HELP – ESA Stopped whilst abroad on an Emergency

Wondering if anyone is able to help. This is in regards to my mother’s ESA being stopped.

She had been on Incapacity Benefit for close to 20 years and last year, after an assessment. she was put on ESA with the work related activity group. A few months into this she attended the work related interview and was more or less told by the interviewer that due to her illness and age there really are not going to be any suitable jobs for her.

Early this year she found out that her brother (who is in his 50’s but has the mental age of 12 and lives alone abroad) had been diagnosed with aggressive terminal cancer and had very little time left to live. So my mother and father immediately flew out to spend some time with him and help to make what little time he had left as comfortable as possible.

When she came back to the UK about 8 weeks later she had 3 letters from DWP. One was asking her to attend a work related interview, the 2nd was a follow up asking why she had not turned up to the interview and the third one was saying that her ESA benefit would be stopped as she failed to attend. Now she saw all these letters once she got back to the UK. She called them up and explained the circumstance and was told to send in a letter detailing this. My father then wrote a letter on her behalf stating the circumstances (family member being ill, hence going abroad) and sent it off to the Belfast Benefit Centre. They then wrote back with the following response:

We have looked at your claim again following a recent change.

We cannot pay you an allowance from 5 February 2014. This is because:

You have left Great Britain, either to go on a holiday or live abroad. Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales

You are required to immediately report any changes in your circumstances to us, or the circumstance of your partner if you have one.

From what she was told on the phone was that the maximum amount of time she can be out of the Country is 28 days without it affecting her benefit, however I would not class this as a holiday, it’s more exceptional circumstances. Surely they could use their discretion in cases like this and if need be stop the benefit from the 5th February until the date she returned back to the UK. Incidentally her ESA benefit would have been due for re-assessment in July this year as it would have been 12 months then.

What can she do? Should she appeal this decision?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Gordon, thank you for your prompt response.

I don’t believe a mandatory reconsideration of the decision was not carried out as after my father sent the letter to them to explain the circumstances, only one letter was received with the following headline:

YOUR CLAIM FOR EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE

A CHANGE IN THE EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE RATE PAYABLE

I will have a look at the guides in the link you sent.

Would it be advisable to seek face to face advice prior to requesting a mandatory reconsideration?

Once again thank you.

Hi. Just read your thread , what I would do straight away is email your position to your local MP, I had a situation with my ESA and my MP put complaints into the appropiate DWP offices,it worked for me , good luck.