ESA

angelwings58

I have applied for Esa as I have a medical report and go letter saying I can not return to work .I returned my completed esa50?form with evidence on the 17 May but have not heard anything .Can you please tell me how long I wait for a result also can you please advice how I procedure with a PiP claim .

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hello there. You should definitely chase up your claim and make sure it has been received and is in the system. If it is still waiting for DWP action you can call 08000556688, but if it is now with Maximus (the external assessment provider) then you may need to contact them directly to find out how things are proceeding. While you are waiting for the next stage in the process (which may well be a Maximus face to face assessment), you need to make sure that you are confident about how you are going to score enough points to get either work-related or support group ESA. For most people, this means scoring at least 15 points from a list of activities. There is a lot of excellent material available about the ESA scoring system: you can find information on the benefits calculator (Turn2us) part of this Scope website. Alternatively, you can go to Disability Rights UK, or www.benefitsandwork.co.uk. You can also use these websites to find out more about claiming PIP. The DWP website has a very good PIP toolkit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-personal-independence-payment-pip-toolkit. These pages will all tell you how to go about making a claim for PIP, which is also based on a scoring system. 
Just a point about corresponding with DWP - it's a very good idea, if you can, to send anything that need to go to the DWP by the 'signed for' option. This gives you a tracking number, so that you can see when it was received and who signed for it. This helps avoid the 'lost in the post' conversations with DWP.
Good luck with your claims!
Jayne