PIP decision affecting ESA

Galarboy

A family member has just been employed as a decision maker and has been told that ‘unofficially’ if you’re denied PIP and are on ESA expect to have your ESA claim reviewed soon and vice versa. Has anyone else heard of this?

janer1967

@Galarboy Hello and welcome to the community, I have not heard anything about this mentioned on the community and will look out for any mention. However as you are probably aware there has been talk ( only talk) of combining assessments but this is not in place. Currently they are both separate benefits with different criteria. As it is unofficial information it cannot be relied upon . Thankyou for sharing with us I am sure other members will offer their opinion as well

poppy123456

Hi,

Sorry but this is not correct. For the work capability assessment they can reassess you anytime from 3 months. If someone has been refused PIP and they are then sent a work capability assessment form and it's been more than 3 months since their last review then it's purely a coincidence and nothing more.

They are completely different benefits, with different criteria.

Galarboy

poppy123456 said:

Hi,

Sorry but this is not correct. For the work capability assessment they can reassess you anytime from 3 months. If someone has been refused PIP and they are then sent a work capability assessment form and it's been more than 3 months since their last review then it's purely a coincidence and nothing more.

They are completely different benefits, with different criteria.

Officially that might be the case, but as I said, the person who reported this to me was told that this directive was strictly off record...

woodbine

The person telling you this..have they signed the official secrets act? I did 45 years ago when I worked as a civil servant for 3 weeks, I am still bound by it oddly enough.
However all that said, he/they are wrong.

mikehughescq

It’s nonsense. Different decision makers with different criteria based in entirely different offices and best of all on completely different computer systems. This is just the sound of someone newly employed trying to make themselves sound more important than they actually are. Might acquire some credibility if we knew what sort of decision maker they were.