Hardship and anxiety

Siobhán Harding, Policy and Communications Officer at Citizens Advice Regional Office, reports on feedback received from frontline advisers and makes recommendations to improve the system.

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was introduced in October 2008 to replace Incapacity Benefit.  At that time, Citizens Advice was concerned about the likely impact in Northern Ireland where there were more IB claimants as a percentage of the working population than in Britain.

Now that it has been in place for over a year, we have analysed the evidence received from bureaux across Northern Ireland to highlight the experiences of clients in applying for ESA and the policy implications which have arisen.

Citizens Advice in Northern Ireland dealt with 2,170 ESA issues between the introduction of ESA on 28 October 2009 and the end of March 2009. In the last six months, ESA has consistently been the top policy concern raised by our advisers.

Delays in the processing of claims

The most common problem reported by clients and advisers is delays in the processing of claims.  The nature of ESA means that claimants are suffering some type of health problem; therefore many are from the most vulnerable groups in society.  Unnecessary delays in processing ESA claims can have significant financial impacts on claimants.  Delays have occurred in the processing of claims generally, in the processing of housing costs for mortgage assistance and in the initial thirteen week assessment phase during which time the payment of ESA is lower.

A client of Falls CAB claimed ESA in July 2009 and had still not received a payment by October 2009.  The client has had to access a Crisis Loan from the Social Fund due to financial hardship.

A client of Newry CAB lodged his ESA claim in June 2009 but in September 2009 had still not received housing costs.  His lender has started repossession proceedings.  He contacted ESA and was told that it was still with a decision maker.  He is unemployed, his wife works part-time and their joint income is insufficient to pay the mortgage.

A client of Strabane CAB claimed ESA in March 2009.  The adviser contacted ESA to check what was happening with the claim and was told that the client may be called for a medical at the end of September. This was well over the thirteen weeks of the assessment period.

Misleading information

The benefits system is complex and most clients do not have a detailed knowledge of the system or how the different benefits interact.  Clients and advisers who have contacted ESA have, on occasion, been given misleading or incorrect information or advice by ESA staff.  Some ESA staff appear not to understand fully how ESA is calculated and how various premiums are applied, resulting in incorrect or misleading advice.

A client of Strabane CAB was in receipt of ESA.  The adviser contacted ESA to check the breakdown of her award but the ESA staff member could not explain the amount she was getting. When the adviser enquired what premiums the client was getting, if she was getting the severe disability premium or had been awarded the work-related activity com-ponent, the ESA staff member asked what premiums were and appeared to have no knowledge of how ESA is made up.

A client of East Belfast CAB had applied for ESA 29 weeks previously but was still waiting to be assessed for the limited capability for work-related activity.  The CAB adviser contacted ESA and was told there was a backlog in determining the limited capability for work-related activity assessment.  The adviser checked the details of the client’s case and discovered that she should not have to meet the limited capability for work-related activity assessment as she is recovering from chemotherapy. The adviser informed ESA of this but the staff member incorrectly said that only terminally ill people are automatically treated as having limited capability for work related activity.

Lost and mislaid paperwork

Lost or mislaid paperwork and supporting evidence causes delays in the processing of claims and means clients have to supply the same information more than once.

A client of Newtownabbey CAB had a three week delay in his payment because ESA lost his medical certificate.  He had to return to his GP and obtain a duplicate sick line and have this faxed through to ESA.  He was told that a giro would be sent that day.  Instead, the payment was sent to his bank account two days later.

A client of Down District CAB applied for ESA in October 2008 and was disallowed in February 2009.  The client appealed and then had a change of circumstances so was asked to complete a new form.  The client filled in the form but this was lost by ESA.

Problems with telephony

The introduction of ESA saw the move to the majority of customer interaction being done by phone.  While this works well for some claimants, others have had problems getting through to a member of staff, spending long periods of time on hold and making costly phone calls, especially from mobile phones.

A client of Causeway CAB wanted to apply for ESA but despite frequent attempts was unable to get through.  The client came to the bureau for help and the CAB adviser also tried to get through but was passed to three different numbers before being able to speak to an adviser.

A client of Newtownabbey CAB came to the bureau as she had been unable to contact ESA.  She only has a mobile phone and cannot afford the calls.  She previously spent £20 on one call due to the length of time she was on hold.  This caused her hardship and stress as she is unable to ring ESA if there is a problem with her payments.

Recommendations

In response to an Assembly Question (AQW 658/10) on the effectiveness of the ESA Branch, Minister Margaret Ritchie said: ‘while there is no official target for processing ESA claims, the average actual clearance time for an ESA claim has improved from 23.4 days in May to 17.5 days in August. The number of outstanding claims is well within acceptable levels and telephony performance has been excellent over recent months’. The evidence received by Citizens Advice, however, shows that unacceptable delays in the processing of claims are causing people  financial hardship, anxiety and distress.

We would like to see more staff recruited to ESA to cope with demand and to deal with those cases which are outstanding.  This may also help with some of the telephony issues highlighted and potentially with the issue of lost documents.  We also recommend that ESA implements policies and procedures to ensure that safe and reliable systems are in place to store and retrieve information.

We would like to see additional resources directed to staff training to reduce instances of misinformation and incorrect advice.  This would ensure that staff are better equipped to deal with ESA calculations, including the correct application of premiums.  It is vitally important that the information and advice given by ESA staff is correct, accurate and fully complete, given the consequences for claimants.

Given the emphasis on telephony and the fact that the claimant group for ESA is particularly vulnerable, Citizens Advice believes that all phone numbers for contact with ESA should be freephone numbers. This would remove the disincentive for claimants to contact ESA on cost grounds.

© Law Centre (NI) 2009