ESA mandatory considerations and appeals.

Previously if you were asking for an appeal of your ESA claim as you disagreed with their decision you had the option of asking the department to look at it again, or you could go straight to appeal.

The appeals process was relatively simple although most people were frightened of it. If you had been confident of your situation, and believe the decision was wrong then my advice would have been to go straight to appeal. This was of course not without risk. The decision could have gone against you at appeal, but the success rate of ESA appeals was very encouraging. If your medical evidence was strong and you felt that the risk is worth taking  then it was better to go for it. But things have changed again relatively recently, perhaps because the system was backlogged and due to the success of the appeals process. Now instead of going for an appeal and lodging your appeal with the ESA office in Belfast new changes will mean that you will first have to go for a mandatory reconsideration, and if you are unhappy with that decision you will need to appeal directly to the courts and tribunal service here. That is quite a frightening thing for people to consider doing.

Now before you can go to the appeals process you must ask for a mandatory revision of your claim. If you have been found fit for work no ESA benefit will be paid during this phase, you will be sent back to job seekers and paid at a lower rate. If however you have been placed in the WRAG group and want to be placed in the support group then you will be paid the WRAG group rate of ESA.

There is no time limit for mandatory considerations, basically this will depend upon how busy the office dealing with your claim is. Once you have been notified of the decision about your ESA claim if you want a mandatory reconsideration there will be details of how to go about this in the letter you receive. The letter will tell you who to contact and how. If you are still unsatisfied with the result of the mandatory reconsideration and wish to challenge it you must do so within one month of the receipt of the letter, enclosing in it your mandatory reconsideration notice and complete a SSCS1 (pdf) form, and lodge your appeal directly to Her Majesty's courts and Tribunals service rather than with the ESA office in Belfast. More can be found here