making a claim - person has a learning disability?

Hello there, my 20 year old daughter will soon be making a first ever claim for ESA. I understand she has to make the initial claim over the phone, however, she will be unwilling and generally unable to hold a conversation of this kind over the phone. She has a genetic syndrome including a learning difficulty and is partially sighted. My question is: as her parent and carer can I make the telephone claim for her on her behalf? My wife is my daughter's official DWP "appointee", will only my wife be allowed to make such a claim on my daughter's behalf - due to her official appointee status?; this is also not straight forward - as my wife really struggles and gets flustered when talking to DWP etc,however, I am very comfortable holding such conversations. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance. Buster

Hi Buster and welcome to the forum. On the assumption that you are also new to the site, this FAQ should help you find your way around.

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Although DWP want to encourage people to make the initial application over the phone, it is possible to fill in a form and either post it to DWP or take it to your local job centre. This might be easier in your circumstances, you can find a link to the form here.

www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/how-to-claim

This is just to check your daughter's basic entitlement to ESA (either NI contributions or income). Once the claim has been accepted your daughter will receive the 'assessment' rate payment until a decision is made regarding her eligibility on medical grounds. At some stage she will be sent an ESA50 forkm to complete. It might help to look at the PDf version of the form and start to complete it in your own time. I suggest that you make full use of our ESA guides whilst doing so.

Using The PDF Version Of The ESA50 Questionnaire

ESA claims and appeals

ESA FAQs

If/when you have any further questions, please reply to this post and we will do our best to help. You will find it easily in future if you bookmark it, or make it a favourite, on your web browser now

Many thanks for your advice. Buster

Hi there, any advice on the following would be great. Although my wife has official DWP appointee status for my daughter - once my daughter's claim is up and running - so to speak, will I as her day to day carer and father be able to accompany her to medicals and Job Centre appointments (if required) etc - and support her including prompting reading and speaking for her when necessary? Or will Job Centre staff insist on her appointee only being able to do this - if at all. In particular, if she is expected to sign something that she may not be able to fully understand or even see clearly. If this is likely to be a problem, I will look at becoming her appointee, however, I have a feeling that this may not be straightforward, especially if it was to coincide with a new claim for ESA. Any advice on these matters would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Buster

Hi there

Still on this theme, my daughter's newly acquired Statement of Fitness for Work states that she "is not fit for work" and that "this will be the case for 90 days". My question is why only for 90 days even though she has a life long genetic syndrome which is going to get worse and not better? Also, what happens after 90 days if still under assessment - will she need another Statement? Thank you in advance.

Buster