Confusing ESA letter...

Confused_Bunny

Today my partner received a letter from ESA saying the flowing...

Our new decision is that you are entitled to a reduced rate of Emoloyment and Support Allowence because your partners Carers Allowance increased from 31/03/15

From. To. Amount Due
31/03/15. 03/04/17. 131.20
04/04/17. 03/07/17. 130.60
04/07/17. 02/04/18. 146.50
03/04/18. 09/04/18. 144.60
10/03/18. 23/07/18. 147.45

If you want to talk to us about the contents of this letter please call (number) and we will be happy to help

If only they could help! I phoned but the advisor couldn’t tell me anything other that he will get someone from another department to phone me back within 3 days. Can anyone else figure out what this means? I’m guessing they are reducing my partners payments but I’ve always written the correct amounts of carers allowence on any esa forms (he even had an assessment last year and I’m sure they asked again then).

I’m most worried about the ‘amount due’ part on the table. Does this mean they’ve somehow overpaid him? And that’s the amounts we have to pay back?

Why can’t they just be clear in their correspondence :mad:

calcotti

I think the amount due column is showing the weekly amount of ESA your partner was entitled to, not the amounamount that was overpaid (if any).

For example the current ESA entitlement is
Couple amount £114.85
Support group component £37.65
Enhanced disability premium £23.55
Carer premium £36.00
Total = £212.05
From this Carer Allowance of £64.60 is deducted leaving amount due of £147.45 which matches the latest figure on

The DWP should have been fully aware of the CA you were receiving.

I don’t understand the breakdown of dates, you would only expect changes to occur in April when benefit rates change. Whether this letter is going anywhere or is just randomly generated is hard to tell.

Did you or your partner have any other income? I can’t make sense of all the earlier amounts.

For 2017 to 2018 I would expect
Couple amount £114.85
Support group component £36.55
Enhanced disability premium £22.85
Carer premium £34.95
Total = £209.20
From this Carer Allowance of £62.70 is deducted leaving amount due of £146.50 which matches one of the figures listed but doesn’t explain why they think there is a short period when the amount is different.