ESA help

Paddy1936

Hi there,

This is my 1st post and hopefully someone will be able to offer me some advice please? Basically I have fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety caused by the aforementioned and because of having £6k in a bond (tied in until July 2018) I have been awarded £33.10 to survive on paid every fortnight, my council tax is £115.00 monthly so by simple mathematics I have been told to survive on £17.40 per month.. Taking into consideration that I was earning £30 per day some 35 years ago after leaving school I find it not only humiliating but absolutely ridiculous. I am fortunate enough to own my home, but this is somewhat irrelevant especially after paying tax throughout my working life. Can anyone offer advice please?

Kind Regards.

IAmWales

Paddy1936 wrote: »

Hi there,

This is my 1st post and hopefully someone will be able to offer me some advice please? Basically I have fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety caused by the aforementioned and because of having £6k in a bond (tied in until July 2018) I have been awarded £33.10 to survive on paid every fortnight, my council tax is £115.00 monthly so by simple mathematics I have been told to survive on £17.40 per month.. Taking into consideration that I was earning £30 per day some 35 years ago after leaving school I find it not only humiliating but absolutely ridiculous. I am fortunate enough to own my home, but this is somewhat irrelevant especially after paying tax throughout my working life. Can anyone offer advice please?

Kind Regards.

How have they reached the £33.10 figure? Your award letter will show the calculation. Do you have other capital or income?

Are you not entitled to contributions based ESA?

Paddy1936

Hi there tanks for replying.

I have dozens of letters showing different calculations £73.10 >£53.10>Final calculation of £33.10. I most definitely do not have any other income and as I tried to explain to them the £6k was for a 'rainy day' . I was told that I must spend this to qualify for a council tax reduction, it's absolutely ridiculous.

IAmWales

Paddy1936 wrote: »

Hi there tanks for replying.

I have dozens of letters showing different calculations £73.10 >£53.10>Final calculation of £33.10. I most definitely do not have any other income and as I tried to explain to them the £6k was for a 'rainy day' . I was told that I must spend this to qualify for a council tax reduction, it's absolutely ridiculous.

The rules for council tax support are different to those for ESA. You should qualify for ESA without a reduction.

I hope Paddy comes back and doesn't rely on the duff advice given by KxMx

epitome

Paddy1936 wrote: »

Hi there,

This is my 1st post and hopefully someone will be able to offer me some advice please? Basically I have fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety caused by the aforementioned and because of having £6k in a bond (tied in until July 2018) I have been awarded £33.10 to survive on paid every fortnight, my council tax is £115.00 monthly so by simple mathematics I have been told to survive on £17.40 per month.. Taking into consideration that I was earning £30 per day some 35 years ago after leaving school I find it not only humiliating but absolutely ridiculous. I am fortunate enough to own my home, but this is somewhat irrelevant especially after paying tax throughout my working life. Can anyone offer advice please?

Kind Regards.

Please answer all questions...

Did you claim Carer's Allowance in the last 2 - 3 years?
Do you have any other savings (even a few hundred quid in your account) apart from the bond?
Do you have a partner?
Do you own any other property or land apart from your home?
Do you get any Occupational Pension Income?
Did you previously have more than £6,000 , like £16,000 - £20,000 ??? When did you last have this sort of money? What did you spend it on?

If there are no other savings, **exactly** how much is the bond?

When you next phone ESA (today/tomorrow) Ask them what it is that is reducing your £73.10 to £33.10 ?
Is it Capital Tarriff (CT) that is reducing it?
Is the capital Tariff £40

A CT of £40 equates to a savings amount (or a treated as having savings amount) of £16,000

epitome

Yes,

I did have savings in excess of £16k, but this was long before I made any claim for ESA, although the final £5k outside of the (rainy day) money was given to my ex-partner ( I had to show proof of this to benefits agency). I do not have any other savings, and although I have also provided evidence of this to the benefits agency they just refuse to listen, I honestly can't get a straight answer from them and it truly is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, medical evidence has also been provided to support my claim, and whilst I also applied for PIP, I was refused this probably because I am actually breathing! I don't think that I can do anything other than withdraw my life savings and use it to live on, because there doesn't seem to be any alternative.
Many Thanks to all who have replied and offered advice in this matter.

Paddy,

You cannot frivolously spend your money, or give it away, before you claim Income Related Benefits because the DWP will treat you as though you still have that money.... You are lucky to be getting £33.10 a week, they are treating you as having £15,999 rather than treating you as having £16,000 - £20,000 (which would mean you get nothing)

What about my other questions?
Did you claim Carer's Allowance to care for someone?
When did you last work?
What date did you claim ESA from?


You should phone ESA and ask for a Written Statement of Reasons for the Capital Decision to be sent to you.

pmlindyloo

Moved as relevant - Paddy's post from other thread.

Yes,

I did have savings in excess of £16k, but this was long before I made any claim for ESA, although the final £5k outside of the (rainy day) money was given to my ex-partner ( I had to show proof of this to benefits agency). I do not have any other savings, and although I have also provided evidence of this to the benefits agency they just refuse to listen, I honestly can't get a straight answer from them and it truly is a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, medical evidence has also been provided to support my claim, and whilst I also applied for PIP, I was refused this probably because I am actually breathing! I don't think that I can do anything other than withdraw my life savings and use it to live on, because there doesn't seem to be any alternative.
Many Thanks to all who have replied and offered advice in this matter.

pmlindyloo

Moved as relevant - Paddy's post from other thread.

Hi Epitome,

Please forgive me, but I don't share your opinion about me being 'lucky' to being given £33.10 per week to live on, I continued to work up until 2015 (2 years after being diagnosed with fibromyalgia) have spent my savings supporting myself, NOT claimed carers allowance, and made a claim for ESA in April this year, all details are with the benefits agency. I refer to my previous post here, " The left hand doesn't appear to know what the right hand is doing"! Everytime that I have managed to speak with a human being after having to endure (therapeutic opera) for 20 minutes per call, I have received a different answer. Prior to the final letter confirming my windfall of £33.10 per week, I was told that I would be receiving back dated ESA from April, this obviously hasn't materialized as to date I have received the princely sum of £66.20, gratefully accepted into my bank account 10/10/2017, only 10 minutes ago I was told that if I return to my local job center after 15:00 pm, that I will be allowed to use their phone to question the decision, this is because I haven't an appointment with the Job Plus center today and they are too busy! There were no clients actually being seen at the time, only 1 phone for client use ( not being used) and several members of staff focusing on the receptionist telling me to return after 15:00 pm.

TELLIT01

When I was working on ESA I came across a number of people in a similar situation to paddy. They had used their savings for a couple of years because they didn't want to claim help from the state if they could avoid it. What they didn't realise was that this 'self help' atttitude would mean they potentially couldn't get help when they did need it, that because of the tax years used for benefit calculation. Paddy may only have received Conts based benefit for 12 months if he had applied when first sick, but at least he would have received something.
The situation he now finds himself in is that he is deemed to have deprived himself of capital by giving money to his ex, and has had entitlement reduced accordingly.
Whether people agree with the system or not really doesn't matter, as that is what happens.

pmlindyloo

Looking at the information given by Paddy I am unsure how they have calculated this deprivation of capital.

If the OP has lived on savings during the last two? years then surely their living expenses would have not counted as deprivation of capital?

Of course we would need to know how much over £16000 the OP had and whether any of this spending was 'excessive'.

Certainly if the £5000 given to their ex. was counted as deprivation then that sum would not account for the loss of that amount of ESA (as it is £1 deducted for every £250 over £6000).

Epitome, I believe, in post 6, gives the OP the opportunity to question how the amount was calculated by asking for a Written Statement of the Reasons for the Capital Decision.

IAmWales

You can appeal the decision, and what is important here is what has happened to the savings. Was there a reason why you gave the ex the money, for instance a settlement from equity in a house? Can you explain other spending? Even if you cannot provide evidence in the form of receipts a detailed explanation may be sufficient.

If you don't wish to continue posting, please get together all your information and visit CAB for further assistance.