esa reassessment delays

Hi, My esa award (support group) was due to run out in Jan 2014. I had been expecting an esa 50 form in late 2013 but never got one.

I understand that a batch of claimants like me had two years extra added onto their award due to the backlog in assessments.

So I am expecting a new form to come sometime towards the end of this year.

I just wanted to ask if this is still the case as far as is known? Or are Maximus likely to be able to deal with these claims any sooner than had been anticipated?

Thanks

Hi dn,

I'm afraid that your guess is probably as good as ours at this stage. The suspension of reassessments was an operational decision rather than a change in law, it took some time before DWP actually admitted what was happening. Likewise, I would not expect any public announcement when reassessments recommence.

It is too early to know how Maximus is going to deal with things, I'm afraid we will have to wait and see.

Little confused about this as after reading latest newsletter I re downloaded the updated esa guide which has an update on the reassesment issue and the changeover from atos to atos lite i.e. maximus. The guides state that maximus are saying they are unlikely to begin reassesments until spring 2016 as there is a huge backlog of initial claims to get through first. So is this an assumption or have b and w read this from some official source?

Thanks Gordon...I trust b and w more than anyone on benefit issues and I know they never base anything on assumption. Just wondered about this though after reading this thread as the addendum to the esa updated guide makes it sound quite certain that maximus are looking at spring 201u b4 restarting reassesments. Im sure the b and w office got this from somewhere

micksville wrote: Thanks Gordon...I trust b and w more than anyone on benefit issues and I know they never base anything on assumption. Just wondered about this though after reading this thread as the addendum to the esa updated guide makes it sound quite certain that maximus are looking at spring 201u b4 restarting reassesments. Im sure the b and w office got this from somewhere

Hi, the information you require is on page 81 of the .pdf. That pdf was written this morning, (11th March, so is hot off the press)
As the pdf was only written in march 2015, and it says reassessments that come up will be deferred for another year, so, to me that means spring 2016. I'm only a member though, but, I cannot imagine wrong info being put in the pdf book.