esa overpayment

cidergirl

Hi I have a question about esa is it payed in arrears ?
my son with autism started a work trial and we wrote to the office on the top of the letter as he has communication problems his claim was a paper one too through the post , well 2 weeks later hadn't heard anything so I rang them and asked why my sons p45 hadn't come for his new job , well they said they had not received a letter which I have a copy of here and my dad posted it so he is a witness it was sent , so they closed the claim down there and then , now today we receive a letter saying hes been overpayed think ourselves lucky they haven't given him a civil penalty and he needs to pay back over £350 , which im sure if he has been overpaid it isn't that much we don't have a problem paying back any money he has been overpaid , but it wasn't our fault they did not receive the letter what should I do to check it for him ?

rogerblack

ESA is paid in arrears.
However.
It is not atypical for letters to reach them in 10 days practically.
14 days to act on a letter would not be unusual.
350 pounds would be - around - 4 weeks of ESA.
Any days he is working, he is not entitled to ESA.
How many days has he been working, before you told them that he working.
(neglecting the letter for the moment).

cidergirl

rogerblack wrote: »

ESA is paid in arrears.
However.
It is not atypical for letters to reach them in 10 days practically.
14 days to act on a letter would not be unusual.
350 pounds would be - around - 4 weeks of ESA.
Any days he is working, he is not entitled to ESA.
How many days has he been working, before you told them that he working.
(neglecting the letter for the moment).

it was just over 14 days roger

rogerblack

cidergirl wrote: »

it was just over 14 days roger

Does the letter you have got give an 'end date' for the claim?

It should say 'you were overpaid from x/x/x to y/y/y' - is the first date the date that work started?
He can only have been overpaid if he was actually paid.
If, for example, he was due to be paid his ESA today (neglecting the fact it's sunday) and was not paid anything as the claim had been stopped, then clearly he's not been paid for the last 14 days, so that overpayment can't have happened.
340 pounds sounds like they're assuming a much earlier date. Or taking off money he has not actually been paid.

cidergirl

rogerblack wrote: »

Does the letter you have got give an 'end date' for the claim?

It should say 'you were overpaid from x/x/x to y/y/y' - is the first date the date that work started?
He can only have been overpaid if he was actually paid.
If, for example, he was due to be paid his ESA today (neglecting the fact it's sunday) and was not paid anything as the claim had been stopped, then clearly he's not been paid for the last 14 days, so that overpayment can't have happened.
340 pounds sounds like they're assuming a much earlier date. Or taking off money he has not actually been paid.

im going to ring them tuesday