Anyone make sense of this ESA letter.

justaquestion

HI folks,


I usually get an ESA letter every year outlaying the increase and also the Xmas £10 bonus. I got one recently which also mentions the £10 xmas bonus.


I am on Contribution based ESA since put off on medical grounds many years ago, before ESA, I was on IB (CB)


the letter is as follows,


your claim for employment and support allowance.


a change in the ESA rate payable.


We have looked at your claim again following a recent change.
(well the only change I can think of is that I lost daily care of DLA when migrating to PIP and my area went live for UC)


You are entitles to a transitional addition since you since you were moved from IB, income support or SDA.


further on on a different page it says,


The ESA award.


Your living expenses. £73.10
limited capability for work addition.
extra money because you are in support group.£37.65
Which gives a total income related amount. of £110.75


Income and benefits
No income will be taken off your ESA.
Your income related amount is £110.75 less £0.00 so you would have been entitled to £110.75.
However because you are entitled to contribution based ESA we will pay you £166.20


Top up payment.
Included in your ESA is a top up payment of £55.45 which means you won't see a reduction in your benefit as a result of your change to ESA.
(This top up payment was paid because under IB myself and my partner had a child together, I think she has a underlying entitlement or something to that affect)


It then goes on to say if I disagree with it I have a right of an MR etc.


As I have always been entitled to ESA contribution based, why do they talk about income related ESA in this letter or is this just the way they go about it?


The amount above that they pay me in benefit has not changed in a good number of years since ESA was introduced. I understand this part.


Just after I got this letter I did get another ESA50 to fill in, which was due anyways.


Thanks for any clarification if you can make sense of the income related amounts above.

poppy12345

I've never known a child have an underlying entitlement before. The only top ups for ESA are Enhanced disability premium (EDP £16.40) per week and Severe disability premium (£64.30) per week. You won't be entitled to SDP because you don't claim daily living PIP.

The premiums aren't paid on CB benefits, unless you're entitled to an Income related top up. Does your partner work more than 24 hours per week? if so then you won't be entitled to any of the top ups.

Have you rang ESA to ask them what the extra money is for?

calcotti

ESA decisions are usually the worst written letters produced by the ESA (I think I recall reading that a senior DWP official admitted to the House of Commons Work and Pension Committee that even they did not understand them). The claimant, who probably does know much about the benefits system, is supposed to make sense of this incomprehensible nonsense and tell the DWP if they have made a mistake.

It is usual for the letters to refer to income based amounts and show the income based calculation first before then stating whether a contribution based award is due.

The background to this is that when claimants were transferred from IB to ESA there was a massive !!!!-up by the DWP. ESA has both a contribution based part and an income based part and all claimants should have been assessed for both parts. In many cases those on IB were only assessed for contribution based and missed out on an income based top up to which they were entitled. No one transfered was supposed to lose money at the time and transitional protection was built in. This transitional amount was added so that the ESA award would not be less than the IB award.

The error was identified over 5 years who but the DWP did nothing about it. Along campaign and a recent court action by CPAG has forced the government to review the awards for everyone transferred from IB, to revise the awards as necessary and to pay any arrears due going back to the date of transfer.

I cannot tell if the figures you have been given are correct but it looks likely that this letter is part of this review. It also suggests that you may be due a significant arrears payment (if the £55/week is applicable from the date you were transferred to today).

Check what date the calculation says the amounts are due from. Another feature of ESA letters is that the calculations attached often refer to periods of time unrelated to the main contents of the letter.

An additional point to note is that if your ongoing award includes an income based top up you are entitled to passported benefits such as free prescriptions and free dental care. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Passported-benefits. Unfortunately the government has not, as far as I am aware, made any proposals to compensate people who have been denied these passported benefits but would have been entitled if the DWP has done the transfer properly.

I do not know if the transitional protection, if that is what it is, counts as an income based element or not.I think it probably does not but it may be worth checking.

You may wish to contact ESA and ask for confirmation of
Your ongoing award
Whether you are due an arrears payment
A clear explanation of the additional amount now added and what circumstances have been taken into account, and
Does this now mean your award has an income based element which entitles you to passported benefits.

Check the contact details on the letter - there is a special team at DWP that is supposed to be unravelling this mess.

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/2017/november/esa-claimants-owed-£500-million-due-dwp-error
http://cpag.org.uk/content/cpag-legal-action-leads-to-full-arrears-disabled-claimants

TELLIT01

Has the amount you will receive each week / fortnight changed and if so by roughly how much. If you are just confused by the wording, join the club :-)
As has been said, ESA letters confuse even those working on ESA as they are so badly composed.

w06

i only received a handful of esa letters but didn't understand any of them.

justaquestion

Thanks for replies. The underlying entitlement is actually for my partner, an old legacy rule from IB days I believe, if someone on IB had a child then wife could get this payment.


I think the amounts are correct as they haven't changed in years, but what I find strange is the way they word the letter, talking about income related, and then going on to say I am entitled to contribution based, which I always have been, as I haven't had a break in benefits claim.

calcotti

justaquestion wrote: »

. .what I find strange is the way they word the letter, talking about income related, and then going on to say I am entitled to contribution based, which I always have been, as I haven't had a break in benefits claim.

It is just the way they do it even though it makes the meaning very difficult to understand.
I think I may have misread your original post. Have you always had this top up payment since transferring from IB to ESA? If so my lengthy rambles are not relevant - apologies!
I don't understand references to underlying entitlement by your partner. If you have always had it the top up is likely to be the transitional protection to ensure you are no worse off on ESA than IB. Each year when the underlying ESA amount due goes up slightly the top up will reduce by the same amount and your total benefit amount therefore stays unchanged.

justaquestion

Yes I have. It was added when our child was born when I was on IB. I think it may have been called an adult dependant or something like that. As our child have severe needs and is on DLA my partner can't claim carers allowance as she has an underlying entitlement which is already being paid, is how I understand it.


I did a google and it seems to be explained here as regards adult dependency


http://www.welfarerights.net/benefits-guides/Incapacity-Benefit


Though it was the income related amount on my query here that I found a bit hard to understand (since I am contribution based only) but as its been explained ESA letters can ben hard to understand.

calcotti

Is your partner receiving any benefits herself? It sounds to me as if what you are referring to may be an underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance. If she cares for your son who gets DLA she is entitled to Carer's Allowance, which I infer she applied for, but it cannot be paid if she already receives a different non means tested benefit which is worth more than Carer's Allowance. However the underlying entitlement can give rise to the payment of an additional amount called a Carer Premium in any means tested awards.

I cannot work out how the extra 55.45 in your award has been arrived at (unless you or your partner have other income which is being taken into account).

If you and your partner have no other income I would expect your ESA award to include an income based element to cover both of you (assuming you live together) and be made up as:

Basic couple amount £114.85
support group component £37.65
enhanced disability premium (couple) £23.55
carer premium £36
This makes a total of £212.05 from which your contribution based entitlement of £110.75 would be deducted leaving an income based amount payable of £101.30.

However you said

justaquestion wrote: »

You are entitles to a transitional addition since you since you were moved from IB, income support or SDA.

so transitional protection appears to be what your top up is, but I still don't know what is being paid as a result of your partner being a carer.

This is why benefits award letters need to be written in plain English!!

hb2

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Not relevant in view of the above post

calcotti

hb2 wrote: »

<deleted>
Not relevant in view of the above post

Sorry if we were posting similar things at the same time. I inadvertently posted mine before I had finished and while I was still editing!