ESA and IS

Spicelady

Dear Epitome
MANY MANY thanks for the excellent reply, I feel a lot calmer about everything now

its very kind of you for writing everything out and also explaining everything, also about the overpayment we paid back

Can you just clarify the questions I asked in my last post when you have the time. ( much appreciated)

Also will this happen every year, as the contrib ESA lasts the year ?

MANY MANY THANKS

epitome

You ask them to convert your claim to "ESA Contribution only" claim - emphasising that you expect ESA to remain open and paying you ESA Contributions at a rate of £110.85 per week. You will not need to fill a form to do this. It will be done when they call you back over the phone.

As soon as it is done, ESA will pay you from August £110.85 a week. When this happens IS will also owe you some money. If IS has continued to be paid at the same rate since August, then IS has been deducting £121.65 since August when they should only be allowed to keep £110.85 of that, meaning they will refund you £10.80 per week from August.

You also fill in the ESA50 before the date they gave and you send it recorded delivery (£1) *very* important form!


ESA re assesses claimants regularly, the period of reassessment can be 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 18 months, 2 years or 3 years. Yours must have been either:
1 year and they are late or
18 months from July 2012 ish and they are on time.

If, on reassessment, you are put into WRAG your payments will only last for 365 days and then stop but your ESA will continue to pay you NI credits. His IS will then pay the difference. And in WRAG you will have to go to the jobcentre for interviews and possibly go on the work program. If you appeal WRAG for SG you will not be expected to do the work program but you will still need to go to the jobcentre interviews.

If you don't like being in WRAG and you have lost your appeal, you could always close your ESA claim but you would not be paid the NI credits.

Another reason you would want to keep your ESA conts entitlement by not closing your ESA claim (in option 1 above) is if your partner returned to work you would still be able to be paid ESA C.


You're welcome

Spicelady

Hello Epitome
Thanks for the info as always.

Okeydokey, I shall phone the ESA and tell them to put me on the Contribute ESA etc and state all the facts you have said. Just to check I am claiming the Cont ESA for myself and NOT my partner as a couple ? I want to word it correctly when Im on the phone

Regarding the IS money owed from August 2013 at £10.80 per week, do you think a letter would be ok rather than a phone call ?
At first I thought you meant we would get that £400 we paid back as overpayment from LAST August 2012 til August 2013.

Thanks about the ESA50, we sent the last one Special next day delivery. Do you think I should get an updated letter from my GP, rather than use the 2012 letter, although it will be the same ?

Im hoping to get into the SUPPORT group again like I was the first time around.

But if I go into the WRAG, and Im not happy about that I can appeal, and if that doesn't work out, you are saying I can close the claim and claim IS with my partner ?

Thanks again for all your time answering my questions. I don't think you can ever buy peace of mind, which you have given us at this stressful time. THANKS

epitome

What was the overpayment of £400 in relation to?

epitome

Spicelady wrote: »

Okeydokey, I shall phone the ESA and tell them to put me on the Contribute ESA etc and state all the facts you have said. Just to check I am claiming the Cont ESA for myself and NOT my partner as a couple ? I want to word it correctly when Im on the phone

The wording I would use is
"My partner currently has a claim for Income Support and my ESA was incorrectly paying me ESA IR at the same time, this has caused ESA to suspend my claim. I have found out that we will be paid more as a couple on Income Support than on ESA. However, I wish my ESA to continue to pay me ESA contributions (for myself only) and National Insurance credits. Therefore I am requesting that the ESA IR (Income Related) is removed from my ESA claim leaving my claim open as ESA Contributions only and paying me £110.85 a week (£106.50 ESA C + £5.35 TA). Will you please arrange a callback from ESA to me to confirm that this will be done."

Ask them before they send the callback request to read to you what they have written. After the call has ended I would then call ESA again 10 minutes later to check that the request for the callback was actually done as promised.

Regarding the IS money owed from August 2013 at £10.80 per week, do you think a letter would be ok rather than a phone call ?
At first I thought you meant we would get that £400 we paid back as overpayment from LAST August 2012 til August 2013.

It should be done automatically, if after getting ESA sorted out and back in payment wait about 4 weeks if you get no refund from IS then phone IS.

Thanks about the ESA50, we sent the last one Special next day delivery. Do you think I should get an updated letter from my GP, rather than use the 2012 letter, although it will be the same ?

Don't know.

But if I go into the WRAG, and Im not happy about that I can appeal, and if that doesn't work out, you are saying I can close the claim and claim IS with my partner ?

yes, but you would lose NI credits.

No problem.

Spicelady

Hello Epitome

THANKS everso much, I shall print this whole thread out and read the statement out to them.
I get nervous (as does my partner) when we have to phone up. So having it as a proper statement will help greatly.

Do you have to have a call back, as the " call back people" are more specialised as such ?

May I ask what TA stands for in this bit please £5.35 TA

The overpayment of £440 something was said to be that from Aug 2012 onwards, and that was when I swopped from Incap Ben to ESA support group. And that we had been paid too much I believe. They were going to deduct it from the IS every week (a bit every week)if we didn't pay it, so we wanted to pay it all in one go. I may have to double check the info though

Another thing from reading other info on other peoples posts etc, would I need to send sick notes at all for my ESA cont ? ( I know everybodies claim maybe different) I have been long term sick and have not had to supply these at all. When I transferred from I to ESA never had to at all.
Even when I was on IB which has been since about the year 2000.


Again, many thanks. I slept well last night as I wasn't as stressed and worried.

Thanks

epitome

Spicelady wrote: »

Do you have to have a call back, as the " call back people" are more specialised as such ?

Exactly, the "call back people" will be actioning what you want them to do, so you want to speak to them to confirm they will be doing it the way you want it done.
If anyone says:
"Why are you doing this, you would get the same amount of money on Income Support if we close ESA", or
"You can't have ESA and Income Support at the same time"

You tell them, "I want ESA to pay my National Insurance credits...my partner's Income Support would not pay my National Insurance.
AND I want to keep my ESA Contributions entitlement. I can have Income Suport (in my partners name) and ESA Contributions (in my name) at the same time.

May I ask what TA stands for in this bit please £5.35 TA

Transitional Amount,
ESA C Support Group pays £106.50
Your IB paid you £110.85
The difference is £5.35
You are allowed to remain on your old IB rate so you get ESA C with a TA of £5.35.

The overpayment of £440 something was said to be that from Aug 2012 onwards, and that was when I swopped from Incap Ben to ESA support group. And that we had been paid too much I believe. They were going to deduct it from the IS every week (a bit every week)if we didn't pay it, so we wanted to pay it all in one go. I may have to double check the info though

Perhaps during this period the IS was not deducting the full £121.65 / £119.85 ? and then they realised their error and changed the IS award to deduct the full amount. OR maybe it was the ESA overpayment of £10.80 per week. If it was in relation to either of these you should get the money back again. If it was for something else then I can't comment.

Another thing from reading other info on other peoples posts etc, would I need to send sick notes at all for my ESA cont ? ( I know everybodies claim maybe different) I have been long term sick and have not had to supply these at all. When I transferred from I to ESA never had to at all.
Even when I was on IB which has been since about the year 2000.


Again, many thanks. I slept well last night as I wasn't as stressed and worried.

Thanks

No you won't need sick notes unless you are found "fit for work" at any future assessments and then they will close your ESA claim, you would need sick notes to appeal the decision.

Let me know how you get on.

Spicelady

Hiya Epitome

Thanks again for the info, Im going to print it all out so I have a transcript to read off from. And I will also say I shall be reading a statement out.

Do the "Call back" people normally ring back the same day, do you know ?

I shall look into the overpayment scenario after Ive sorted this out.
We did ask them to send a letter to explain and breakdown what the overpayment was for ,but they didn't. But reading the letter again, it states we were overpaid in IS. And I think was when my ESA started on the 25th August 2012.
Again, I will concentrate on sorting on my ESA then look into that.
But I appreciate your insight.

Thanks for the info on sick notes.

Im not being overdramatic here, but you have helped us both so immensely as we wouldn't have had a clue what to do. And would have been really stressed and worried over the weekend. To be honest I didn't even know there were 2 types of ESA, Income related and the Contributy ESA, and that they were so different. Although it said it on my original letter I didn't really think about, especially as it was first ESA from the transition from IB.

Again I can not thank you enough, for taking your time and also putting it in simple terms for me

I shall let you know what happens

MANY MANY THANKS

epitome

If the request for call back is sent before 1pm you will be called by 4:30 the same day.

If the request is sent after 1pm you will be called by 1pm the following day.

Although they will in anycase try to call you within 3 hours.

Spicelady

Hiya Eptiome

Well I phoned up and it didn't go to plan as such

When I phoned I had to give them a general idea of why I was phoning, and I said, I wanted my ESA to be Contributury. I also read my statement out. the one below this....and didn't get much further.

My partner currently has a claim for Income Support and my ESA was incorrectly paying me ESA IR at the same time, this has caused ESA to suspend my claim. I have found out that we will be paid more as a couple on Income Support than on ESA. However, I wish my ESA to continue to pay me ESA contributions (for myself only) and National Insurance credits. Therefore I am requesting that the ESA IR (Income Related) is removed from my ESA claim leaving my claim open as ESA Contributions only and paying me £110.85 a week (£106.50 ESA C + £5.35 TA). Will you please arrange a callback from ESA to me to confirm that this will be done

He bluntly said that I couldn't do that and all that the computer was showing was that , I would have to close my partners IS claim and then claim ESA for both of us.

He stated that he would send a ESA3 through for me

He said he has never seen a claim that I wanted at all. It was always the couple were either ALL on IS or ALL on ESA.

I said even if I asked for a call back would this not happen and he said no, as it wasn't showing that I could do that on the system.
He refered to the letter which I had got the other day. Close partners IS and put him on my ESA as couple

He said I could put this all in writing and ask for the decision maker to look at this, to see if they could put me on the ESA contribute

I didn't even get any further with statements as he was rather blunt and was adamant that was that, and that was what the PC stated.

What do you think I should do ? Just phone back again......and try and speak to someone else ?

I would appreciate your advice again. Thanks