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Income related ESA when already on CB ESA

Rubyroobs
Rubyroobs Posts: 1,149 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
edited 24 March 2023 at 5:25PM in Benefits & tax credits
If anyone can help with the correct way forward I would be grateful. Someone I know was claiming CB ESA a few years ago with income related top up. They then sold a house and bought a cheaper one and had too much capital so IR ESA stopped. They continued to get the CB ESA and still get this now. The capital has now dwindled to nothing, just spent on general living costs. No rent costs as home owned outright. Now savings have gone can they reclaim IR ESA ? CAB say they can ( and I also thought they could), ESA advisor says no they need to claim UC. Partner also recently claimed carers allowance and they would not backdate immediately as they said they needed to check as they had an IR ESA claim despite not receiving any IR ESA for a few years now. This seems to indicate that there is still an IR claim 'open' ?

Comments

  • poppy12345
    poppy12345 Posts: 18,976 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    "ESA advisor" if that was a call centre person then they are not benefits advisors and they are incorrect. Citizens Advice are correct, the main claimant needs to ring ESA and report that their savings are now gone so they can be reassessed for the Income Related top up. Just to add, they could have done this once their savings dropped below £16,000. They will likely need to send bank statements.
  • Rubyroobs
    Rubyroobs Posts: 1,149 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 24 March 2023 at 5:42PM
    "ESA advisor" if that was a call centre person then they are not benefits advisors and they are incorrect. Citizens Advice are correct, the main claimant needs to ring ESA and report that their savings are now gone so they can be reassessed for the Income Related top up. Just to add, they could have done this once their savings dropped below £16,000. They will likely need to send bank statements.
    Thanks so much Poppy. this is exactly what I thought to. Yes it was the call centre person that said they must claim UC And yes it's a shame they didn't report it sooner. Do you know if it can be backdated if they can provide statements?
    .

  • calcotti
    calcotti Posts: 15,696 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 24 March 2023 at 6:20PM
    ESA should send you an ESA3 form to complete to confirm your finance situation. This will time for them to then process.

    The partner CA should also add a carer premium to the calculation.

    (Of course UC might be worth more but would possibly cause more accommodation - it’s your option to consider if you want to.)
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.
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