Esa appeal

sueann

I claimed esa and was in the support group, this was stopped after assessment. I did a mandatory reconsideration and the ESA was reinstated but not in the support group. I was given esa with regulation 29.
My questions are if I go to appeal to be put back in the support group;
1) do I concentrate on reg 35 or also include the reasons why I feel I should have been given points in the first instance?
2) I know I will still receive esa but wanted to check it won’t be stopped when I start an appeal?
thanks 

clouty

It won't be stopped while you appeal to tribunal.   If you first claimed before april 2017 you get the WRAG component of £29.05 as well as £73.10 basic.

I would go through the descriptors and point out why you qualify for whichever ones apply to you.  You can see them here along with regulation 35 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B40tiBNJjL5Xdi01TFN2anZkUFU

You can also argue, if that's the case, that complying with WRAG meetings, courses and so on would be severely damaging to your health and thus you meet Reg. 35.  

Antonia_Alumni

Hi @sueann thank you for sharing this with us. There's some information from the Citizen Advice website on Your money and benefits during an ESA reconsideration , i'll tag in @BenefitsTrainingCo regarding your first question.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi sueann,

Your ESA won’t be stopped when you appeal but bear in mind the outcome at the hearing could be to put you in the support group, keep you where you are or remove entitlement altogether. It is a completely fresh look at your claim.

It’s therefore best to cover all bases. See if you can identify a descriptor that applies to you that would qualify you for the support group. As well as that you could argue Reg 35 if there was a substantial risk to you if you had to undertake work related activity. It would be helpful if you could get medical letters of support from your GP or a consultant. 

Regards,

Michael