Tribunal over DWP not calculating capital correctly

Slonvinton

Yesterday was the deadline for responding to the DWP moving the goal posts on my appeal… Im really hoping they dont do it again, but fear they will.

Back in October I made a typo when declaring my capital and declared my October figures with a date in Feb. The DWP then issued an overpayment letter- I told them it was a date typo.
I had a Mandatory Reconsideration; the assessor just look at my Premium Bond total said it was over 6K and the overpayment stood. He didnt even work out my total capital and included cost of living payments and a benefit backpayment in the total of my Premium Bonds. He had my current account statements for the transfer that put my Premium Bonds over 6K and you can clearly see my Adult Disability Back Payment go into my current account and then get transfered in to my Premium Bonds (the two transactions are next to each other on my statement). Anyway I couldnt get him to explain why he was not allowing thedisregards or what he had added my total capital up to be. The only thing that was clear was that it was impossible for the figures I declared for Feb by mistake to match what was actually in my account in Feb. By this stage its Dec 2024.

So I started an appeal in January. I uploaded all my bank statements. The DWP failed to respond several times and were given extensions.
In April the DWP posted in my UC journal saying they had miscalculated, but the overpayment was actually higher. They said I had gone over 6K back in June 2023 and they were going to redo all statements. Then they redid all statements from July 2023 and issued a overpayment letter for over £700 in addition to what they had already taken (£182)…. by now we are well into the middle of April. It was initially very unclear how they had arrived at the figures they had input to adjust my statements. But after several hours trying to work it out it became obvious that they had only added my Premium Bonds to Income Bonds and then input that as capital (they had ignored my current account and not deducted any capital disregards at all).

I was quite confused about the procedure too as nothing had come through via the appeal only through journal. In the journal they tell me they have asked for a 30 day extension for me to respond. So I had a bit of a google and eventually found a paragraph on turn2us that said if they increase an overpayment during an appeal the appeal continues.
So I provided more bank statements and all my workings out. Put in a cover letter. Now Im waiting to see if they do it to me again.

Im a little worried because there are so many conflicting views on what is an isnt allowed to be deducted from capital. So many conflicting views on how capital should be declared even.
I have been deducting: benefit back payments for 12 months, cost of living payments indefinitely and treating last ESA and PIP/ADP payments as income.

On the reddit DWPhelp… someone (who claimed to be DWP staff) said they were told claimants need to show evidence of COLs going into their accounts before they can be disregarded. So I collected all relevant statements.

Then yesterday just as I was finishing up on my cover letter there is a post on reddit saying that UC isnt considered income when declaring capital and neither is PIP or ESA. Now I had been ignoring UC as I had seen issues about that, but I had not realised anyone was disputing that PIP and ESA are income in terms of calculating capital.
Its very odd if they are especially ESA. I very often seem to get my ESA go in right before I have to do my capital declaration, so at that point Ive had it for one day (and it has been deducted pound for pound from what I get from UC… but somehow its being claimed its capital not income).

I am very fed up with this system. It could be so much easier to work with if they had a proper way to declare capital on the UC website. At least then it would be very clear to us what wer are supposed to be doing.
That said there is now a tick box to declare back payments and that doesnt seem to have helped very much with DWP noticing they need to deduct when they reworked my statements.

Can anyone assure me I have it correct about ESA and PIP/ADP?

Is there anything that can be done to make DWP clarify this process?

HillStreetBlues

You seem to have been dealing with idiots who clearly haven't a clue.
CoL payments are disregarded indefinitely, all you would have to do is showed that they were paid and you have kept the money (balance not dropping below the payments)
Back payments are  disregarded for at least a year depending on amount also depending on if you have kept it.
The UC ESA and ADP is classed as income during the UC assessment period they are paid.

I am much the same as you,( I currently have over £4k disregarded).

TimeLord1

You can usually appeal online through the HMCTS (His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service) website. You'll need a copy of your Mandatory Reconsideration Notice.
The assessor incorrectly included the cost of living payments and the Adult Disability Payment backpayment as part of your capital when calculating if you were over the £6,000 threshold. These are specifically disregarded.

It will be a long winded process so gather your information to submit.

Spoonie_Turtle

ADM Chapter H2 is what you need to be looking at.  That clearly states that income - which includes benefit payments - does not become capital until the end of the assessment period after the one in which it was received.

The only thing it doesn't mention, from memory, is Cost of Living Payments - but the Social Security Additional Payments 2022 / 2023 sets of legislation both say 'no account is to be taken of' them for entitlement to benefits.  (There doesn't seem to be guidance about how to deal with them because the government assumed people would spend them at the time because they needed to.) 
It would be reasonable for a DM to ask for statements to prove that you received them, and to prove they weren't spent, but the law is quite clear that they do not affect benefit entitlement.