ESA and SMP

bargainhunter121

Hi everyone.

I was sick for quite some time over the past year and ended up having to claim ESA as I was unable to work. Thankfully I was already awarded PIPs last year, but I did have to appeal it as is common.

Anyway, I returned to work In mid May this year with a phase return of 6 weeks, so I phoned ESA to let them know I had returned to work in June but was doing less than 15 hours due to a phase return. They made a note of it and told me to contact them when I was earning a certain amount/doing more than 15 hours.

I struggled but made it back to full time work from the 1st of July. I had Been checking my bank account and didn’t see any Further ESa payments after I had called them in June, so I presumed that my payments had been stopped.

However, I just checked tonight I saw that several payments had been made from the 4th of July onwards totalling almost £670. Because my payment for PIP was a similar amount, I must’ve assumed that it was PIP being paid rather than ESA.

Anyway I’m going to phone them tomorrow to try and rectify the situation. My query is though, I’m actually now pregnant and my qualifying months for smp are July and August, therefore will this error effect my SMP or contractual maternity pay (18 weeks)? I’m of course happy to pay it back, but is there a way I can without it coming out of my pay (e.g. cheque or debit card) and therefore affecting my maternity pay?

Also am I likely to be fined for not telling them sooner?

TELLIT01

bargainhunter121 wrote: »

Anyway, I returned to work In mid May this year with a phase return of 6 weeks, so I phoned ESA to let them know I had returned to work in June but was doing less than 15 hours due to a phase return. They made a note of it and told me to contact them when I was earning a certain amount/doing more than 15 hours.


Also am I likely to be fined for not telling them sooner?

I can't answer the SMP question, but you should have informed DWP before you returned to work, or immediately after. What are the exact dates you started back and informed DWP? There is only going to be a problem if you were earning above the permitted amount at any point in that 6 week period.

bargainhunter121

Hi. I started back to work on the 21st of May. I was working 4 hours a week and building it up to 3 days which I told them when I called at the start of June. I didn’t call them sooner as I was unsure if would be able to even manage the phase return hours, however after a week or so, I was managing to cope so I called them. I wouldn’t have been earning above the threshold until the 1st of July, as I was still on my phase return until then.

poppy12345

bargainhunter121 wrote: »

Hi everyone.

I was sick for quite some time over the past year and ended up having to claim ESA as I was unable to work. Thankfully I was already awarded PIPs last year, but I did have to appeal it as is common.

Anyway, I returned to work In mid May this year with a phase return of 6 weeks, so I phoned ESA to let them know I had returned to work in June but was doing less than 15 hours due to a phase return. They made a note of it and told me to contact them when I was earning a certain amount/doing more than 15 hours.

I struggled but made it back to full time work from the 1st of July. I had Been checking my bank account and didn’t see any Further ESa payments after I had called them in June, so I presumed that my payments had been stopped.

However, I just checked tonight I saw that several payments had been made from the 4th of July onwards totalling almost £670. Because my payment for PIP was a similar amount, I must’ve assumed that it was PIP being paid rather than ESA.

Anyway I’m going to phone them tomorrow to try and rectify the situation. My query is though, I’m actually now pregnant and my qualifying months for smp are July and August, therefore will this error effect my SMP or contractual maternity pay (18 weeks)? I’m of course happy to pay it back, but is there a way I can without it coming out of my pay (e.g. cheque or debit card) and therefore affecting my maternity pay?

Also am I likely to be fined for not telling them sooner?

ESA and permitted work. You can earning £131.50 per week and work no more than 15.59 hours per week without it affecting your benefits.



For every week you earned more than this then your ESA will have stopped and you will have an overpayment for those weeks. You should have contacted ESA when you started working those hours. Also before you started working you should have filled out a PW1 form and sent it to DWP.


Payments received from DWP will always have the department where it's from next to the payment amount.



Are you claiming housing benefit? If so then you need to report the changes to your local council as well.


To qualify for SMP you must have worked for the same employer continuously for at least 26 weeks continuing into the 15 week before the expected week your baby is due. You must also have earned at least £118 per week for those 26 weeks. See link.
https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/eligibility

calcotti

ESA would not have known you had returned to work full time on 1st July if you did not tell them. You will have to pay back anything you have received since then. I think you will be expected to make a direct payment, it would only be deducted directly from your wages if other recovery methods had failed.

chrisbur

calcotti wrote: »

.... it would only be deducted directly from your wages if other recovery methods had failed.

As advised here. Just to add that any deduction if it was made from your wages would be deducted from your net pay, the maternity benefits you refer to are based on your gross pay and are not affected by any adjustments made to net pay.