Staying on ESA during appeal in full service area

Just had e-mail from DWP confirming that:

“If the person avoids claiming UC full service (and/or new style JSA) during the Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) period, they can revert to old style Employment Support Allowance (ESA) either (a) on winning the MR or (b) on lodging an appeal, because ESA can be re-awarded in both cases without a new claim having to be made. In fact for (a) it’s a revision of the original ESA award to put it back into payment.

If the Housing Benefit (HB) award were closed, then a new HB claim would not be possible when the old style ESA was re-awarded. I imagine that the Local Authority (LA) might also revise a decision to close the award in at least some cases, particularly where a MR decision went in the claimant’s favour, thus obviating the need for a new HB claim. But there might be cases where the LA did not.”

It is what we thought, but nice to have it confirmed

Phil Cole
Inverclyde HSCP

That’s good to hear Phil. Hope we see it working in practice.