ESA claim approved without the home assessment?

Chaoticmess

I got a letter just before Christmas day last year to put in a new claim for ESA. Sent it off early January and then got given an exam appointment. Sent doctor letter stating I need a home visit. A home visit was accepted and that's the last I heard of it until now.

Been waiting for a letter to come through telling me when a home visit was going to happen. Instead I've just received 2 letters telling me that my claim has gone through and everything is continuing as normal.

The issue I have is that the letters haven't really made it clear if this is actually the case or not or what happened to the home assessment.

So my question is, does this happen? Do they just not bother with the home assessment in the end or will I still eventually end up having one later on and these letters are just some sort of ongoing update letters or something else like that, separate to the new claim?

I also fairly recently won a back pay award from the government screw up with income related ESA when in the support group. It makes me wonder if this also triggered a re-evaluation of my ESA which is what the letters are about, not the new claim?

Any insight appreciated.

poppy123456

Hi,

The letters we receive from ESA are often very confusing because a lot of the time they don't make any sense.

We could only guess on an internet forum what the letters you receive are for, therefore i'd advise you to ring ESA tomorrow morning and ask if a decision's been made on your ESA review. If it has they will tell you.

It's not unusual for them to change their mind about an assessment but it doesn't happen very often. The letters could also be about the IB to ESA error. They will definitely be able to tell you for sure when you ring them.

Chloe_Alumni

Hi @Chaoticmess, did you manage to get any further with this? I'm sorry it's been a such a stressful experience for you.