Move from ESA to UC

[breadliner]

Also, if I go ahead with the ESA tribunal, do you have an idea of how long it'll take to get a date in court? Will it 1, 2 or several months?

[nukecad]

So, presumably my sick note triggered the UC50?

That's the way it's always worked, if you went sick on JSA then after a time they stopped your JSA and told you to claim ESA, with of course a WCA.

The only difference with UC is that you don't have to change claims, it's all UC, so they simply refer you for a WCA.

Also, if I go ahead with the ESA tribunal, do you have an idea of how long it'll take to get a date in court? Will it 1, 2 or several months?

You put in your appeal, the DWP have a month to respond, you can respond to that, there's a couple of months gone already.

The latest figures for benefit tribunal 'disposals' (Published June 13 2019) show an average of 30 weeks. (7 months plus).
https://www.gov.uk/government/statis...-to-march-2019

Of those cases disposed of by the SSCS tribunal in January to March 2019, the mean age of a case at disposal was 30 weeks

[breadliner]

One of my defences in the tribunal would have been that I'd been assessed on 3 previous occasions with the same 'evidence', which on this occasion had been rejected by the decision makers. Now, I won't be able to make that point.

[druid]

One of my defences in the tribunal would have been that I'd been assessed on 3 previous occasions with the same 'evidence', which on this occasion had been rejected by the decision makers. Now, I won't be able to make that point.

The WCA and evidence is the same its just the award will be UC/LWCRA instead of ESA/SG

[breadliner]

I had the UC LCW assessment and they accepted my condition. So, I suppose that's good. I presented the same evidence as the ESA assessment.

The question now is whether to continue the appeal for ESA? I guess it's irrelevant now as I can't imagine my UC status would be reversed.

[druid]

I had the UC LCW assessment and they accepted my condition. So, I suppose that's good. I presented the same evidence as the ESA assessment.

The question now is whether to continue the appeal for ESA? I guess it's irrelevant now as I can't imagine my UC status would be reversed.

i wouldnt go back on ESA im getting more on UC

[druid]

having lived in a mainly jamacian area for 9years i can say smoking canabis longterm causes awful mood swings , DONT BE TEMPTED

[breadliner]

i wouldnt go back on ESA im getting more on UC

I was just wondering if there's any longer term implication here that I may not be aware of. I guess seeing as UC will be rolled out everywhere then I guess the question isn't relevant.

In the UC award letter in early Aug I was told I'd receive an extra amount each month and that I'd shortly hear whether I was due any arrears from when I first applied for UC LCW back in Feb.

I didn't hear anything subsequently and when I rang I was told that I wouldn't receive any arrears. As I understand it, this is completely wrong in law but don't know how I can appeal this.

Also, they didn't process the extra monthly amount into my account. The woman on the other end of the phone came up with some garbled excuse about a 3 month wait from May which I didn't understand - of course, it was more than 3 months from May when I called and so it didn't make any sense anyways.

[nukecad]

At the moment the UC people are correct.

You have to remember that you were not a migration from ESA, it was a brand new UC claim with no migration.

You didn't have ESA at the time you claimed UC. You had been found FFW at an ESA WCA.
So then there was no migration from ESA (you didn't have ESA when you claimed UC) and so no ESA entitlement to carry over into UC.

So it's a new UC claim, with a new UC WCA which has a 3 month assessment period with no limited capability component payable.
(Just like a new ESA claim which has 12 weeks in with no LC component payable).

I'm not sure if your UC award is LCW or LCWRA?
If its only LCW (not LCWRA) then there is no component payable anyway, unless you win your ESA appeal.
If it's LCWRA then it's only payable from 3 months after you applied for it, unless you win your ESA appeal.

That is how it stands at the moment.

However if you continue your ESA appeal and do get awarded ESA by the tribunal then that will mean that you did have ESA when you claimed UC, and so then the LC component would be payable from the start of your UC claim.

It all depends on winning that ESA appeal, otherwise your UC stays as it is now.

SO:

The question now is whether to continue the appeal for ESA?

The answer is yes.
It's the only way that you would get a LCW payment included in UC.
It's the only way you would get any LCW payment (or LCWRA payment if you have that) backdated to the start of your UC claim.

[worried33]

Also most appeals only consider an increase over the DWP decision, so if you worried about them giving worse then what you have usually they should warn you of this allowing you to back out of the appeal, so for that reason also I would keep appealing.

There is at least 2 UT decisions I am aware off that state this, that to be a lawful decision a tribunal must inform the appellant that they are considering revoking their existing award if they are considering doing so.