ESA WRA interview & Infectious Disease

Hi Steve

Unfortunately my Son has contracted a Notifiable Infectious Disease (Hepatits C) and it is now untreatable. He is also Heroin addicted, but once again undergoing Methadone treatment to try to get him clean.

He had to undergo an ESA Medical and was put in the WRA group

He is very unwell and not fit to work but is being told to attend WRA Interviews ..is this correct and should he be having to attend these interview and if not what can he do about it?.

He does not understand any of these processes and is relying heavily on me to help him but I live 250 miles from him and have to speak on the phone to him to give him information which in most cases he promptly forgets

I am now hoping to send him a letter with some definite information to hand to his assessor

Thank you for any help you can give in advance.

Hi Pertunia,

Unfortunately the rules relating to pathways interviews are rather less flexible for ESA than they are for IB. ESA claimants can ask for a waiver except in very limited circumstances.

Your son could write, with your assistance, asking for a deferral, though I can't predict whether it would be granted. There's more information about this in our guide to Knowing Your Rights at Pathways to Work Interviews in the members area.

Good luck,

Steve

Hi Pertunia

The following link might be of help to you.

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/plp-section4.pdf

passage from the above PDF:-

Deferral due to customer issue
11.
There may be other customers who could raise safety concerns for staff if seen face to face. For example:
•
customers with notifiable infectious diseases such as chicken pox, measles, hepatitis etc;
•
Customers with severe mental health problems who may pose a threat to staff.
•
The customer does not appear to be capable of rational participation in the interview, i.e. one who appears to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they attend the office.

Thank you both for your helpful replies.
I will try to arrange a deferral for him

I wonder if you are able to tell me that as he had a Notifiable Infectious Disease, he should have been PCA exempt..he did tell them but it seems to have been ignored and if so, what can he do about this?

Hi Pertunia

Try looking on page 9 and 10 of the following document

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dmgch42.pdf

Also look at the guidance on this site -Employment & Support Allowance claims for
Mental Health & Learning Difficulties.
A guide to the limited capability for work assessment 2009.

Exemptions

You will be treated as having limited capability for work if any of the following circumstances
apply:

(c) you have, or have been in contact with, a notifiable disease;

My son had acute Encephalitis which is a notifiable disease and they ignored me too. At the time, I was so stressed and worried as we nearly lost him twice that I was too upset and worried about him to argue, fight or make a point. I have made up for it since


Good Luck