ESA and profit from house sale

Ifrabell

Hi, we have recently sold our house because we could not longer afford to live there, paid off the mortgage and purchased another cheap house leaving £30k for our pension pot. I informed ESA the week we competed (Nov 2013) and since then have recieved a new assesment weekly, 1st keeping benefit the same, later reducing by £40 per week and many others in between. I then got a letter asking why I had not informed of our change of circumstance? and telling me we would be fined £50 if I did not provide an answer, I have replied strongly informing of my notification both in writing and over the phone. I am awaiting a response from them on this matter, however today I have recieved a statement, dated back to 2011 informing what we should have recieved in ESA weekly from then to now, I am already worried about the money we will have to pay back from them continuing to pay some ESA since November even though we have more than £16k, can they actually go back to when we started claiming in 2011 and take money from us, we only had very small savings until we sold the house - very worried

pmlindyloo

Bit muddled here as to why you are receiving different assessments. If you are on income based ESA your benefit should have stopped as you have over the savings limit and if you were under the savings limit before then the ESA should have been the same.

OK need more information please.

What ESA are you on? Contribution based/income based? Joint claim? Any pensions? WRAG group/Support group?

Morglin

No, they can only only deduct money, from IR ESA when your savings went over the threshold. If you are Contributory ESA, savings make no difference.

You need to gather up all of your paperwork, make an appointment with them, and sort this out.

Lin

Ifrabell

This is what I cannot understand, why on a weekly basis do we get a new assessment, especially when I expected the benefit to stop when we received the money?

We need to keep claiming as hubby is only 60 so we need to ensure he can claim full pension.

We were on contribution? but they say that has now stopped and so we are on Income? does this sound right?

We have kept the money they have paid us since we reported our change of circumstance expecting to have to pay it back, but cannot understand why they are sending us statements going back to 2011 now it is very confusing.

The ESA was the only money we have been receiving, we do not have any other income or pensions.

nannytone_2

if he is in the WRAG, then ESA would only be contributions based for 365 days. if after that you have no household income, he would have been paid income related ESA.

they can only ask you to repay benefit that you have received since you received this money