Phone an Employment and Support Allowance advisor at the ESA contact centre for free by calling their freephone number 0800 055 6688 for new claims or phone 0800 169 0310 when discussing existing benefits claims.
ESA Customer Services – 0800 169 0310
Contact the ESA main customer service team by calling their local-rate 0345 608 8545 phone number or call them for free by dialling their freephone number 0800 169 0310 to discuss your support payments. If you are an existing claimant of the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) benefit and you wish to make an enquiry regarding your payments you should call their above helpline. You should also call their customer service number if you want to change any of your payment details, such as the bank account your benefits are paid into, and if you need any information on how much money you will receive from ESA and how any changes in UK government legislation will affect your payments.
Calls to this 0345 608 8545 ESA helpline are charged at the same rate as calls to local UK 01 and 02 area code phone numbers. Therefore calls to ESA will cost around 12p per minute maximum from a BT landline, plus a standard call set-up charge decided by your provider. Calling 0345 numbers, such as the ESA customer service helpline, is usually free of charge if you are calling from a mobile provided you are using any free minutes that are included in your tariff. Please check with your provider for details about these minutes and your tariff, as calls may cost substantially more than landline calls to ESA if you aren’t using these minutes. However you can avoid these charges with full certainty if you contact the ESA using their freephone number 0800 169 0310 which is completely free of charge from both landline and mobile handsets.
Claim ESA Benefits – 0800 055 6688
Contact the ESA New Claims service by calling their free-of-charge phone number 0800 055 6688. ESA, which stands for the Employment and Support Allowance, provides you with financial support if you aren’t able to work and a personalised help plan which will enable you to work if you can. Therefore you should call 0800 055 6688 if you have had a change of circumstances which requires you to make a new claim for ESA, or the recent changes in benefit legislation have meant you now need to claim ESA benefits.
You can also download an ESA claims form (ESA1) from the official Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) website here www.gov.uk/government/publications/employment-and-support-allowance-claim-form. After filling out and printing this form you should then send it by post or deliver it in person to your closest Jobcentre Plus Office. You can find your nearest Jobcentre Plus Office where you should deliver your ESA claims form by using the official local office search website los.direct.gov.uk/ provided by Jobcentre Plus.
Dispute an ESA Decision – 0345 608 8545 & 0300 123 1142
Phone 0345 608 8545 to contact ESA to dispute their decision about your benefit payments. Please call this general enquiries number for advice on how to get a mandatory reconsideration notice, which you will need in order to appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal. Alternatively you can write to ESA using the address provided on the letter which has the original decision written on it. Please be aware that you must do this within one month of the decision. For further advice on obtaining this ESA mandatory reconsideration notice please contact your local citizens advice bureau, you can use the official Citizens Advice office finder provided here www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-we-provide-advice/advice/search-for-your-local-citizens-advice/.
Once you have this mandatory reconsideration notice you can then appeal the ESA’s decision to the Social Security and Child Tribunal. Call 0300 123 1142 if you are a resident in England & Wales, or alternatively contact ESA on 0141 354 8400 if you are a resident in Scotland. These phone numbers will provide you with advice on how to complete the forms which you need to send to the tribunal to appeal against your ESA claims decision. The form you need to complete and send to the Social Security and Child Tribunal is the SSCS1 form, which you can download from the official HM Courts & Tribunals Service website provided here for you:
https://formfinder.hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/sscs001-eng.pdf. Please use the helpful list below for the addresses which you should then send this ESA dispute form to, which depends on whether you are a resident of England & Wales or Scotland.
England & Wales Residents |
Scotland Residents |
|---|---|
| HMCTS SSCS Appeals Centre, PO Box 1203, BRADFORD, BD1 9WP, United Kingdom. |
HMCTS SSCS Appeals Centre, PO Box 27080, GLASGOW, G2 9HQ, United Kingdom. |
Make an ESA Complaint – 0345 608 8545
Contact the ESA office to make a complaint by phone on their local-rate 0345 608 8545 number. You should call this number if you feel you have been treated badly by the service, if you have suffered unreasonable delays in either your service or payments, or you feel you haven’t been kept informed of the decisions that affect your ESA payment or claim. Please note that 0345 608 8545 is not the number to use if you want to dispute a decision made about your ESA claim, please follow the steps in the paragraphs above if you want to appeal against an ESA decision.
If you are using a Textphone service to make a complaint regarding your ESA service then please dial 0345 608 8551. If you require welsh language services to complain about your ESA service then you should phone 0345 600 3018 (os byddwch yn gofyn am wasanaethau Cymraeg i wneud cwyn i Lwfans Cyflogaeth a Chymorth, ffoniwch 0345 600 3018).