CESA ending; now claim IR ESA + WCA delays

Hi all,

I am looking at a DWP letter for a client - says her ‘Contribution based ESA’ is coming to an end because she has been receipt over 365 days (i.e. claim made in November 2019).  It asks that she contact them as she ‘may be eligible for income-related ESA.’  Doesn’t say anything about Universal Credit.

She had a partial WCA in June - then received a letter from IAS saying ‘we can’t complete the assessment over the phone because we need to see you face to face.  We will contact you in due course.’  They haven’t contacted her.

Can I just check:-

1. There is no way that she will qualify for income related ESA?  Not getting PIP, has a partner.  The letter is misleading.

2. The decision taken by the IAS is going to completely skew things; her condition has changed throughout the period - had she been assessed at the 13 week point she would almost certainly have qualified for the support group - now maybe the WRAG.  Is the assessment going to take this into account?

Shouldn’t they have continued with the paper/phone assessment?  I have referred her to her MP and to make a complaint ASAP.

EKS

1) If she claimed in ESA November 2019 it would almost certainly have been new-style (unless an exception applied), so she is already under the UC system, with no prospect of claiming irESA.

2) The assessment should take into account her conditions at the time. If she has since improved I’d advise to seek evidence that she was worse before. DWP can superseede to reduce her entitlement for the later period.