Advice please regarding DS1500 client with ESA awarded for period of 6 months.

My client has been given a DS1500 diagnosis by her GP and was awarded ESA Support Group in November following migration from IB.  She has received an ESA50 out of the blue.  When we have contacted the DM they have advised that ATOS stipulated that the award should be for a 6 month period and (to put it bluntly!) if client has not died within this time frame then she no longer qualifies under terminal illness grounds because she has lasted longer then the 6 months reasonably expected.  In addition she has been sent the ESA50 after only 4 months as a change in policy dictates that everyone should be contacted 2 months prior to the end of their award.  They advise that they will not accept the previous DS1500 and client will need to submit a further one if she wishes to be assessed under terminal illness grounds again.
The section also indicated that this would be the case for all awards made on grounds of terminal illness (i.e. they will receive request for further evidence after 4 months and will have to provide a new DS1500) - surely this cannot be the case?!
I need some advice please as I have not come across this situation before and can find no regs to support my feeling that this is ludicrous!

Any advice regarding the above and how to proceed would be much appreciated

Thank you

At least your client is entitled to ESA!
I posted the other day that the decision to disallow my clients’ ESA following a nil score on WCA was made in spite of High rate care, High rate mobility DLA and a DS1500 being issued last year.
The decision maker has said there is no evidence whatsoever to overturn the WCA and that the client should be on JSA.
Thats the problem these days - people should just damned well do what they are told and if they get a DS1500 they should have the common decency to pop their clogs within the expected 6 month time frame.
As i said many times - I despair what is happening to our supposed civilized society. How these “Healthcare professionals” at Atos can sleep at night is beyond me.
I pray that the god of irony,karma and revenge visit each and every one of them.

Lucy, lodge a complaint (and copy the client’s MP on it).

I was at the West Yorkshire Jobcentre Plus liaison meeting this afternoon, and raised the issue of further ESA 50’s being issued to people who were terminally ill already in the Support Group and getting DLA under special rules. There was someone at the meeting from ATOS who said that they had seen a few of these but never arrange a medical, they just send them back to the decision maker saying no change. He also confirmed that ATOS can see if a DS1500 was submitted with a DLA claim. 

Jobcnetre Plus staff took an action point to look at why a decision maker would issue further ESA 50’s to these claimants.

Steve Webb governement minister told the commons that people who are terminally ill should not be put through any further tests for 3 years.

Take a look at the previous thread http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/2637/

So if this continues we will be talking to the clients MP’s