ESA and change of address/council area

Redcoat

Hi

My dad is on income based ESA and has recently moved to a new house which is in different council/jobcentre area. When he advised his original jobcentre of the move this week and asked what he needed to do they gave him a form to fill in for reassessment. Is this correct - does moving house and/or council area mean he has to be reassessed? None of his other circumstances have changed and he has only moved as he was offered social housing that he desperately needed.

Thanks

RC

rogerblack

He should call ESA, and tell them he has moved.
You don't need to do anything more.
It is _NOT_ a cause for reassessment for ESA.

GirlFromMars_2

I've recently moved, and I phoned up the DWP (ESA) on the day I moved and it took about 5 mins for the advisor to ask all the questions necessary to switch my address.

Then a couple of days later I received two random forms through the post. An NHB1A form (which seemed totally irrelevant to ESA) and an HCTB1 form which is about Housing Benefit, and again, totally irrelevant to ESA.

After a few phonecalls to find out who send me the forms & why it turned out that I needed to fill out the NHB1A form & send it back as it's a change of address form for all income related benefits including ESA(IR) which wasn't mentioned on the form.

The Housing Benefit form was automatically generated on change of address, but I didn't need to fill it out as I had already given a housing benefit form to the local council.

I also found out that I had to call the DLA people separately, even though they're all part of the DWP apparently they don't always share information.

I filled out the change of address form & sent it back by return of post, and was surprised to discover a few days later that my ESA payment hadn't gone into my bank. Nice!

Turns out none of the advisers I spoke to over the phone thought to tell me that ESA(IR) claims are temporarily suspended until they get the change of address form back & process it.

Anyhow, a decision maker phoned me back later that day, and took my word for it that I'd filled out the form & sent it off. Asked a few questions to check the current information, then processed my ESA(IR) payment that day.

So ... exactly what forms has your father received? He needs to inform ESA, DLA and if he's receiving Housing Benefit the council who should be paying his benefit of his new address.

He shouldn't be re-assessed for ESA, but as it's income based they do need new information from him to check that he is still entitled to income based benefits. So they need to check he's not moved in with a partner who's working etc.

Hope your father's happy in his new home!

pmlindyloo

I would have thought that since he was moving to a new council area then it was not just a case of informing everyone of the change of address (I agree inform everyone separately) but also his local housing allowance and the amount he has to pay towards his council tax may have changed.

Different council have different housing allowances and also charge different amounts as regards council tax support.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I would have thought that since he was moving to a new council area then it was not just a case of informing everyone of the change of address (I agree inform everyone separately) but also his local housing allowance and the amount he has to pay towards his council tax may have changed.

Different council have different housing allowances and also charge different amounts as regards council tax support.

He would need to make a new claim for Housing Benefit and Local Council Tax support at the new address as the claims aren't transferred from one Local Authority to another. The HCTB1 issued by the DWP will only be used for Housing Benefit not Council Tax Support if completed and returned and would require a separate claim for help towards Council Tax.

Redcoat

Thanks all for the advice. The DLA, housing and council tax benefits are all sorted - ESA was the last bit of admin to do after moving Dad.

I spoke to a lady at the local ESA centre this morning who reassured me that the change of address shouldn't trigger anything and gave me a phone number that Dad has to call to do the change of address. Let's hope that's the end of it and no forms arrive!

Wouldn't it be nice if all at DWP/jobcentres gave consistent advice and then we wouldn't have to worry so much.