Esa

scoobysue61

It states:
Your living expenses £0.00
Extra money because you are in Support Group £37.65
Which gives a total income-related amount £37.65
No income will be taken off your ESA
However because you are entitled to contribution-based ESA we will pay you £110.75
Hope this clarifies things
Thanks for your help I do appreciate it

calcotti

scoobysue61 wrote: »

It states:
Your living expenses £0.00
Extra money because you are in Support Group £37.65
Which gives a total income-related amount £37.65
No income will be taken off your ESA
However because you are entitled to contribution-based ESA we will pay you £110.75
Hope this clarifies things
Thanks for your help I do appreciate it

That doesn’t make sense to me. I cannot understand why your living expenses would show as £0.

If you live alone you would expect to see a basic amount of £73.10, support group £37.65, enhanced disability premium £16.40 making a total of £127.15. Have a look at one of your earlier letters when you were getting £125/week. If it looks like this (the numbers will be slightly different if it was before April) then you need to ask the DWP why they have reduced your award.

calcotti

Incidentally, if you have a long term health condition or disability have you looked at whether you might qualify for PIP?

scoobysue61

Previous letters showed I was getting £73.10 living expenses, £36 support group £16 disability premium showing as income based ESA. Now all of a sudden I'm on contribution based. It's all beyond me and then the NHS fine on top

calcotti

scoobysue61 wrote: »

Previous letters showed I was getting £73.10 living expenses, £36 support group £16 disability premium showing as income based ESA. Now all of a sudden I'm on contribution based. It's all beyond me and then the NHS fine on top

You need to ask the DWP why they changed the award to only show the support group component.

scoobysue61

Ok will do. Would you challenge the NHS fine in the meantime?

calcotti

scoobysue61 wrote: »

Ok will do. Would you challenge the NHS fine in the meantime?

That’s a tough one. NHS have come down hard on people claiming free prescriptions when not entitled. It’s punitive because DWP letters are so bad it’s very difficult for people to understand what their entitlement is (and of course doesn’t even apply if you live in Scotland or Wales as prescriptions are free anyway). Your problem is that if you only had a contribution based ESA award at the time then you were not entitled to free prescriptions.

scoobysue61

Ok thanks for your help anyway. It's much appreciated

poppy12345

As they have taken off the Income Related amount, do you live with a partner that works? Do you have savings over £6,000? any other income, pensions etc?

calcotti

poppy12345 wrote: »

As they have taken off the Income Related amount, do you live with a partner that works? Do you have savings over £6,000? any other income, pensions etc?

The OP has already said that his ESA letter shows no income taken off the award but bizarrely shows living expenses as nil (rather than £73.10) and doesn’t include the EDP.