ESA SOOOO Confused

Disregarded

Foxie, I am in similar position. I was on ESA (CB) and ESA (IR) combined. Although DWP say I was purely on (CB), so why on award does it say I am topped up by (CB)? Like you, on award, it said £64.30, income £20.88 (a paltry pension), so I would have received £43.20 but topped back up as I have paid enough contributions. Although I thought that if I had been purely on CB the first £85 of any personal pension would have been disregarded?
So all along for 13 weeks I was getting £64.30, a figure that I have spent 3 months assuming as income in my dealings with my other debt agreements and could just survive on if I did nothing but eat simply and use everything much less, including cutting own hair, no clothes, no petrol, no life etc.
Without warning, I have been reduced to £43.42 now that Mortgage Interest is being paid (wrongly calculated and only partially paid). I can still not work out if they are totally correct in doing this and will appeal.
If I was not already stressed and ill, I would be after dealing with DWP about ESA. It is enough to send someone over the edge.
When asking for the regulatory paragraphs that dealt with this, I was told that I would have to write to a decison maker to see if they decide to supply that information. I was then advised that they might refuse my request as they 'may not have the relevant books' in the building. Hmm, so how are regulations enforced if they do not have the relevant regulations to hand.
Even if this is technically correct, it is morally repugnant to reduce an award merely because another component is awarded (which the claimant never sees and cannot access towards living expenses and which is paid directly to a mortgage company), but which technically reduces the DWP liability to pay what they were required to previously, (now with a sudden inability to top up with CB), causing much distress and further hardship. If mortgage interest was considered a seperate benefit which could be added to any original benefit then this problem would not be caused. And all this after 38 years of tax paying and NI contributions. To have been a law abiding, tax paying, responsible person was probably my biggest mistake in life. I have no idea how I will survive now.

foxielady

it doesn't make sense does it! I too have worked all my life and feel I am being treated unfairly for doing so how on earth can I live on £26.30 a week. Also they are taking my Child tax credit into account and I didnt think they were supposed to plus they are taking into account the £5 per week child support my ex is giving me and I thought the first £20 pw of child support doesnt count towards effecting benefits. I dont know what to do, may go to citizens advice to see if they can give me some advice.

suelees1

Again I must stress they shouldn't be taking your ctc into consideration

Appeal it

foxielady

Thankyou. I will ask for an appeal form even though I am losing the will!

healy

This really does not make any sense at all. Unless there are completely new rules that no one knows about they have got this totally wrong.

It might be worth speaking to someone more senior to get some sense, if not you do need to appeal this as mentioned above.

NASA_2

Right, unless they have rewired the system totally, you cannot be on ESA(IR) only. You will be paid the higher of ESA(C) and ESA(IR).

SuziQ

I don't know whether it's the same as what happened to me, but I am on Income support,and when the mortgage interest help kicked in it looked on my letters as if they were taking the mortgage help off my IS. I phoned up and a very patient man explained it to me. I have continued to recieve full IS along with the £48 a week mortgage interest help.

suelees1

foxielady wrote: »

Thankyou. I will ask for an appeal form even though I am losing the will!

Whatever you do don't lose the will . If you can't manage to get it resolved over the phone you don't need to waste more time asking for a GL24 appeal form to be sent out. Any appeal is valid as long as it's in writing and you explain what decision you're appealing against and why.

If i were you I'd try and find a local advice agency as they should be able to help.

I'll try and go through it with you - it sounds like you're on £64.30 pw which is ESA contribution based. Any morgage interest is added to this and will be income related so if they are saying you're entitled to £100 housing costs this means in total you are entitled to £164.30 contribution AND income based. They will add the £100 but take it away again as they pay it directly to your lender.

So what you're left with is 64.30 paid to you with £100 to your lender so in effect you do have contribution based and income related ESA.

Again I'll say the ctc should not come into it at all. I think they have made an error

There might be the odd amount for ground rent, possibly an amount to repay any arrears which you might have but I really can't understand all the other amounts you have stated. There are others on here who also have a lot of (work) experience in benefit matters and they seem to be of the same mind as me.

Disregarded

Ok, please tell me I am wrong. As I understand it after trawling through all the decision makers guides, is that for the 13 weeks you get the higher of the two combined CB or IR ESA, depending if you qualify for both.
My personal rate is £64.30. My applicable amount is my income of £20.88, which is deducted from the £64.30 which leaves £43.42.
The ruling seems to be that if you satisfy both CB and IR ESA and have any income, the amount payable is the greater of;
1. The personal rate, (£64.30)and
2. The amount by which the applicable amount exceeds the claimant’s income. (£43.42)
Because in the 13 weeks assessment period my personal rate exceeded the applicable amount, I was granted the higher amount of £64.30. So in effect the CB supercedes the IR amount.

However, once Mortgage Interest was granted, my applicable amount shot right up. Let’s say my mortgage is £100.
1.The personal rate is still £64.30
2. The applicable rate is now £64.30 plus MI of £100, which totals £164.30. Deduct my income of £20.88, the £100 MI goes to the mortgage company and I am left with £43.42. But they are still counting the MI as included in the applicable amount of £143.42, so there is no higher CB figure to counteract the drop because of any income, like before.

So £43.42 is all I now get, a third lower than originally received.

What I am surprised is that the forum is not full of people in despair about this. What we need, is to hear from anyone else on ESA who was awarded mortgage interest to see if they were affected in the same way.
Please tell me I am so wrong….

daska

Did you try to apply for IS, I did, I wasn't allowed to, I'm now on ESA and for some reason it's contribution based even though I haven't worked for over 3 years so I now have to pay for my prescriptions etc as well. The whole system is a nightmare for disabled parents.