ESA/UC Appeal

Hi

Strange turn of events (or incompetence not sure).

Cl has a ESA WCA assessment which was refused so we completed an appeal form for her in November 22, she mistakenly took this to the Jobcentre who (instead of either saying “not the right place” or sending this to HMCTS for her) completed a UC WCA MR for her despite her never asking for a UC WCA. Annoying thing is it clearly states ESA appeal on the form and I even completed the “reasons why do not need an MR” box.

She has recently moved over to UC with her partner who does have LCW. I completed an UC Appeal form for the client as the DWP believe this is a UC appeal so wanted to get that into the system.

Is it worth contacting the Jobcentre to find out why they did a UC MR rather than send the ESA appeal or should I just resubmit the ESA appeal as we are still within the 13 month time-limit?

Thanks

Adam

I’m a bit confused as to what has happened, but for your final question: Why rely on DWP to do anything when you can just submit the appeal and be done with it?

I’d also advise to submit appeal forms via the online portal: seems that would have precluded this whole situation.

EDIT: As for the UC appeal - Could you provide a timeline of when what happened? Seems to me a UC WCA appeal might not be needed - if there is going to be a backdated ESA LCWRA decision (that pre-dates the UC claim/WCA) once that appeal concludes.

That was my thought about just re-submitting the appeal directly ourselves - I’m very reluctant to do it through the online as it hasn’t worked for me in the past (maybe it’s just me haha) but I’ll definitely re-submit as normal.

Its not clear the timeline as the client is confused and the UC journal isn’t helpful so this is a rough timeline from what I can gather:

September 22 - Failed ESA WCA
October/November 22 - I completed appeal and sent to client to send off (that’s usually the easy bit aha)
Around December/January - Client made a joint claim for UC initiated by partner and gave her ESA appeal to the jobcentre
January 23 to March 23 - DWP completed an UC MR unbeknown to client

Its unclear whether there is still a “live” ESA claim now that the cl is on UC. I have explained to the cl that its unlikely we’ll get LCWRA but most likely will get LCW

Did she claim nsESA and UC? Or did she claim UC after losing irESA? Otherwise I don’t see how DWP could have MR’ed a non-existent UC WCA decision in January.

If the partner already has LCW there is no financial gain to appealing her UC WCA for another LCW decision. Might not be any point in appealing anything actually, unless she had a period w/o an income replacement benefit, or needed the work allowance.