Querying ESA payments

Muttleythefrog

It's not entirely clear to me whether when I was in receipt of Income Related ESA (now receive Contribution based ESA and U/C) I should have received couples rate of Enhanced Disability Premium rather than single for a period of around 5 years.

Background:
I was in receipt of IR ESA (Support Group).
Partner moved in and had no recourse to public funds. I therefore lost the Severe Disability Premium and ESA continued to be paid at single person rate.

There appears guidance out there suggesting the Enhanced Disability Premium should have been paid at couples rate rather than single as it may not be considered a Public fund by the Home Office.
Recently on here someone in similar circumstances seemed to be in receipt of the couples rate of this premium while in receipt of the single person rate due to the NRPF condition on partner.

I want to query with the DWP whether the couples rate should have been paid unless I see some sound reason not to.

So 3 things:

Do people think I am right to query this?
Is best way to do so via letter to address on ESA letters?
If they determine an error has been made will they pay the extra money I should have received (a few pounds a week for 5 years) to me?

poppy12345

Muttleythefrog said:

Do people think I am right to query this?
Is best way to do so via letter to address on ESA letters?
If they determine an error has been made will they pay the extra money I should have received (a few pounds a week for 5 years) to me?

This isn't clear cut IMO. See this link here. https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Nationals-of-non-European-Economic-Area-(EEA)-coun/My-partner-is-a-person-subject-to-immigration-cont

As your partner is NRPF then claiming the disability premiums as couples rate could affect their right to remain in the UK,

This was copied from the above link.

Income Support; Income-based Jobseekers Allowance and Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

If your partner is subject to immigration control you can claim these benefits as a couple.  However you are normally only paid a personal allowance at the single rate.  If you qualify for premiums, these are paid at the couple rate.  Your partner’s work, income and capital affect your entitlement to these benefits.

Note: If your partner’s leave is subject to  a no recourse to public funds condition, claiming a couple rate of a premium for her/ him could be regarded as having recourse to public funds, and could affect her/his right to remain in the UK.  Therefore get specialist immigration advice before making a claim.

Edit to add... there's an old discussion here on right's net about the EDP couples rate when a person has NRPF. Please see comment #2. https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/10825/#49935

Before you proceed any further with this i'd advise you get some expert advice.

Muttleythefrog

Before you proceed any further with this i'd advise you get some expert advice.

Thanks for your reply... it does indeed seem grey. Problem I have is I'm not sure there is any such thing as expert advice for this query. The fact that the DWP itself seems to be dealing with it both ways (treating as single and treating as couple for EDP in effectively same scenario) suggests they have little clarity too. I am slightly less concerned about the risks of looking into it because my partner now has ILR and so has left the immigration system. Of course if they were to backdate extra owed then it could throw up a problem but I could instruct them not to make any payment if this was an issue for historical NRPF condition.

Unfortunately I cannot see the CPAG migrants handbook for the full CPAG guidance but I note in that post they say "thus breaching the public funds restriction" which implies the handbook does regard the EDP as a public fund (if paid with IR ESA?). Ironically we faced the issue in the post after to which you refer.

Hmmm... decisions decisions... and will the DWP even reply... I'm still waiting for a response to a letter I sent them in early 2015 which is now entirely academic. 

Muttleythefrog

Just an update on this case (which was initially triggered after another poster in similar circumstances was receiving IR-ESA payments that could only be explained through what appeared an anomaly to me regarding a no recourse to public funds versus IR-ESA/EDP scenario). Some months after writing to the DWP I appear to have received a backdated award for the 5 years. They seem to have decided they underpaid by not paying the couple rate of EDP but instead paying single rate. I have not received a letter yet but the payment is about right and cannot be otherwise explained.

It's just another one of those NRPF condition/Immigration Rules incompatibility or grey area in relation to public funds administered by DWP or Councils.

Now the next problem - I assume this money circa £2k is disregarded for 52 weeks as far as capital/savings goes?

poppy12345

Muttleythefrog said:

Now the next problem - I assume this money circa £2k is disregarded for 52 weeks as far as capital/savings goes?

Glad it's all sorted. Yes, disregarded for 52 weeks.

Muttleythefrog

poppy12345 said:

Muttleythefrog said:

Now the next problem - I assume this money circa £2k is disregarded for 52 weeks as far as capital/savings goes?

Glad it's all sorted. Yes, disregarded for 52 weeks.

Thanks.

Just for reference and to tie up the thread I received a pretty basic and quite frankly grossly unprofessional letter from the DWP. No apology, no explanation, not even acknowledgement it was a response to my query - just a date to and from and that they owe me x which they'll pay into bank (which they then partially incorrectly stated they would not give the details of in the letter for security reasons). Given the dates make sense the payment can only be for reasons above and I only hope that some other department of the DWP in future doesn't require to sight the letter for information purposes.