Help! Friend's benefits have been stopped

itsthelittlethings

Hi, help would be good. My friend was migrated over to UC a while ago but may still be on some ESA as he is now saying his ESA has been stopped. He is unsure if he is still getting DLA (yes he's definitely still on DLA rather than PIP). He's really struggling for money, he says he's not well enough to ring DWP about getting his money restarted. I know that I can't ring for him as they won't speak to me. What could we do?

Thanks in advance.

born_again

He rings & asks after security if they will talk to you. 

itsthelittlethings

born_again said:

He rings & asks after security if they will talk to you. 

We don't live in the same city.

Spoonie_Turtle

Has he been able to check his bank account to see when the last payments of each were?

In theory if his ESA stops he should get more UC as there'll no longer be a deduction for ESA, but it depends on why his ESA stopped (if it actually has) and whether it was supposed to.

Ultimately unfortunately only DWP can tell him what the problem is if anything has actually stopped.

Is there any way of doing a three-way/conference call so you can talk to DWP for him without being there in person?  (Just a thought, as I genuinely don't know if it's possible.

itsthelittlethings

Maybe he's calling it ESA because he's been on ESA for years but it's actually UC. Would it be worth asking him to check his online account?

KxMx

Universal Credit replaces Income Related ESA.
Any Contributions Based ESA should continue as New Style ESA @ £281.10 a fortnight. 
New Style ESA is deducted (£609.05) from each UC award, but the NS ESA still goes into his bank account. 

He can view all his UC payment statements on his UC online account (known as the Journal). 

Muttleythefrog

Bottom line.. he needs to find out what has happened. Entirely possible he's failed to comply with a review or some other requirement if they're evasive. Unfortunately it sounds like they'll need to get someone to help them call or call... this problem is not going away but we're clueless to help unless we know what it is. For universal credit he can contact them in his journal... but only worth doing if that's where a problem lies.

itsthelittlethings

He's pretty good with letters.

We will have to call them tomorrow.

IOWJJBTM2025

If you intend to permanently help your friend you can apply to be an appointee.
Also if he calls I think that he can ask them to call someone else into the phone call on a separate phone. I know my wife did this for my father-in-law when he was interviewed over the phone.

itsthelittlethings

Muttleythefrog said:

Bottom line.. he needs to find out what has happened. Entirely possible he's failed to comply with a review or some other requirement if they're evasive. Unfortunately it sounds like they'll need to get someone to help them call or call... this problem is not going away but we're clueless to help unless we know what it is. For universal credit he can contact them in his journal... but only worth doing if that's where a problem lies.

I'm not sure I'd describe him as evasive. He's been managing a chronic condition for many years.

itsthelittlethings

IOWJJBTM2025 said:

If you intend to permanently help your friend you can apply to be an appointee.
Also if he calls I think that he can ask them to call someone else into the phone call on a separate phone. I know my wife did this for my father-in-law when he was interviewed over the phone.

I'm not willing to permanently help him. He's a friend.