Contacting Health Advisory Assessment Service for an update on ESA50

Hello.

I'm looking for some advice. In early December 2023 I received an ESA50 which i returned before Christmas. I checked with the above and it was received just before the New Year.

I notice from my GP Health Record on the NHS app that my GP completed an ESA113 on 14 March 2024. Since then I've heard nothing from HAAS / CHDAUK.

Last week I was admitted to hospital having suffered a heart attack. I've had heart problems for years and this isn't my first. I included details of my heart problems and the effect these have on me on my ESA50 along with including copies of hospital discharge summary letters after previous heart attacks dated since my last WCA in 2019 (one letter is from 2021, the other 2023). I was discharged from hospital on Saturday.

I have spent the past four months panicking about my ESA being reviewed and I still am. If I was to contact CHDAUK for an update on what is happening, would this trigger an appointment letter? I'm not very well to start with and the worry about this happening is adding to the stress. I have the Discharge Summary letter I was given when I was discharged from the hospital on Saturday.

I've only once contacted CHDAUK for an update, which was back in 2019, and an appointment letter arrived the following week! It may have been a coincidence but I don't want to tempt fate.

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give on what I should, if anything, do next.

An update and a further question.

I phoned CHDA who advised me to email anything I had that was further medical evidence. I sent an email to CHDA asking if they could do a paper assessment and included the hospital discharge letter I had been handed when leaving hospital. I mentioned in my email that the stress of waiting to find out about what was happening with my review (which has been ongoing since December 2023) had played a part in my heart attack as it was causing undue stress.

About a couple of weeks later I got a telephone call out of the blue from CHDA. It was to ask me a few questions, largely on how I was managing since my heart attack. The person I spoke to (she said she was a nurse) said she was making notes and then advised me to wait for a letter from the DWP, which could take about two to three weeks.

I phoned CHDA a couple of days later and they confirmed that my file had been returned to the DWP. I'm going to assume that it's been a paper assessment as the phone call only lasted 6 minutes.

It's only two weeks ago since my file was returned. Most likely it hasn't yet been looked at by the Decision Maker at the DWP. It's possible it has been and I've been kept in WRAG. Could anyone advise me on how long I should wait before phoning the DWP to see if a decision has been made? I've been on ESA since 2013 so this was a review ESA50 and I don't think it's likely that I would be found fit for work from such a short telephone call. Especially given my health and also the HCP at CHDA said that i had provided lots of very useful medical evidence. Indeed, none of what she asked me related to anything actually in my ESA50 and it was all connected with how I'd been since having a heart attack.

If I am kept in WRAG does the DWP inform me of this or does my ESA just continue in payment and the only way i can find out a decison has been made is by phoning the DWP? I'd like to think I could be moved to the Support Group but I don't expect this to happen.

Thanks in advance for any information anyone can give me.

An update:

I've been moved from WRAG to the Support Group. I phoned up and asked for a copy of the ESA85A. The HCP advice was based on how I've been since my heart attack so it's a relatively short prognosis of 12 months, presumably in case my health recovers sufficiently. The limited justification of advice also doesn't touch at all on my existing health problems which in the past have always led to me being placed in WRAG and with a longer prognosis.

It's good that I've been placed in the Support Group though it does mean that my ESA will be reviewed sooner than it normally would be.