Letter from Fraud dept ESA

AvivaNightmare

A nice pre christmas present from the DWP!! 

In October 2019 I had an operation on my hand that left with nerve damage and unable to return to work, I was advised by my HR department to claim ESA when my SSP pay ran out. 

I had thought it ran out April 2019, so sent in a claim dating my claim from 17th April, HR advised me later that SSP ran out 4th May so I sent a letter to ESA advising them of this and was sent a text on the 12th May advising me that they had recieved my query, I did not need to call them and paymeny would be made 12th May. 

I had some annual leave owing, so when my SSP ran out, I took that before I went on half pay. 

I am now on zero pay and about to be medically retired.

I have now had a letter asking me for my pension payments since I claimed ESA ( NHS £75 a week) and payments from my employer, since my claim. 

Should I have advised them of the period I was paid annual leave? to be honest, I didnt give it any thought & pre occupied with health issues. 

calcotti

Payments for annual leave while not working would not affect entitlement to new style ESA (which is what i assume you are claiming if the claim started in 2019). Hopefully your payslips show the payments as holiday pay, if they don't include an explanation in a covering letter.

Similarly occupational sick pay after SSP entitlement does not affect entitlement to ESA (although DWP do sometimes get this wrong). This assumes that you are still employed. If you receive payments under an employer insurance scheme after employment ends then these payments are treated as a pension. Again probably worth including an explanation.

You have presumably previously sent them form SSP1 which confirms when SSP entitlement ended.

The pension payments only affect ESA if they are over £85/week (the gross amount). If they are then 50% of he excess is deducted from the ESA. As yours are lower than this it should have no impact - but ESA are right to check your circumstances.

AvivaNightmare

calcotti said:

Payments for annual leave while not working would not affect entitlement to new style ESA (which is what i assume you are claiming if the claim started in 2019). Hopefully your payslips show the payments as holiday pay, if they don't include an explanation in a covering letter.

Similarly occupational sick pay after SSP entitlement does not affect entitlement to ESA (although DWP do sometimes get this wrong). This assumes that you are still employed. If you receive payments under an employer insurance scheme after employment ends then these payments are treated as a pension. Again probably worth including an explanation.

You have presumably previously sent them form SSP1 which confirms when SSP entitlement ended.

The pension payments only affect ESA if they are over £85/week (the gross amount). If they are then 50% of he excess is deducted from the ESA. As yours are lower than this it should have no impact - but ESA are right to check your circumstances.

Many thanks @calcotti I have done a letter and some screen shots from my pay roll advising of the annual leave payment dates etc, my pay slips do not state holiday pay, just says salary. 

calcotti

You might want to do a brief summary of events:
I went sick on xxx
I received SSP untilXX
Following the end of my SSP I used up outstanding holiday pay from xxx to xxx.
Following that my employer paid me occupational sick pay until xxxx.

AvivaNightmare

I've done exactly that, and included copies of emails from my payroll dept advising dates I was on SSP and on occupation sick pay and paid annual leave etc. my pension is actually £75 a month, I'm sure HMRC could have told them that! They had listed my last pension payment and my salary payment in November, so cleary have that information from HMRC.

tomtom256

They may well have some information from HMRC, but they need some from you, as presumably the pension wasn't declared on the initial claim and they will be checking to see if it affects any entitlement to ESA.

Fairly straightforward and sounds like a compliance issue, which would indicate it's just a corrections issue.

AvivaNightmare

tomtom256 said:

They may well have some information from HMRC, but they need some from you, as presumably the pension wasn't declared on the initial claim and they will be checking to see if it affects any entitlement to ESA.

Fairly straightforward and sounds like a compliance issue, which would indicate it's just a corrections issue.

Thanks, I’m sure I put the pension on the claim. But all posted back to them now. So hopefully as you said it’s straight forward.