ESA appeal due to missing medical

Hi,

I have a client who missed her medical as she did not receive the letter confirming her appointment.  ESA was then terminated.

I asked the customer if her illnesses were a factor in her missing the appointment.  However, she was adamant it was purely down to not receiving the letter.  I sent off a GL24 form confirming the customer didn’t get the letter and made them aware of her conditions (agarophobic, former drug user, anxiety & depression).

The decision was not revised and now I have a tribunal date.  Has anyone else got experience of this happening before and know the likely outcome of the hearing?  Even if the appeal is succesful she will still have to go for another medical before receiving payment.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Allan

Allan Ramsay - 05 August 2013 02:00 PM

Hi,

I have a client who missed her medical as she did not receive the letter confirming her appointment.  ESA was then terminated.

I asked the customer if her illnesses were a factor in her missing the appointment.  However, she was adamant it was purely down to not receiving the letter.  I sent off a GL24 form confirming the customer didn’t get the letter and made them aware of her conditions (agarophobic, former drug user, anxiety & depression).

The decision was not revised and now I have a tribunal date.  Has anyone else got experience of this happening before and know the likely outcome of the hearing?  Even if the appeal is succesful she will still have to go for another medical before receiving payment.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Allan

In my experience, the Tribunal will not appreciate having such a minor issue in front of them and will all depend on whether the cleint, their story and oral evidence is credible.

Have they attended any WCAs in the past? Have they missed any before?

Do they have any problems with their post? Communal letterboxes etc? Have they missed communications from JCP or others before? Have they reported such problems to royal mail?

Did they receive and respond to the BF223 form?

If tribunal succeeds (ie- tribunal agree she had good cause for not attending the WCA) her ESA should go back into payment (at previous rate) from date it ceased (she won’t have to attend WCA first). Her case will be referred back to ATOS for a new assessment date to be arranged (and if she then fails the WCA she will have fresh appeal rights).

As to the prospects of success- it’s really going to depend on the facts of the case. You’ve provided evidence of her mental health issues (though I realise client says she didn’t receive the letter rather than she has issues in dealing with her post). Have there been historic problems with her post going astray? or turning it on its head, does she usually respond promptly to post?

Thanks for the quick replies.  I was unaware that payment would proceed if the appeal is successful.

I’ve just called the customer and asked her about the problems with her mail.  She states she has reported the problem to Royal Mail and did not receive form BF223 but did receive her appeal papers.

She lives in a high rise block of flats in a row of 4 blocks.  She states she has received mail for different blocks and that her mail has been delivered to other blocks.  She also states that the postman gets confused due to the numbering system in her block.  The customer has attended medicals and tribunals before.

I think I now have something to stick in my submission!

If you are wondering why I’ve not asked these questions previously, I’ve met with the customer twice and on both occasions she was somewhat intoxicated!

Thanks