ESA issue

sparky578uk

Hi there,

Ive recently had a letter regarding my ESA and it said i had reached my 365 days of claiming contribution based ESA and i was told to send it a form and after sending in the form I've now been told I'm now not entitled to get income related ESA any anymore as the total of my DLA and war disablement pension is too much. Not getting this is a drop of just over £400 a month, which is quite a lot.

Ive asked them what I'm entitled to claim and the answer i got was 'i don't know', i also asked regarding housing and council tax benefit and got the same reply.

Im actually quite stressed over this. Ive got an appointment with helping heroes next week so ill hopefully get some answers. It doesn't seem right to cut all of that money.

Is this right? My DLA and war pension have never been regarded when its came to income as far as i can remember.


Thanks in advance for any advice.

pmlindyloo

Your DLA will definitely not be taken into account but your war pension will. (I think there should be a £10 a week disregard)

See here:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dmgch51.pdf - a bit long so keep scrolling down.

You will still be eligible for housing benefit and council tax support because of your low income.

If they are saying that you are not entitled to any ESA payment then your HB and CT support will stop. You will need to contact the council and let them know your change of circumstances so they can up date your claim.

If you can give us some figures someone will check that they are correct.


When you were on contribution based ESA most income and savings are ignored (DLA is always ignored). War pensions do affect contribution based ESA - I believe half of any amount over £85 per week should have been deducted from your ESA - was it?

(Also, what exactly is the name of your 'war pension' - there may be different rules for different types so want to check that I have given you the correct information )

McKneff

Is there any other household income from Spouse,

Raksha

Were you put into WRAG or Support group?

sparky578uk

Im on just under £300 a month for DLA and my war disablement pension is around £530 a month. Ive never had any issues with them before in regards to those amounts. I know what i get is quite a lot of money but i get that for a reason caused by my army service.

I live alone and i wasn't put into WRAG or a support group.

I just find it very confusing that the only answers i got on the phone to the people who should know the answers were 'i don't know' to any questions i asked.

Torry_Quine

sparky578uk wrote: »

Im on just under £300 a month for DLA and my war disablement pension is around £530 a month. Ive never had any issues with them before in regards to those amounts. I know what i get is quite a lot of money but i get that for a reason caused by my army service.

I live alone and i wasn't put into WRAG or a support group.

I just find it very confusing that the only answers i got on the phone to the people who should know the answers were 'i don't know' to any questions i asked.

Contribution based only lasts for one year unless in the support group. Your income is too high to get any income based.

You say you aren't in any group. Presumably then you have either still not had to complete your ESA 50 or if you have they have yet to make a decision whether to send you for a WCA or 'medical'. This is far in excess of the usual 13 weeks approx so if I were you I would find out about this.

sparky578uk

I asked a few times what I need to do. Only answer I ever got was 'I don't know'

wildwestfan

Could the form the Op mentions be his ESA claim form?

Torry_Quine

wildwestfan wrote: »

Could the form the Op mentions be his ESA claim form?

From what he says I think it was the form to claim income based ESA rather than claiming it per se.

sparky578uk

Yes it was the form to claim income based ESA.

epitome

What rate of ESA have you been getting for the last 365 days?

If possible what was your ESA award amount
and what did you actually recieve after deductions?

Were you previously on Incapacity Benefit? OR did you make a fresh claim to ESA in 2012 with no prior benefits?