Hello!
I seem to remember reading something very recently about backdating ESA claims, but I'm having trouble finding out about it, and didn't bookmark what I'd read.
I'm just about to claim ESA, having just obtained a medical certificate for "anxiety" and "suspected Asperger's Syndrome" dated this week. It sounds like I could have got a medical certificate a lot earlier, but I'd thought I needed a formal diagnosis first. Perhaps that itself is an example of how my Asperger's affects me.
I went through the DISCO interviews last year, and am still waiting to receive the actual report. After the DISCO interviews, the clinical psychologist told me that I will be getting a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. It's now nearly two and a half years since I started seeking this diagnosis after an unsuccessful attempt a few years earlier.
My financial circumstances mean I can't really wait much longer before claiming ESA, which is why I saw my GP and asked for a medical certificate.
My grounds for backdating my claim would be that I've always had Asperger's, it's not a condition that only starts once I've got a formal diagnosis, and my difficulties have lasted years. I would have claimed sooner, but I've been waiting for the report of the formal diagnosis in order to have that as evidence of my disability, and it's already taking a lot longer than I expected. And, also, I suspect that my Asperger's itself has interfered in my ability to seek a diagnosis and make an ESA claim, probably delaying my claim.
But I don't know enough about backdating ESA claims, and I'm not confident that the DWP would give me proper information or advice about that. So I wondered if anyone here would be able to refer me to reliable information about backdating ESA claims.
I don't want to backdate a claim if I don't have proper grounds to. But if I do get it backdated, it would certainly help ease the growing financial pressure.
