Employment and Support Allowance

Roundhay23

A friend has been in receipt of Income Related Employment and Support Allowance continuously since 2014. During this time she has moved between the Support Group and Work Related Activity group. She had an assessment earlier this year in April and as a result was moved from the Work Related Activity Group to the Support Group. She has received a letter stating that her ESA has now stopped. The reasons given in the letter are that she cannot be paid as she has not paid or been credited with enough NI contributions and that she has made a claim for Universal Credit.

The letter goes on to say that it has been decided that she has the potential for work related activity and must take part in work focused interviews with a personal adviser to continue to receive Employment and Support Allowance in full.

We are very confused by this letter does it mean that her UC will include an extra element for her ill health and what rate will this be at? Can DWP move her from the Support Group to WRAG without a further assessment which is what they appear to have done?

Rubyroobs

If she has made a claim for UC then her Income related ESA will stop as income related ESA is now part of UC. If she had some entitlement to contributions based ESA then that could have continued alongside Uc but would have been deducted from UC. If she is in the support group then she should receive an extra element ( called the LCWRA element) on UC which equates to an extra £336 per month. However that would only be paid if she is in the support group.

sportsarb

The system that is used to pay ESA is extremely inelegant. It often spews out contradictory letters, especially if changes are being made on the claim back to a previous date, such that if a change was made on a claim retrospectively, back maybe a year or so, it will spew out a letter that is relevant to that time rather than the current entitlement.

No one should be moved from or to a group without an assessment.

An attempt should be made to contact ESA, see what they say, and if they shed any further light on the issue feed it back here. There are a lot of issues that the system throws up that people processing don't bother to correct.