Wrong type of ESA reassessment.

iansmum

Can anyone share their experiences of this? My son received a form to be filled in as they think he was wrongly assessed when he went over from IB some years ago, and was put on contribution based instead of income based. I take care of all,his benefits as he isn’t capable and I’ve been jumping through hoops trying to get together all the info they want. After some weeks we received another letter asking for bank statements back to 2012 showing his balances on certain dates in each year, presumable so they can check what he had on those dates and penalise him accordingly, as he did have over £6000 at certain times. I contacted the bank and they have sent me complete statements for his current account from 2012 and also an ISA he had from 2015, but not as yet info about the previous ISA. Do any of you agree with me that it seems totally unfair that on contribution ESA the threshold was much higher and now, through no fault of his own and having prudently put money away for his future (he is 35) he may be penalised for this? How do other people get on with all,of this? One thing did make me chuckle in the original letter when they said they understood that it may not be possible to access all the statements they wanted, and could I guesstimate what balance he would have had in his account on those dates! I could have said anything!

pmlindyloo

Which group of ESA is he in? Support group? WRAG? Does/has he receive(d) DLA mid rate care/PIP standard daily living since his transfer from IB to ESA? Did he receive a transitional addition with his ESA award? Has he got a partner? (working?)
Where does he live? Has he lived in the same place since his ESA award began? Does anyone receive Carer's Allowance for him?

Just trying to work out whether he is actually entitled to income based ESA at all.

calcotti

To be clear. This is not about penalising him and will not result in him losing any benefit. Savings have no impact on contribution based ESA. It is not about removing contribution based ESA, it is about seeing if he should have received income based ESA as well.

The DWP made an error in law when they transferred people from IB to ESA. ESA comprises two parts a contribution based part and an income based part.

When people were transferred from IB to ESA the contribution conditions were waived and people were awarded contribution based ESA, sometimes with an additional transitional amount to make sure they did not get less than they previously received on IB.

However DWP should have also assessed entitlement to income based ESA which typically results in an income based top up to the contribution based benefit. At today's rates a contribution based award for someone in the Support Group is £110.75/week, if there are no savings there would be an entitlement to an income based top of £16.40 (possibly more if they live alone and receive daily living PIP and nobody gets Carers Allowance for looking after them).

As a result of legal action, most notably by CPAG, DWP have been required to review all IB to ESA transfers to see whether claimants should have been receiving some income based top up since the date of transfer. That is what this form is about. Provided savings were not over £16,000 there is potential for income based ESA, if savings were over £6,000 there will be reduced entitlement but they would need to be over £10,000 to cancel out £16.40.

The DWP will use the information you provide to review your son's entitlement for the last 7 years. They will pay any arrears and he may also be entitled to an income based top up going forward.

The complexity of the form has been criticised as placing unrealistic expectations on claimants in respect of their record keeping!

Hope this makes sense and may put your mind at rest a bit.

iansmum

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Which group of ESA is he in? Support group? WRAG? Does/has he receive(d) DLA mid rate care/PIP standard daily living since his transfer from IB to ESA? Did he receive a transitional addition with his ESA award? Has he got a partner? (working?)
Where does he live? Has he lived in the same place since his ESA award began? Does anyone receive Carer's Allowance for him?

Just trying to work out whether he is actually entitled to income based ESA at all.

Hi.
He is in the support group. He gets middle rate of care DLA. No transitional addition I don’t think. No partner. Lives in Kent and has for twenty odd years so yes. I get CA for him.
Very confused!

iansmum

calcotti wrote: »

To be clear. This is not about penalising him and will not result in him losing any benefit. Savings have no impact on contribution based ESA.

The DWP made an error in law when they transferred people from IB to ESA. ESA comprises two parts a contribution based part and an income based part.

When people were transferred from IB to ESA the contribution conditions were waived and people were awarded contribution based ESA, sometimes with an additional transitional amount to make sure they did not get less than they previously received on IB.

However DWP should have also assessed entitlement to income based ESA which typically results in an income based top up to the contribution based benefit. At today's rates a contribution based award for someone in the Support Group is £110.75/week, if there are no savings there would be an entitlement to an income based top of £16.40 (possibly more if they live alone and receive daily living PIP and nobody gets Carers Allowance for looking after them).

As a result of legal action, most notably by CPAG, DWP have been required to review all IB to ESA transfers to see whether claimants should have been receiving some income based top up since the date of transfer. That is what this form is about. Provided savings were not over £16,000 there is potential for income based ESA, if savings were over £6,000 there will be reduced entitlement but they would need to be over £10,000 to cancel out £16.40.

The DWP will use the information you provide to review your son's entitlement for the last 7 years. They will pay any arrears and he may also be entitled to an income based top up going forward.

The complexity of the form has been criticised as placing unrealistic expectations on claimants in respect of their record keeping!

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks for this. As for record keeping I tend to keep everything but when you bank online you can only go back so far with statements etc which is why it’s been such a headache to get the info! As I was reading this I got a reply from his bank saying that between 2012 and 2015 he has three consecutive ISAs so I have had to now request statements for all of these! They’re going to take ten working days which will take me over the date they’ve given me to send it all back. When you try and contact them I’m told they can’t be contacted directly so I can’t even tell,them this! It’s a nightmare. But thanks for the info you gave me, very useful.

pmlindyloo

iansmum wrote: »

Hi.
He is in the support group. He gets middle rate of care DLA. No transitional addition I don’t think. No partner. Lives in Kent and has for twenty odd years so yes. I get CA for him.
Very confused!

So the only disability premium he would be eligible for would be the Enhanced Disability Premium.

Reread Calcotti's post.

I understand what you are saying about having more than £6000 'at times' as he would have believed that his ESA would not be affected as it was contribution based.

An interesting case.

I will have a trawl through the internet and see if there is anything to suggest that the savings he had would be disregarded because of this.

iansmum

pmlindyloo wrote: »

So the only disability premium he would be eligible for would be the Enhanced Disability Premium.

Reread Calcotti's post.

I understand what you are saying about having more than £6000 'at times' as he would have believed that his ESA would not be affected as it was contribution based.

An interesting case.

I will have a trawl through the internet and see if there is anything to suggest that the savings he had would be disregarded because of this.

Thanks. That’s exactly it! It seems grossly unfair that on contribution based he was allowed what he had with no penalty and maybe on income based he may lose out. I’d appreciate any info you can find.

iansmum

pmlindylou
I see you think he may qualify for enhanced disability premium. When I looked at the criteria for this I dismissed it as he currently gets the middle rate of care, then I saw he would get it if he was in the support group for income based. So if he is currently in the support group for contribution based would he automatically be out in that group if they switch him over? He was put in that group as he is substantially and permanently learning disabled and has never had a face to face interview or anything.

poppy12345

iansmum wrote: »

pmlindylou
I see you think he may qualify for enhanced disability premium. When I looked at the criteria for this I dismissed it as he currently gets the middle rate of care, then I saw he would get it if he was in the support group for income based. So if he is currently in the support group for contribution based would he automatically be out in that group if they switch him over? He was put in that group as he is substantially and permanently learning disabled and has never had a face to face interview or anything.

Claiming the Income related top up doesn't affect him being in the Support Group, he'll remain in there.


He'll stay on Contributions based but will have the Income related top up.

pmlindyloo

iansmum wrote: »

pmlindylou
I see you think he may qualify for enhanced disability premium. When I looked at the criteria for this I dismissed it as he currently gets the middle rate of care, then I saw he would get it if he was in the support group for income based. So if he is currently in the support group for contribution based would he automatically be out in that group if they switch him over? He was put in that group as he is substantially and permanently learning disabled and has never had a face to face interview or anything.

It isn't a case of switching him over although the DWP always refers to this type of claim as income based ESA instead of contribution based ESA with an income based 'top up'.

He will always be entitled to the contribution part of his ESA whilst he is in the support group. So, for instance, if his savings went over £16000 he would still get his contribution based ESA as long as he continued to be in the Support Group.

And yes, you are correct, the Enhanced Disability premium is awarded if you are in the support group.

It will be interesting to see if he is backdated for the entire period since his transfer.

My reading suggests that they are being rather 'flexible' about savings but one never knows with the DWP.

iansmum

Thank you to Poppy and pmlindylou and calcotti for this helpful information. I feel a bit more comfortable about this now. I bet as soon as this is sorted out I’ll get his letter about moving to PIP! I’ll find this thread when it’s sorted out and give you an update if I may.
:beer: