Having read here about the maximum time for ESA Support Group being 3 years I checked my Autistic sons claim details.
He was put onto ESA in June 2010 and moved to the Support Group on September 18th so just over 3 years ago. As of today we've not heard anything from the DWP about what happens next. I assume they will want to re-assess him even though Autism is a life long condition?.
I am not sure how it works either, sorry.
Like your son, I am in ESA support group, mine is contributions based. I thought if you are in support group you just filled in renewal claim and if given support group again that was it. Not heard of the 3 year thing.
Hopefully someone can answer your question.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
DWP DM's have a very wide ranging and free hand in how they deal with individual claims, they are not obliged to send out a new ESA 50 and can make any subsequent decision on the information they already hold. No doubt though you will hear from them in due course with regard to what they may want you to do and you will receive payment until you receive the new decision.
I think the DWP can look at a claim with the evidence they have, an make a decisions using evidence already given.
Otherwise in three years time they'd have to go through the whole process again, the cost and the implications would be massive, they have done what they wanted to get everyone back through the system.
ThanksWill just have to wait for yet another dreaded brown envelope then
[QUOTE=phaedra;47784]Thanks
I suspect they have decided your son is unlikely to improve and calling him in for another medical would be a wasted expense, the only way to know for sure is to phone them and ask.
I was put into the support group for 3years i rang to ask for written confirmation they said they couldn't do that but the woman said on the pc it states when the 3year or renew date is and told me to write it down it said there was also a note saying that they had given me the maximum allowed and something about my conditions will continue to get worse i can't remember the wording, i was told that i sould hear of them before the renew date but if i didn't i should ring them. I suggest you could ring the dwp and ask them if there is a renew date for your son and if so what will then happen, it might be that a form is on it's way or even a letter explaining things but if you are worried about it just give them a ring. I know they are now running behind and i've heard this is due to all the appeals etc. good luck with it all
i read somewhere that autism is one of the conditions that won't require a medical examination, not if it has been vertified. quite naturally it shouldn't as autism isn't something that one recovers from, its with you for life so thats probably why you haven't heard anything from them for a while. not to say that they will never reassess you again but they know its one of the tough ones that they won't be able to fail easily therefore they'll probably leave your case until later.
Sorry to resurrect this but just received an ESA50 for my son this morning. Having managed to find a backup of my files (which I thought was lost forever) I can see it's 2yrs since we filled in the last ESA50, not 3yrs like I thought.
Surely with a lifetime condition like Autism where there is no cure or treatment filling these in is a pointless exercise!. However, I know it has to be done so having now found the copy of his last one will simply copy it to the new one.
The other worry is that this time it's from ATOS in Morpeth, apparently they now have no doctors to cover Durham, Morpeth is outside my driving range so even if I could get out of the house I still wouldn't be able to take him and there's no way he would get there safely on his own. Given the amount of trouble my friends wife had with ATOS refusing to do a home visit (she has severe agoraphobia) I'm not expecting this to go smoothly!.
Maybe it's just me but it's a sad statement of affairs when you have to worry about the consequences of asking for help nowadays
Last edited by phaedra; 16-01-14 at 13:55.
It seems that almost nobody is exempt from periodic reassessment on ESA.
Unfortunately, the then Government focused extensively on those who were exempt from assessment under the previous system (mainly those with highest rate Care DLA) and convinced itself that there might be some amongst this group who are capable of some work. This set the background for a system where almost everyone is subject to periodic reassessment, however unlikely a change in condition appears to be.
However, it is possible that the reassessment will not involve a face to face assessment. I hope this is the case here, as tere seems no point in another face to face assessment.
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