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This worries me
A client contacted me yesterday to say he had a “courtesy” phone call from someone at the ESA department.
There were asking him that as he scored 0 points in his WCA assessment did he really think his appeal would be successful and wouldn’t it be better if he claimed JSA.
I am annoyed at this development.
Has anyone else heard of this practice?
Has anyone else heard of this practice?
Yes - I’m sure there have been previous threads on this. It’s not just limited to ESA. Several LAs operate the same ethos - they ring claimants who have appealed telling them the appeal has no chance of success and, by the way, “We can send you a form to withdraw your appeal”. As recently as 2008/9, I knew (as a fact) of three LAs who wrote to to claimants asking if they wished to pursue their appeal and, if no response was received, the appeal was filed away with no further action being taken - i.e. not sent to TTS.
My client told me that the Tribunal judge told him he now had to apply for JSA after he failed to win his ESA appeal. This surprised me as it had been six months after his WCA failure. Obvioulsy, as appeals are taking around 1 year, I am advising clients to just re-apply for ESA.
I think they are trying to stop client’s exploiting this loop-hole.
My client told me that the Tribunal judge told him he now had to apply for JSA after he failed to win his ESA appeal. This surprised me as it had been six months after his WCA failure. Obvioulsy, as appeals are taking around 1 year, I am advising clients to just re-apply for ESA.
I think they are trying to stop client’s exploiting this loop-hole.
If true, isn’t such a statement by a FtTJ inappropriate? It either indicates the DWP party line is being followed and therefore at least leaves the door open for bias or, alternatively, if the advice was given in good faith, it indicates a demonstrable lack of knowledge. Either way, does it provide grounds to appeal to the UT?
This was always the practice in my previous guise as a IB decision maker now many years ago, but it was to explain the decision, go through the descriptors, advise what medical evidence they would need-also there are some clients that hadnt scored themselves any points on there IB50’s and no exceptional circs would apply so the appeal would fail anyway. In this circumstance advising someone to claim JSA instead is saving public funds.
This was always the practice in my previous guise as a IB decision maker now many years ago, but it was to explain the decision, go through the descriptors, advise what medical evidence they would need-also there are some clients that hadnt scored themselves any points on there IB50’s and no exceptional circs would apply so the appeal would fail anyway. In this circumstance advising someone to claim JSA instead is saving public funds.
The problem with that appraoch is that some people score themselves no points on the IB50 / ESA50 because they do not understand the questions, not because they have no problems.
and of course the wording of the ESA50 is so inadequate in relation to the descriptors that claims that a person has not scored themselves any or enough points fail to appreciate that the ESA50 is wholly unsuitable for providing any accurate “self score”