 for this client.  But yes without this I was worrying how they would deal with an older special rules claim.  The fact that special rules DLA claims are awarded for 3 years should be a recogntion that predicting prognosis cannot be done with hard and fast rules.  So the migration administration should be happy accepting the ds1500 for as long as the dla unit.  Well - we will wait and see.  I have a few clients who are still with us long after their 6 months. I’ll be watching to see what happens.