Husband claims contribution based ESA. He's called regularly for interview board, is this normal?

overwhelmed

Hubby is 60 claims full PIP both categories and ESA cont. Awarded PIP for 10 years due to disability, but until Covid was regularly called for interview ‘board’ for ESA despite comprehensive medical evidence of significant cognitive issues and permanent injury. He cannot attend alone. Is this ‘normal’? 

woodbine

@overwhelmed hi and welcome to scope.
It depends really what you mean by "interview board" and "regularly" ?

chiarieds

Hi @overwhelmed - & welcome to the community. As you may well, know PIP & ESA are completely different benefits. So, are you wondering why your husband has an 'ongoing' PIP award, which will be reviewed in 10 years, but has previously had his ESA claim reviewed prior to the pandemic? ESA is help if you have a disability that may affect your ability to work, whereas PIP is about any physical/mental health disability a person may have looking at the PIP activities/descriptors (some activities of daily living &/mobility). So, there are different criteria for each benefit.

Please see: https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/eligibility  &

https://www.gov.uk/pip/eligibility

Does this help explain?

overwhelmed

Thank you both. I just don’t understand how the medical info provided to both is interpreted so differently. He is medically retired and medical reports state he will be unable to work in any capacity due to his disability. So whilst PIP acknowledges it, ESA  seems not to. I understand they are different benefits but how can information be so differently interpreted? The words permanent significant and likely deteriorating  disability would indicate to most people that the likelihood of him becoming suitable for/able to work is nothing short of miraculous. Indeed he can’t even understand the firms provided let alone fill them in! After working for 40 + yeas before his disability he would not be claiming anything unless he needed to. I apologise if I am not always clear but I too am unwell.

calcotti

As per woodbine, not clear what you mean by ‘interview board’ and ‘regularly’. Are you referring to health assessment and how often is ‘regularly’?

overwhelmed

I am done

Justcheckingin15

@overwhelmed..There are some very knowlegable and extremely helpful members on this site,they only ask questions in order to get a clear picture of your situation. If you let them do what they are good at..you may find an answer to your question...SAl the best..in whatever you decide.

calcotti

overwhelmed said:

I am done

Simply trying to establish whether your question is about frequent contact from the JobCentre or about having WCA reassessments.

If it is about WCA reassessments then the next time this happens I suggest you explicitly ask thatthat they consider whether any further reviews are recommended in accordance with guidance in the WCA Assessment handbook.
See 
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/925097/wca-handbook.pdf
Page 151 and Appendix 8 refer.

Note the reference to changes in 2017. That’s why I asked what you meant by regularly, if the last assessment was before then this option was, as I understand it, not available.

Of course, if your question is not about the WCA none of the above is relevant.

MarkM88

overwhelmed said:

I am done

Why? People are trying to help you. They need to know what the meaning of the terminology you are using refers to. 

Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community @overwhelmed I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling frustrated over this, and that you're feeling unwell yourself.

As our members have said, they're just trying to get a little more information so they can see whether they're able to help. I hope that calcotti's link has helped if this is regarding work capability assessments. Please do let us know if you have any further questions, as we're here to help.