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nsESA and existing credits claim
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Client applied for ns ESA last year, but didn’t have the right NI conts in the right years. However, his application was processed, he had his wca, and he has been receiving credits ever since.
When I called ESA this week to see how the client can resurrect his claim to get a different year of conts considered, I was advised he needs to make a “PIE-breaking” claim. The officer gave me the old claims number 0800 0556688.
Well, I’ve tried this number and gone round in multiple circles. And then I’ve been on the UC helpline. No one seems to have heard of this. I guess it’s some reference to closing the current credits-only, but am not even sure if this is advisable.
If I start a brand new ESA claim, we’d have to presumably go through all form completion, production of med note, the verification of ID again etc. But my client’s extremely fragile mental health may not hold up to go through this again..
Has anyone, please, dealt with anything similar?
(He gets PIP, but has a working ptr, so no SDP issue)
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Client applied for ns ESA last year, but didn’t have the right NI conts in the right years. However, his application was processed, he had his wca, and he has been receiving credits ever since.
When I called ESA this week to see how the client can resurrect his claim to get a different year of conts considered, I was advised he needs to make a “PIE-breaking” claim. The officer gave me the old claims number 0800 0556688.
Well, I’ve tried this number and gone round in multiple circles. And then I’ve been on the UC helpline. No one seems to have heard of this. I guess it’s some reference to closing the current credits-only, but am not even sure if this is advisable.If I start a brand new ESA claim, we’d have to presumably go through all form completion, production of med note, the verification of ID again etc. But my client’s extremely fragile mental health may not hold up to go through this again..
Has anyone, please, dealt with anything similar?
(He gets PIP, but has a working ptr, so no SDP issue)
Have done it with IB and olden ESA.
But not with New Style ESA, so be prepared for a slog.
Assuming he now meet the two NI conditions for what is Contributory ESA (sorry don’t have time to spell them out and from your post i’m guessing you know them anyway). Disability Rights Handbook has a great chapter on this area in particular.
Completing the form is one thing and ID because he currently has a ‘credits only’ claim, but should not have to provide fit notes on the strength of his having passed the WCA and having LCW/LCWRA already. May be advisable to download the New Style ESA claim form, and write a covering letter to attach to it, for client to take to appointment spelling out argument to get the process rolling.
I looked into this recently as I’m dealing with a potential PIE breaker (if he wins WCA appeal).
My memory of dealing with it in the old days was that you struggled until the one person in the ESA office who knew about it could be persuaded to take a look.
Happily, it’s still all there in DMG VOL 8 (41845 onwards)
I assume this stuff still applies to New Style?
Also makes clear that the ESA award terminates after 365 days - so after the 12 week wait a new claim needed, no action needed relating to credits as that is not a ‘claim’ (other recent threads have established this too).
Shirley just ring the new new claims number 0800 160 0350.
Belated thanks to Dan, Robbo and Andy. And to let you know that we were successful! Am posting as I thought the process I used might be helpful to others .......
I found a really helpful guy in ESA who checked for the PIE breaking claim route: his back office confirmed that the conts conditions were met by my client. We did have to complete a NSESA1 and to include a note that this form was only being completed in order to “satisfy the RITY’s requirements”. I included a letter to ask that if they could find a workaround on proving ID again as my client’s mental health is so poor.
I took the form and letter for scanning through at our local JC, but, 10 days later, when called ESA, they’d not received anything!
Called ESA again. They told me that the claim must be emailed to their inbox at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) AND NOT be sent via their internal system. Client’s name was to be inserted into the subject box, so I took the form and letter back into the JobCentre with these new explicit instructions, and requested it be looked at urgently.
It was!! 5 days later the claim was processed, and client was paid with the support component (as per his wca last year).
So it seems email and “RITY” is the key.
Cheers Everyone :-)