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di30

ESA first claim help please

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Good Afternoon everyone and hope your all keeping well.

 

Its been a long time since I posted but can see this site is doing real well indeed, well done! ;-)

 

I am my son's appointee and full time carer, he has Aspergers Syndrome and Anxiety issues. He turns 20 next week on 15th January.

 

In regards of continued non advanced education we were claiming Child Benefit and Child Tax Credits, as my son turns 20 next week the final payment of Child Benefit was this week and the Child Tax final payment will be next week just before his birthday.

 

I had an email from National Autistic Society (NAS) as I was after some information of what my son should be claiming from when the above ends, and was told ESA.

 

Please can anyone advise me on the process of claiming ESA for my son please?

 

He already receives High Rate Care DLA and Low Rate Mobility.

 

I was informed that he will have to have a note from our GP to send into ESA, now on this one how do I ask my Dr to word this on the note?

 

This is all new to me in regards of ESA, so any help/info/advice I am very grateful for, thanks again in advance. ;-)

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Hi di30 and welcome back. You can apply on-line for ESA and will need to send a certificate from your son's doctor stating that he is unfit for work. Initially we asked our doctor to just write a letter confirming his dx, which we sent. When the application is processed you will have to fill in a medical questionnaire for your son and he will be asked to attend an interview. The waiting time for this is very long but he will be paid up until he gets his assessment appointment. During this period you will have to send three-monthly certificates from your doctor, but we just phoned up our surgery and asked them to make one for us to send. Once your son has had his assessment interview, they will decide whether he is eligible for ESA or not and will then take it from there. He will be paid throughout this period but it can take up to a year to complete the whole process.

 

Good luck with it.

 

~ Mel ~

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The note you need is what was called a "sick note" - now called a "fit note". I think T's GP just put "Aspergers" on it.

 

I am just about to renew T's ESA claim - am not looking forward to it :-(

 

I use www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/ as I find their guides very helpful.

 

The DWP can compare his ESA claim against his DLA claim, so make sure they match.

 

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Im my sons appointee also.he made his first claime for esa as soon as he hit 18 has he wasnt in education or work.Dont be put of by the form a lot of it isnt relevent.I filled it in and initially he was awarded something like 50 odd pounds a week whilst they looked into his claime.Then we had to get a "sick note" from his gp which was realy easy because she knows him as done since birth it just confirmed he had a learning disability and was aspie.Then we were called in for an assesment ,we didnt actually have to waite too long in our area west yorkshire for this to happen.Againe there was nothing to worry over,i went along with him and we were in the room with a lovely lady for around 10 minutes where she asked a few questions and basically confirmed my son was genuine............it was obvious as soon as she started talking to him.Soon after that he was awarded an increased amount of weekly money and had to attend the job centre to see a disability work advisor once every 6 months or so.To be blunt this was a compleate waste of time has there was no work for him and no schemes to help him get into work but like the lady said at the job centre they have to show willing.We havent been called back in almost 12 months.He gets his money once a fortnight and weve had no more assesments or forms nothing.

 

I hoped that once he was claimeing esa that theyd be help and support in finding him work or training or supported work but the reality of the situation for us in our area is theres nothing its all just lip services saying what should happen but in reality theres not enough support or money to provide the proper support and you just slip into the background forgotten about.

 

least with esa he doesnt have to go sign on every two weeks,so the pressures of but at the same time it feels like hes been condemed to a life out of work on benefits.

 

i dont bang on over his lack of a job to him because i dont see the point ,its hard enough for normal young folks to get work and i dont want to make him feel like a fialure because hes not.We just make the most of it and try not to let it get us down.

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Mine was relatively straightforward because I have a social worker who filled the ESA assessment paper in for me and sent if off and I was awarded ESA in the support group for two years without a medical.

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Hi everyone and thank you all for your replies x

 

Also sorry for the delay in responding, but to let you know this didnt actually take too long in the end. Way before the 13 week assessment rate they came to a decision with evidence provided that my son is placed in the Support Group, no face to face or assessments were required.

This was all sorted by March, so not bad going considering it was late January the ESA claim was first started.

 

Thanks again everyone and hope all are well x x

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