PIP and esa

[lookingforbaubles]

i am looking for some information about claiming esa for my 20 yr daughter - she has special needs and now after attending special school is at our local college on a supported course - independant living skills

since child benefit stopped as she turned 20 - i posted on here before her birthday wondering about benefits for her, and some one mentioned esa - she gets high PIP - i have filled in the form and sent it off but they have asked for a 'fit note' from the gp - i was under the impression that as she gets full PIP she didnt need one - im sure i read it on her at one point, but i cant find it now!

any one point me in the right direction please ??

Hi,

My ds is almost 18 and he has been getting esa since he was 17 though I started the process eight months before as that’s how long it took to finally get it, believe me it’s not quick at all.

While my ds was in the assessment phase I had to keep sending in fit notes and the longest he could give me was 3 months and he did need to see my son the once just to satisfy dwp that he had actually seen him should they contact them but the rest of the time I just rang the doctors to get a new fit note.

I did read some where that people with life long disabilities such as autism would be excempt from providing fit notes but as yet I believe this is still not the case.

My sons esa is due a renewal soon so I’m hoping the process is quicker than it was, but like your daughter my son also gets the higher rate pip and I stopped his child benefit once he got esa as it worked out he got more with esa than child benefit.

thanks egg - its such a mine field, to complicate things even more a letter came the next day saying she had been awarded esa.....i guess a phone call tomorrow to try and find out whats going on

i hope your renewal goes smoothly!

We are in the assessment phase for my 19 year old ds (also at college on special needs course. I spoke to the NAS, who told me that even though the fit note is not a legal requirement in our situation the dwp still insist on it so you have to grin and bear it .
Do not forget to ask the doctor to backdate your first fit note three months, as soon as we sent it in we got a back payment for ds of nearly a £1000. Also assessment phase payments started of £146 a fortnight.
If your dd has asd this is a very useful guide to filling in the work capability assessment.

forms.www.autism.org.uk/~/media/nas/documents/living-with-autism/employment-and-support-allowance-work-capability-assessment.ashx?la=en-gb

Sorry, this link should work.

www.autism.org.uk/~/media/nas/documents/living-with-autism/employment-and-support-allowance-work-capability-assessment.ashx?la=en-gb

The GP issued a fit note for 52 weeks for DD as she will never be able to work. After 3 months, the Job Centre closed her file as we had not supplied another fit note. I pointed out nobody told us they have to have one every 3 months; and anyway there is no known cure for her problems and imo, it was maladministration. They accepted the 52 week fit note after that! However, it took 2 years from my initial application to get her from the assessment phase into the support group, with two threats of a formal complaint, because they did nothing with her papers month after month, even though I was ringing them every month to check they had opened her file!