ESA and other income

Giraffe76

Hi all,

My partner who claims ESA bought a house just over 12 months ago and for numerous reasons she moved out last month and started rented it. She had a phone interview with a compliance officer last week and today received a letter saying they want more information about how much savings she has, where the money came from to buy the property she now rents and details of any transfers over £500.
She's spoken with me today about it and said that she had a friend in the same situation last year (who claims ESA and had this letter through the post after the same type of phone call) but ignored the letter and the DWP only took £100 a month from the amount she gets paid whereas the person on the phone with my partner said that there's a very good chance that all of my partners ESA money will be stopped.
Can anyone tell me why there would be/will be such a big discrepancy with one person only getting £100 a month taken from their money and my partner getting all her ESA money taken from her when both situations are identical

Kind regards 

poppy12345

If all of your partners ESA is Income Related then any capital of more than £16,000 will mean there's no entiltlement to any means tested benefits and they will all stop. Owning a property you do not live is not disregarded. 

If any of their ESA is contributions based, this isn't affected by capital. Same applies to New style ESA. 

If the friends ESA was part contributions based then that will not be affected. £100/month less person month for their ESA sounds about right to me. Contributions based/New style ESA Support Group is currently £138.20/week. 

Giraffe76

Hi, thank you for your reply. So if she weren't to reply to the form she has been sent then she will have her ESA stopped? Would she have her PIP taken away too and would there be any other sanctions against her for not replying as for me I don't see any point in replying as whether she replies or not it sounds like they will take her ESA from her so why bother replying?

I fully understand and take on board your point about income and contribution based ESA so would agree thats probably the reason why the difference in situations.

Many thanks and regards

poppy12345

She really needs to send any information they've asked her to send. Yes, if she doesn't send what they've asked for any Income Related ESA she's claiming will likely stop. 

PIP isn't means tested so that won't be affected. 

TELLIT01

If the ESA is totally or partly Income Related, the question of how they afforded to buy a house a year ago is perfectly reasonable.  That is assuming they were claiming ESA at that time.  Any savings in excess of £16k would have made them ineligible for the Income Related element of ESA.

poppy12345

If there's an overpayment this will need to be repaid back. There would also be a small fine on top for not reporting the changes. 

If she was claiming Council Tax reduction at the time she bought the house, questions maybe asked by the Local Authority of how she afforded to buy the house. Some local Authorities have a maximum capital limit of £6,000 before entitlement to Council Tax reduction stops. 

If she's claiming CTR now then she also needs to report the changes to them as she's no longer living in the property she owns. 

Alice_Holt

Giraffe76 said:

 So if she weren't to reply to the form she has been sent then she will have her ESA stopped? Would she have her PIP taken away too and would there be any other sanctions against her for not replying as for me I don't see any point in replying as whether she replies or not it sounds like they will take her ESA from her so why bother replying?

  'Sanctions' could include a £50 civil penalty.

 If not cooperating and not giving ESA the information to correctly calculate the overpayment, then ESA are likely to assume the worst scenario which may lead to a larger overpayment than actually warranted. 
Also ESA may consider a criminal fraud prosecution, given a deliberate non-disclosure of facts.