Pretty sure my benefits have been stopped and I don't know why

mw1805

Good evening.

For the past year I've been in receipt of ESA, income based because I live alone and PIP. I also started getting housing benefit 3 months ago after getting a flat. I get these benefits due to my severe mental health issues (That have lead to me being sectioned numerous times) and autism.
My PIP claim was due to end in April of 2020. I had an assessment for my ESA to check I was in the right group about 4 months ago, and posted here about that - that all went fine and I was placed in the support group, where I have always been.
On Monday my PIP was due to go in as normal and it didn't. I called the helpline four times and was told the same thing over and over - My payment had been sent to my bank account and should have appeared on Monday. They told me it was likely my banks fault for not processing the payment.
I decided to wait until Tuesday afternoon and I called my bank. They said no payment was due to go into my bank. They basically hadn't received any instruction to pay me my PIP on the Monday. I was also due to be paid my fortnightly payment of ESA on Thursday (The 29th of this month) and I asked them if that payment had been submitted. No. They said nothing was due to go into my bank account at any point this week, they then said it could be a delay in their system but I needed to yet again, take it up with PIP and ESA.
So AGAIN, I called PIP. They told me the payment was still due to have gone in. They asked me if I could send them proof that it hadn't gone in. I said I'd send in some copies of a bank statement on the Wednesday (Tomorrow, or today, however you look at it - either way the 28th)
Literally within 5 minutes of us ending this call, I had a missed call from the same PIP number. Unfortunately, because I am a giant idiot - I didn't see this missed call until 10pm so there was nothing I could do. They left me a voicemail asking me to call them back 'regarding my payment' They didn't say any more.
So obviously, I can't call them back until 8am in the morning as they aren't open. I'm terrified and I cannot sleep. I have heard that PIP only call you when they're going to tell you they have stopped your claim for whatever reason. I can't understand this. I have had no change in circumstances at all.
As for my ESA, I am going to call them Thursday and see if my payment goes in or not as normal. But my bank is claiming it is not due to go in.
What should I do? Am I panicking for no reason? My mum told me that ESA and PIP are two totally different benefits so it'd be unusual for them to both be cut together. I haven't had any letters. Nothing. The only phone call I have had was from PIP AFTER I had already called up myself. If my benefits have been stopped/suspended, wouldn't the PIP advisers already have known this?They kept telling me my payment had been sent and it was my banks issue. They seemed confident it was on it's way to my bank account. Surely it would say on their systems if they had stopped my payments? I'm terrified, I can't sleep

K80_Black

Morning,

Unfortunately no-one here knows any better than you what's going on. Your only option is to wait until you can call PIP back and find out about it. There's every possibility they realised they made an error with your payment and were phoning to apologise.

It's usual for my bank to not know about a payment down the line until it's showing up as a pending transaction, usually the day before - not sure if it's the case with your bank.

Hope you're sound asleep now!

huckster

Stop worrying. There have been some issues with the payment system recently, because Banks have been advising companies/agencies that they need to update account information.

The issue has been that the Banks have been closing branches and sometimes sortcodes have been changed.

It could be that DWP hold out of date account information for you and this is causing the problem.

[Deleted User]

Hopefully they will get it all sorted for you today and at the time of writing this I hope you will be calling them very shortly

Sometimes it can just be the smallest thing, if your circumstances haven’t changed they can’t just abandon payments without any sort of communication.

Let us know how you get on.