Best way to contact ESA/UC?

Clouds88

Hey guys I cant wait to stop having issues with my husbands claim. I wish these agencies would talk to each other. 

Background: ESA claim started July 2019, contribution based. Payments ended July 2020. WCA 17th May 2021.

This is where it gets confusing, following on from the health assessment, ESA has sent UC the report to make a decision on because its "a dual claim". UC sent us a letter on our journal on 2nd June 8.30am stating he is now in the support group and the LWRCA component has been added to our latest statement due this month.

But, we want my husband to remain on ESA, I know it's taken £ for £ on UC but I prefer it as it's not affected by my earnings. And I want to get the back payment we have missed out on for the last 19 months. 

UC have yet to tell ESA the outcome, why is it so slow? I have written on my journal and they have ignored my messages. 

I would wait a bit longer but when I've waited before to do with ESA nothing gets  done, I have spent so many months/hours on the phone complaining and moving things along. Honestly it's been such a faff of closing his claim, reopening it but wrongly so it just sits and gets no where, decision maker contacts us, reopens it, dwp now lose the ESA50 form and send another one... ucb issued by health services but needs to be actioned by DWP... honestly like this for bloody months. In the end the DWP guy we dealt with the most was cringing that we are still getting no further but one day some super star spent the whole afternoon on the phone to different departments and actually got us the interview. 

So I am afraid it's gone back to being a complex case that no one wants to deal with. I just want ESA informed so they can reinstate it and work with UC to give us an amount (which I've already worked out) for backpay. Sorry for essay just so drained and done with this now. So what would you do? Wait? Contact UC another way? I wish I could email ESA myself with the letter UC sent us but they only give out a telephone number.

tomtom256

They are two different benefits with two different points of contact.

The DWP are poor at inter benefit communications.

Have you tried the ESA number, which shoud be on either your journal or your husbands ESA claimant commitment, if he has one.

The decision should have been sent to both UC and ESA benefit centres for processing.

calcotti

tomtom256 said:

They are two different benefits with two different points of contact.

The DWP are poor at inter benefit communications.

Have you tried the ESA number, which shoud be on either your journal or your husbands ESA claimant commitment, if he has one.

The decision should have been sent to both UC and ESA benefit centres for processing.

I assume this is new style ESA in which case the contact number is the same as UC.

Clouds88

Yes its  new style ESA, but esa helpline have always dealt with our questions not UC. When you ring UC they say write on journal and when you speak to ESA they just say they havent received the decision back from UC yet?
They sent the WCA report to UC decision makers to make the decision about LWRCA which they did, but that's as far as it's got. They havent told ESA yet and I'm not sure they will, are they just hoping we will forget about the 6K they owe us and leave him off of ESA it's so annoying.

calcotti

Unfortunately I have no suggestions for how to unpick this. You could try your MP and see if they can intervene.

When the ESA is put in place you will get paid the arrears but all of your UC payments for the period will also have to be recalculated. This will result in there having been a UC overpayment. This will be recovered by deduction from future UC payments (assuming you have an ongoing award).

Rubyroobs

If you ring the Uc number and follow the ns Esa option they will only speak to you if it's a new claim query. The number I was told to ring for an existing new style ESA claim is 0800 169 0310. The wait times are horrendous and even then it is frequently difficult to get any resolution to the problem.

calcotti

Rubyroobs said:

If you ring the Uc number and follow the ns Esa option they will only speak to you if it's a new claim query. 

I’d forgotten that. Apologies.

Clouds88

Thanks guys I think I'll wait a week or so and then raise a formal complaint then, that's the only way I got my tax credits problem sorted that suprise suprise was messed about due to DWP incompetence 🤦‍♀️

Yeah it will be complicated in that we won't actually benefit from the ESA backpayment, it will result in a UC overpayment of about the same but we should have been getting the LWRCA component since October 2019 hence still being 6 K ish, so either they can backdate the ESA and then write off the UC overpayment with the UC backpayment of LWRCA or they can just reinstate the ESA going forward and backpay us directly the LWRCA component of the last ?19 ish months.
I have had a long time to Google all the information and aware of the 3 month wait period, I've factored that in and have looked up reg 28 UC which relates to this. 
I dont mean to be money grabbing but its money we should have been getting had they made us not wait so long. I am desperate for a new sofa ours is over 10 years old and on its last legs so really hoping we can get this once we get it all sorted.


Thank you for replying though I appreciate it.

Alice_Holt

I'd second calcotti's suggestion of getting your MP involved.
Unfortunately I don't think telephone contact through the ESA line or UC helpline, will ever resolve the issue for you.

I'd put in a formal written DWP complaint (make the letter as clear and concise as possible, with your required outcome highlighted), possibly with an accompanying sheet detailing the ESA / UC chronology, your contact with the call-handlers, a copy of the UC letter, etc.  Copy all this to your MP with a covering letter.
If LCWRA has been awarded due to poor mental health, then explain this in the MP's covering letter. 
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

I'd also suggest putting in an MR, on the grounds of a DWP decision to pay an incorrect ESA payment amount (?). You may wish to include a copy of the complaint and  your covering letter to your MP. 
https://www.gov.uk/mandatory-reconsideration

The  objective being to get it in front of a DWP employee who has more discretion than the call-handlers i.e Dispute Resolution and Decision Makers.  If your MP's caseworker takes on the case, a sensible resolution is much more likely.    

calcotti

Clouds88 said: Yeah it will be complicated in that we won't actually benefit from the ESA backpayment, it will result in a UC overpayment of about the same but we should have been getting the LWRCA component since October 2019 hence still being 6 K ish, so either they can backdate the ESA and then write off the UC overpayment with the UC backpayment of LWRCA or they can just reinstate the ESA going forward and backpay us directly the LWRCA component of the last ?19 ish months. 

Offsetting the two would be the logical thing to do and used to happen with Carer’s Allowance and ESA but DWP appear unable to manage it for UC so I expect you will receive the full ESA arrears payment and then be told you have been overpaid UC. 

Clouds88

I have a positive update.. I sent a complaint to UC regarding this and some woman rang me. She said the underpayment of LWRCA would be calculated today, yayy! And when ESA get round to paying their underpayment we will keep it aside and pay it to UC as it wont be ours to keep.

However, the woman on our journal has stated the wrong amount is due to be paid today! Argh! they have updated our payment sections correctly, I've gone through each one, dating back to jan 2020, the total amount is £5789.76 but she's put £4450 ish is being sent. How have they calculated this wrong when it's there in black and white under our payment sections?! I've gone through each statement, written down the LWRCA amount and added it up myself. Now I just pray someone will respond to my journal entry and we may finally get this sorted.