Withdrawing cbESA claim

Client had been on Contribution based ESA for quite a while.

Was sent an ESA3 to assess her for income based, she didn’t return it as she has a partner who works and knew she wouldn’t be entitled.

DWP arranged a compliance interview, which she said she could not attend due to her MH. A telephone interview was arranged and DWP asked for partners bank statements, savings, earnings and income etc.

Client’s partner did not want to divulge this information so client decided to withdraw claim as her partner said he would support her or she would try to find some kind of work.

DWP suspended clients claim.

Any grounds here for an anytime revision? Client felt forced to withdraw the claim due to not being able to provide the evidence DWP were looking for. Should they have requested it in the first place if client was on Contribution based ESA?

I’ve read the DMG on relinquishment of benefit, I’m not convinced DWP followed their procedure but can find no information with the SAR paperwork to evidence this.

Depending on if (or when) a superseding decision was actually sent to the claimant, para 25 of CA/3399/2016 could be of interest. The DWP’s rep at least accepts there is doubt that a decision based on relinquishment can be of legal effect, in a case where:
(a)  there are no notes on DWP’s system outlining that they did in fact do the steps they are meant to take to ascertain if relinquishment is appropriate, and
(b) there is no evidence of the superseding decision being generated and sent (a blank where there should be a date in the computer record of decision being issued)

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/591e9bfa40f0b63e0b000078/CA_3399_2016-00.pdf

An actual decision should have been subject to the usual appeal rights, is it out of time?

Side note, not sure how this jumped to a compliance interview ...  is it just the partner’s info that was requested? Or, might DWP have some idea she has an occ pen or earnings in her own right which could affect her c-ESA?

Is it too late to request an ‘any grounds’ revision of the decision to end her cESA?

Thanks for the replies, i’ll submit a speculative any time revision as there are questions around the relinquishing of the benefit and whether an actual deciision was relayed to the client, this relates to a 2019 decision. Not enough info within the SAR paperwork :(

The DWP replied with:
I think it may be helpful if I explain that xxxxxxxx previous claim was closed from 2 July 2019 as they had failed to attend multiple appointments with our Compliance Intervention Team. The Compliance Team are responsible for detecting potential errors on claims. This type of intervention can occur if there are inconsistencies with the data held by the DWP across a customer’s claims which require further checks. As xxxxxxxxxxx did not attend the appointments, their claim was suspended pending further contact. As there was no further contact their claim was closed on 12 August 2019.

Even tho client was on cbESA i guess they still have to comply in some respect :(

Compliance deal with all benefits and failure to attend appointments can lead to the action detailed above within the DWP reply. They may have information about an undeclared occupational pension that needs to be discussed.