Renewals/ESA50 Questions

[nukecad]

I was never sent a letter about the WCA, nothing that addresses the interview over the phone or their decision to put me in to the LCW group, all's i received was a letter saying they've looked at my award again and changed my payments due to reaching the maximum numbers of days i can get contribution based ESA?

Yes, you would get that about maximum number of days when moved from SG to WRAG because CB ESA would only be payable whilst you were in SG.
(That's not actually important as you qualify for IR ESA anyway, but they have to put it).

It does say that they have looked at your award again and reduced it, but that's nothing to do with the number of days, and it doesn't give the real reason for the reduction.

I'd say you have got an oddly worded letter simply because they don't have a 'standard' letter to cover what they have done, so have tried to bodge a different letter.

As you say you have to challenge (MR) why they have changed your group, especially as it's been done on just a telephone assessment.
Ring them and request MR, ask for copies of the ESA85 Assessors report and the LT54 Decision Makers report.

[DisturbedOne]

Well I've just got off the phone with them.
They are at a loss as to why i've not had any letters about the WCA yet and they tell me they can't release the LT54 or ESA85 because it's not been cleared to do so. I requested they send them when they are cleared but I'll ring back in a week or so to follow up on it.
What the nice chap on the phone did tell me is that he'll send out a MR form which should be with me by Monday and he'll follow up on why the WCA letters are still not available to be sent out and request a call back for me next week.
He did manage to tell me the reason for the move was because i didn't score enough points but couldn't elaborate anymore than that.
Now i guess it's just the process to go through before i take it to appeal as MR's i know have a very little chance of succeeding.
Thank you again Nukecad for your advice, much appreciated.


Update: Well I've just received a call back (very surprised) and they are going to send out the LT54 and ESA50 but they told me that in order to do so they would have to remove the Decision Makers name from the documents???
I've never heard of such a thing, is this normal?

[nukecad]

None of that is normal.

The only normal thing is that they are now correctly sending you the requested documents as they should.
Removing the names is normal, for individual privacy reasons.

You don't need to use a from to request MR, they have one but there is no legal requirement to use it - Your phone call should have already started the MR process.
https://www.gov.uk/mandatory-reconsi...econsideration

How to ask for mandatory reconsideration

Contact the benefits office that gave you the decision. You can contact them:

by phone
by letter
by filling in and returning a form

The form itself says on the front page:
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...d-pensions-dwp

It is easier to call
You can ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration over the phone. Your
claim will be looked at in exactly the same way. It’s much quicker and
you can explain why you think the decision is wrong over the phone,
without needing to fill anything in. The phone number to call is at the
top of your decision letter

His BS about the points is also just that, BS, their own guidance tells telephone assessors not to assess for LCW so they aren't even assessing for points.

In effect the assessors have been told not to give any points for LCW, so it's hardly surprising that you 'didn't get enough'.
(As the assessor isn't awarding points you should have zero points on the ESA85 when it comes).

However the assessors are advising either LCWRA-Yes or LCWRA-No.

So it is possible that your assessor has advised LCWRA-NO.

The documents should tell you if/why that has happened and give you an better idea of how to challenge it.

Reading all the guidance again it seems that if an assessor gives 'LCWRA-No' then it is possible for a LCWRA award to be reduced to LCW for an existing claim.
That was never the intention, but it is legally possible.
The intention was to ensure that people could be moved into LCWRA if they qualified, or stay on Assessment rate (or LCW).

It was also intended that only those with LCWRA who were almost certain to be found LCWRA again would be referred for telephone reassessment.

I'm guessing that was why the decision letter wasn't sent out, and the other stuff had not been cleared for release - it is a situation that wasn't intended to happen and someone was querying it internally?

I'm searching for DWP guidance on what the Decision Maker should do if they get a LCWRA-No on an existing LCWRA claim.
(I'm not optimistic of finding any as it's a situation that was never intended to happen).
EDIT- As expected I can't find anything relevent to DMs. I've fired off an FoI request for any such guidance, but FoIs take time.

TBH I believe that the decision should be fairly easy to over turn at appeal, if not at MR.
Being a telephone assessment any tribunal is going to consider it an 'unsafe' decision to make.

[nukecad]

If you have your previous letter from when you were last awarded Support Group/LCWRA then does it say anything about why Support Group/LCWRA was awarded?

In particular I'm hoping for mention of 'Regulation 34', 'Regulation 35', special regulation', or 'risk of harm'.