I turned 40 and my PIP stopped completely, but my ESA increased by 100 pounds, what happened?

Newcad

Best guess?

Your PIP has stopped because either you did not apply for a reassessment when you got a letter saying that you had to reapply, or did not send back a form that they had sent you, or did not comply with a reassessment, or a reassessment has found you no longer eligible for PIP.
In any one of those cases you should have had a letter/letters about it.
You need to ring PIP to find out what happened to your PIP.

Your ESA has changed for some other reason, totally unrelated to PIP. They are seperate benefits.
The paynent marked 'JSA' is what happens when you get a backpayment for ESA, so it looks like whatever has changed in your ESA was aslo backdated.
Again there should have been a leter/letters.
You need to ring ESA to find out what changed in your ESA.

None of the above is in anyway related to your age.

We can give you our best guesses, but in the end you need to ring both PIP and ESA to find out what has happened to each one.

WobbyJello

Newcad said:

Best guess?

Your PIP has stopped because either you did not apply for a reassessment when you got a letter saying that you had to reapply, or did not send back a form that they had sent you, or did not comply with a reassessment, or a reassessment has found you no longer eligible for PIP.
In any one of those cases you should have had a letter/letters about it.
You need to ring PIP to find out what happened to your PIP.

Your ESA has changed for some other reason, totally unrelated to PIP. They are seperate benefits.
The paynent marked 'JSA' is what happens when you get a backpayment for ESA, so it looks like whatever has changed in your ESA was aslo backdated.
Again there should have been a leter/letters.
You need to ring ESA to find out what changed in your ESA.

None of the above is in anyway related to your age.

We can give you our best guesses, but in the end you need to ring both PIP and ESA to find out what has happened to each one.

Thats awesome thanks friend its as good a answer as you can get , thank you sir!

xxxxxxxx

You must phone PIP and ESA  or ask someone else to help to call them both. 

Does anyone care for you and claim carer's allowance or UC carer element to care for you?   You could ask your carer to call them with you.

Have you been in hospital or a care home recently?  

Are you single or a couple? Do you live with anyone?

PIP is either suspended or closed,  maybe closed due to you not returning information when they asked.

Have you had any letters from either benefit?

Robbie64

When phoning both PIP and ESA, you will be aksed some security questions which you have to answer either by your telephone keypad or by speaking an answer. You should be asked three questions (the first is usually your date of birth) and once you have answered all three questions correctly you will then usually be told the amount and date of your next payment of PIP / ESA as appropriate.

This might be of use to you to find out if anything has changed. Whether it has or hasn't, you'll still need to speak to someone at some point if you want to find out why both your PIP and ESA payments have changed.

You could also post in this thread the exact amount of PIP you usually get, the date it was last paid and what components you receive (i.e standard or enhanced daily living, standard or enchanced mobility). Someone might be able to work out what may be happening.

If you can post all of the following I might be able to try and help:

1. Your usual PIP payment details as listed above - last paid date, last paid amount, what component(s) of PIP do you receive.

2. The exact amount of the payment you received today that is listed as JSA.

3. How much your normal payment of ESA is and when you last received it. You said it had increased by £100. What is the exact amount it is after being increased and when you received this payment.

You will need to post the exact amounts (to the penny) for me to be able to hazard a guess to what these payments are.

Muttleythefrog

WobbyJello said:

I dont want to call them because I have terrible mental health problems, your best guess would be appreciated 

Need to be straight with you here... our guesses are useless bordering on reckless.....we can't see your bank statements.. we can't see your benefit awards.. we don't know of any recent changes in your circumstances.. we don't even know if what you've said is accurate or meaningful. There is a point beyond which trying to give factual advice becomes reckless and this is such a case... and the last thing you need is to hold some untrue belief based on guesses here that may lead to further confusion and misunderstanding and you right back here again.

You need to get someone else to call PIP (and probably ESA) for you if you can't yourself... all you'd have to do is answer a couple of security questions... it's what I do as I also struggle badly with mental health and phone calls. It can be a pain in the rear waiting for them to answer but usually they can definitively answer queries like these.

WobbyJello

Or do they just take a long time to get back to you?

Do they sometimes not bother getting back to you? 

Muttleythefrog

It's a shame you didn't keep to your original thread as then we get context to give meaningful help. I don't think you're in the assessment process at the moment right?.. you said on your other thread you hadn't been assessed for a long time and that was only days ago.

You should not be contacting ATOS for the information you needed on your other thread  - ATOS are responsible for assessments not management of your claim and payments which is the responsibility of the DWP.

You need to call the number at the top of a DWP PIP letter. I do not think there is an email (but if someone knows otherwise can they state it). Get someone else to call for you if you cannot use the phone very well - as you were advised to do. There is also potentially the option of using Relay UK for the call as you may be able to use an intermediary and yourself use text not speech... or indeed use Textphone but I can't say what that is like

Telephone: 0800 121 4433
Textphone: 0800 121 4493
Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0800 121 4433

https://www.gov.uk/disability-benefits-helpline

Any queries regarding your ESA call the number at top of the ESA letters from DWP.

Logically if you're asking whether an email address is valid or not it helps to state it but I assume from your title that it is an ATOS one. If so they may be completely confused by your email asking them about irrelevant things regarding a case file they do not have... it would be rather like asking the DVLA about a passport application you never made and it is quite possible they'd just ignore you.

Hopefully you can contact relevantly to get the very basic information you wanted which is to resolve confusion over PIP and ESA payments recently received or not received. Almost certainly these issues can be completely dealt with tomorrow morning... have your bank statements at hand for reference.

poppy12345

Previous thread here. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6534214/i-turned-40-and-my-pip-stopped-completely-but-my-esa-increased-by-100-pounds-what-happened#latest

Emailing the health assessment providers isn't going to help you. As advised on your other thread, it's PIP you need to ring. 

peteuk

I agree with @poppy12345 and @Muttleythefrog - having worked for ATOS - the “Office manager” is only aware of the next fortnights appointments.  So when you get notification of your assessment thats usually when the office is made aware of it. 

As an assessor you can see what’s on your caseload.

So until you've received notification then the only way to chase things is by telephoning the PIP helpline.   I understand you have anxiety issues, but if you want solid answers then you will need to either overcome these or get someone you trust to help you. 

Its coming up to nearly a week since your first post, if your worrying about email addresses then it suggests youve not phoned.  This is the quickest way to resolve the issue. 

WobbyJello

Id like to know it, many of them are dead email addresses , thankyou