Reclaiming benefits after accident compensation

kerry1311

Hi
Im looking for some advice.

My husband had an accident in December 2009. The accident was at work so he claimed industrial injuries disablement benefit. He was also in receipt of DLA and ESA. The claim is coming to a settlement at last however the medical expert has said my husband would of became disabled anyway but the accident accelerated this by 12 months. The DWP has asked for benefits back for the first 12 months only apart from the IIDB which they want back in full upto settlement date. The ESA doesnt need to be paid back at all as he started getting that after the 12 months.

Now this is where my query is. As its income based ESA the amount we got for IIDB was deducted from the ESA automatically basically making us no better off by claiming. Now my question is would we be able to claim back the ESA under payment once the IIDB has been paid back as it doesnt seem right that we have lost out.

many thanks

stevemLS

Surely your claim includes past and future loss of earnings, so you haven't lost out

kerry1311

Yes includes that but as the IIDB is paid back and the ESA isnt paid back we do lose out as if we had of been paid full amount of ESA we wouldnt of had to pay anything back. Solicitor agrees too but hasnt had a case before where one benefit is repayable and one isnt.

swingaloo

We have just had the same thing. OH had accident at work in 2009 as well and his solicitor had to pay the DWP all the benefit back from his settlement figure. He is on IIDB, ESA and DLA.

Your solicitor should be able to explain it all as ours did.

I don't understand why your solicitor is saying you don't have to pay back the ESA as if your husband had not had the accident you would not have been making a claim for that anyway, we had to pay it back. As I understand it you cannot profit twice so therefore anything you have claimed in benefits due to not being able to work because of an accident is recoverable if you receive a payout from that accident.

kerry1311

I undertstand that and knew we had to pay back benefits but my query is that we dont have to pay back the ESA just the IIDB so therefore as the IIDB is deducted from ESA would they not owe you the downfall of ESA once the IIDB is paid back?

kerry1311

We dont have to pay the ESA back as we have been awarded damages for 12 months after the accident and the ESA started after that time. Also we only have to pay back 4 months dla as that started later on after accident. The IIDB has to be repaid upto now which is 3 years on.

bloolagoon

You don't have to pay ESA as you didn't claim it for the first 12 months. If you did, it would be repayable.

kerry1311

Yes i fully understand that. Its the fact that the IIDB is deducted from ESA and if we had of not claimed IIDB we would not of had to pay back anything as ESA isnt repayable so seems unfair as amounts would of been the same that we got with or without IIDB included. The solicitor has messaged the barrister and hopefully i will hear next week but she also was confused and agreed it didnt seem right.

bloolagoon

kerry1311 wrote: »

Yes i fully understand that. Its the fact that the IIDB is deducted from ESA and if we had of not claimed IIDB we would not of had to pay back anything as ESA isnt repayable so seems unfair as amounts would of been the same that we got with or without IIDB included. The solicitor has messaged the barrister and hopefully i will hear next week but she also was confused and agreed it didnt seem right.

I see why you think it's unfair but they could have said that it was due to work with no progression of underlying conditions and it would have been a different outcome.

kerry1311

Its just so confusing lol

bloolagoon

kerry1311 wrote: »

Its just so confusing lol

If they had said the accident 100% caused his disability. He earnt £20,000 PA and had 10 years before retirement. Then they'd pay 10 x 20,000 (tax deducted) less ESA.

Industrial is always deducted for obvious reasons.

In your case they are saying he would have been on ESA after 12 months, so this is the position they put you in. For 12 months he lost x value, but after 12 months if had to claim sickness then he would only get ESA rate (not ESA add Ind , as the ind Ben wasn't applicable as the accident didn't cause it.