ESA problem

dhillcrest

Hi all. My wife started receiving ESA in September after she went onto half pay as she's been recieving chemo and radiotherapy following breast cancer. This was contribution based ESA. Anyway, she went back in December (about 2 weeks after the full assessment) but is still getting the fortnightly payments of ESA.

She rang the relevant people before she went back to work to tell them of the change and was told nothing else had to be done.

Does anyone know - is this normal to receive the payments after return to work or is it a !!!!-up? Cheers if anyone knows.

Torry_Quine

If she has returned to work and receiving full pay then she is not entitled to ESA so will have an overpayment.

dhillcrest

Well that's just depressing, but thanks anyway.

mikey_bach

if she rang ESA and informed them she returned to work and they have continued to pay her then the overpayment will be official error and non recoverable.
she needs to ring them again tomorrow and tell them she has returned to work and state she informed them when she went back and any OP is an offiical error
if they raise the OP and try to recover it then she can ask for a review, recon and then appeal it.......

dhillcrest

Thanks for that again.

Not only did she speak to the jobcentre plus to inform them, she also wrote on the back of the paperwork for the 13 week assessment the a date she was returning to work (December 9th) so there should be a paper copy somewhere. Thanks to you both for your replies.

Its bad enough dealing with cancer, trying to inform the right people but still having to deal with possibly incompetent Jobcentre people.

kissjenn

Same thing happened to me. I was off for 9 months with BC and treatments, went back to work right before the assessment was due and wrote on the back of the form to tell them. Got one last partial payment of about £70 and then silence. All well and good I thought.

Then the cancer recurred and when my accountant started up my SSP again they DWP informed HMRC that I was still an active claim from 9 months ago but had been suspended because I didn't attend the assessment.

To make it fall into "this is so carp it's funny category" HMRC then didn't process the SSP application but SMP instead and suspended me for not producing the baby. It took 10 months in total to sort with an abject apology in end from high up in HMRC and full reimbursement of all accountant fees.

I hope you're wife's feeling better now. It is a real rollercoaster and tbh you've enough on your plate without this hassle on top. Stick to your guns and appeal any OP they've managed to create for themselves.

bloolagoon

Just pop the money into a savings account and pay back when asked. It's no big deal and you know it needs repaid, hardly stressful, keep hold till asked.

rogerblack

mikey_bach wrote: »

if she rang ESA and informed them she returned to work and they have continued to pay her then the overpayment will be official error and non recoverable.

This is only the case if the claimant had a reasonable belief that the payments should have continued.
Even if the payments continue after you tell them you think they should have stopped - you would not usually be safe from recovery.
I believe that since last October - this has changed, and this power is even wider.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/SN05856/recovery-of-benefit-overpayments-due-to-official-error

Morglin

Best to put it into a savings account - there is nothing to stop you trying for 'official error' and appeal etc., but at least you will know that, if you lose, you can pay the money straight back to them.

Lin