ESA arrears and do i need to telllocal authority

billbobby

Please can anyone advise
My adult son has severe learning difficulty and we found out last year that he had been paid the wrong esa for a few years !
we applied and he has been moved on to the new ESA IR and given 600 arrears . We asked for mandatory reconsideration as it was the DWP error that he was underpaid but were disallowed. I did not have the energy or skills to fight it .
However his mate who is in same supported living and same circumstances has just been given 12 000 arrears after we advise his mother to apply for correct ESA .
We have made a complaint and are awaiting response .
What do I need to do if he is given arrears in regard to local authority . He is assessed yearly for personal contribution - I dread having to inform the council as it has taken a year to get his council tax and HB sorted out . Any advice will be gratefully appreciated .

Ames

I'm confused. Do you mean that he owes the DWP money because of arrears? Or that the DWP owed him money because they were paying him less than he should have been getting?

Why did the arrears or backpay occur?

billbobby

Thanks .
The dwp has been paying hm wrong ESA for a few years . He is now on the correct correct one ) We were unaware but like a lot of people he had been moved onto the wrong ESA.
If he had received the correct amount for the past few years the local authority would have assessed him as needing to pay more for his personal contribution. Do I have to tell them about arrears or can I leave it that he was assessed on the benefit he was receiving at the time of his assessement for his personal contribution ?
Thanks

pmlindyloo

billbobby wrote: »

Thanks .
The dwp has been paying hm wrong ESA for a few years . He is now on the correct correct one ) We were unaware but like a lot of people he had been moved onto the wrong ESA.
If he had received the correct amount for the past few years the local authority would have assessed him as needing to pay more for his personal contribution. Do I have to tell them about arrears or can I leave it that he was assessed on the benefit he was receiving at the time of his assessement for his personal contribution ?
Thanks

It is extremely difficult to help with this as there are different kinds of Supported Housing and how they arrange the care fees.

So, now he is receiving the correct amount of ESA is he contributing to the care fees (his personal contribution?) If not then I would think that they would not look at previous benefit award as it would make no difference.

If he is now paying more towards his contribution then you would need to ask them about possible 'arrears'.

I do not know whether they would count his backdated money as capital (in which case ask about them about disregarded capital re: benefit arrears) or use his current award as an indication of what he would have been receiving (make sure they only use the date the backdating was awarded from)

At least if you enquire now and ask for a written statement from 'the top' (ask for their policy documents on this) then you will know what will happen if you get future backdating.

Can you find out what happened with fellow who received the large sum of backdating?

epitome

You need to give a LOT more explanation, I have no idea what has happened, so cannot tell you anything.

Was he on IB?
When did IB finish?
Was he on IS aswell?
Did he migrate to ESA? >>when?

(if he did not migrate) Did he make a new claim to ESA? >>>When?
What type of ESA did he claim Conts or IR?
When -on the new ESA claim- was the WRAG/SG decision made?

Does he get PIP or DLA
Is the PIP/DLA care being paid? At what level...and has it always been at that level?

Is he in a care / supported housing?
Does PIP/DLA know he is in the type of accomodation he is in?
Has DLA PIP agreed to continue paying? Why,...because he pays a contribution towards the care cost?

If he currently makes no contribution, does the fact that if ESA pays SDP change the entitlement to free care status?

If he makes no contribution are DLA and PIP aware that he makes no contribution?

Any gaps in PIP DLA care payment history?

When did ESA start?
What dates does the the £600 arrears cover? What is the weekly amount?

Was it ESA Conts before? ....How much weekly ESA was he getting before? £102 or £109.65

Is it ESA IR now? How much weekly £118 £125.55 £188.00 ?

What is his address history on ESA how many addresses has he lived at and what dates and type of accom living with family, in hospital, in care, in private housing, no fixed abode, etc.

And please type out the Man Recon Notice decision as well.


The above are only my preliminary guesses as to what the problem might be. More information needed.

If you want to know why his friend got £12000 and he got £600 then answer all the questions above, if you don't answer them it just means I have to ask you again....

If you only want to know if you have to tell the local authority that his benefit rate has changed..yes you do and that he got arrears of £600, i.e. his benefit rate has been changed retrospectively...yes you do.

bigbill

He clearly has been awarded the SDP backdated so should count as capital for 12 months by DWP and I would hope that local Council would do the same for any charging policy for non-residetial community care charges but you never know, obviously his on-going care charges will go up due to the extra ESA income.

epitome

bigbill wrote: »

He clearly has been awarded the SDP backdated so should count as capital for 12 months by DWP and I would hope that local Council would do the same for any charging policy for non-residetial community care charges but you never know, obviously his on-going care charges will go up due to the extra ESA income.

That's not clear to me, no mention of what has been awarded other than IR.

£600 at SDP is less than 10 weeks, why such a small amount?

£600 of EDP is 37 weeks why not awarded for years of backdating?

£600 at SDP & EDP is 7.5 weeks

And no mention of PIP or DLA whether the care component is in pay. It is not always paid depending on the residence.

Hoogle

did your son only move into the supported accommodation approx 9 weeks before they paid the back dated? did he apply for pip approx 9 weeks prior?

SDP comes with a criteria.
To get a Severe Disability Premium (SDP), the following must also apply:

If you are single:

• You must be getting a qualifying benefit, and
• No one must be getting Carer!!!8217;s Allowance or Carers Element of Universal Credit for looking after you, and
• You must be living alone (have no non-dependents aged 18 or over living with you for example, an adult son , daughter or parent ), unless they are also receiving a qualifying disability benefit or are registered blind)

And I am not 100% sure of this but has he moved to a different address even within his building as I believe backdated payments will only cover time at current address this is just something I have heard online and I can't vouch for it or give it any credibility.



Did he get SDP or EDP backdated a big difference between £62 odd per week and £15 odd per week.

Does he get DLA or PIP Also I had to apply for my SDP separately as my advisor told me it was not an automatic award (personal support worker not an official DWP worker)