Income based support group ESA being cancelled

sammyjammy

aaronlowe wrote: »

M

It's really sneaky of them to post the letter after working hours just before a 4 day public holiday. I wonder if they're trying to cook the stats by claiming a reduction of ESA claims as the tax year turns to 2018. Even if I sort out this mess and get the ESA back to normal they can claim one less ESA claimant at the beginning of the tax year. Imagine if they did this to thousands of other people. There's no bad consequences for the DWP and they can claim to be meeting some budget reliant deadline. Fishy stuff!

I appreciate you're confused and concerned but this is not what has happened, as suggested earlier its likely it was delivered to the wrong house and they've posted it through your letterbox when they got home from work. Even if they chose to fiddle stats in such a bizarre way they report stats on all claims on a monthly basis not at the end of a tax year.

aaronlowe

sammyjammy wrote: »

I appreciate you're confused and concerned but this is not what has happened, as suggested earlier its likely it was delivered to the wrong house and they've posted it through your letterbox when they got home from work. Even if they chose to fiddle stats in such a bizarre way they report stats on all claims on a monthly basis not at the end of a tax year.

It was very nice of that person to also post a load of spam mail with it. This suggests it was not posted by hand but by Royal Mail. The RM have often delivered mail very late but this is the latest I have experienced it. Anyway, whoever posted it is not going to change anything. I'm focusing on phoning the DWP first thing Tuesday morning. The theory about cooking the stats wasn't mine. It's not something I could have thought up because it's beyond my knowledge.

Ames

aaronlowe wrote: »

It was very nice of that person to also post a load of spam mail with it. This suggests it was not posted by hand but by Royal Mail. The RM have often delivered mail very late but this is the latest I have experienced it. Anyway, whoever posted it is not going to change anything. I'm focusing on phoning the DWP first thing Tuesday morning. The theory about cooking the stats wasn't mine. It's not something I could have thought up because it's beyond my knowledge.

I think there's been some confusion because the two posts below give the impression that you're saying it was hand delivered by a DWP employee, rather than that your regular delivery was late.

aaronlowe wrote: »

What was weird was that the letter delivered through my door after 5pm yesterday. By the time I noticed it, it was 6pm. The office was closed when I called.
Today it is still closed, because of a public holiday. So I have to wait 4 more days before I can call them. Both DWP and Council are closed for 4 days.

aaronlowe wrote: »

My wife is a limited benefits advisor in a paid job. She's trained to help people in positions of poverty. I had difficulty contacting her because she is abroad. She finally got in touch and has echoed what people say here, that it makes no sense.

We don't cohabit. Her flat is full of kids from other marriages so there is no room for me (thank God - I need my sleep). So, I have no access to any funds from her.

DWP are fully aware of this and have long accepted this. This is not given as the reason why ESA was cancelled in the letter. The reason given is tax years before my wife and I met, so it can't have anything to do with her.

It's really sneaky of them to post the letter after working hours just before a 4 day public holiday. I wonder if they're trying to cook the stats by claiming a reduction of ESA claims as the tax year turns to 2018. Even if I sort out this mess and get the ESA back to normal they can claim one less ESA claimant at the beginning of the tax year. Imagine if they did this to thousands of other people. There's no bad consequences for the DWP and they can claim to be meeting some budget reliant deadline. Fishy stuff!

And I have no other income. My only income is ESA. No inheritance. No reason to end entitlement that I know of. It is a true mystery. All I can do is wait until Tuesday and ask them to explain.

aaronlowe

Ames wrote: »

I think there's been some confusion because the two posts below give the impression that you're saying it was hand delivered by a DWP employee, rather than that your regular delivery was late.

These are ideas other people came up with. I don't even know what a regular delivery date is any more. Haven't seen that for over a decade. Deliveries from the Royal Mail where I live range from 9am to about 5pm. It varies day to day. Some days it happens around 1pm. Others, around 3.30pm but it can happen any time. Since I've got another 4 days before I can phone the DWP I suppose it won't hurt to talk about this.

TELLIT01

aaronlowe, you are looking for conspiracies where there are none. Certainly it's unfortunate in the extreme that the letter arrived late on the day before a 4 day shutdown, but DWP don't deliver the post. You said it doesn't arrive until 5 pm some days anyway so that letter arriving at that time isn't a unique experience.
I appreciate you are worried but even thinking about a dastardly plan by DWP is ridiculous.

aaronlowe

TELLIT01 wrote: »

aaronlowe, you are looking for conspiracies where there are none. Certainly it's unfortunate in the extreme that the letter arrived late on the day before a 4 day shutdown, but DWP don't deliver the post. You said it doesn't arrive until 5 pm some days anyway so that letter arriving at that time isn't a unique experience.
I appreciate you are worried but even thinking about a dastardly plan by DWP is ridiculous.

I am not looking for conspiracies. I updated the time to 5pm because of this one experience. Why has the Spanish Inquisition descended on this thread? I thought people came here for help, not to be attacked.

w06

Aaron, having gone back to look at my ESA letters yesterday to see if they had put me in a group (I'm not receiving payment just credits) The wording on their most recent was almost identical to what you describe, to the extent I actually wasn't sure whether I was even still receiving NI credits. I then claimed UC yesterday and the system picked up that I had an ESA claim open, all as clear as mud!!

It'll all come out in the wash on Tuesday

TELLIT01

aaronlowe wrote: »

I am not looking for conspiracies. I updated the time to 5pm because of this one experience. Why has the Spanish Inquisition descended on this thread? I thought people came here for help, not to be attacked.

You haven't been attacked. The first response was saying you need to call DWP on Tuesday to get a better understanding of what has happened.
Follow up comments were after posts suggesting the letter had been hand delivered by DWP intentionally to cause stress to you.

aaronlowe

TELLIT01 wrote: »

You haven't been attacked. The first response was saying you need to call DWP on Tuesday to get a better understanding of what has happened.
Follow up comments were after posts suggesting the letter had been hand delivered by DWP intentionally to cause stress to you.

Ok, lets try to avoid derailing this thread about when the letters were posted. People have said that the idea it was done to cook the stats is a false one. Ok, time to move on.

The important thing now is whether this turns out to be an error or DWP are standing by their decision (in which every advisor I've spoken to says makes no sense). If they stand by the decision, is this a change in how the DWP are treating all people on ESA or am I the only victim? If they recognise it as an error will they allow me to continue claiming ESA or require a brand new application or reassessment (and the inevitable 9 months of tribunal that would follow). It's never quite clear with the DWP and in my experience they tend to make the most damaging decision possible. My fingers are crossed that they don't this time.

TELLIT01

We've all said that the letter you have received makes absolutely no sense, even to those of us who have worked on the benefit. Speak to DWP on Tuesday, or whenever you can get through to them (there are a number of posts on here currently about people receiving letters which make no sense, so lines could be busy on Tuesday!). Once you have an answer from them please come back with the detail and we will be able to advise further at that point.