Pension, Incapacity Benefit/ESA problems

Are you in receipt of DLA or PIP?

Have you tried applying for these benefits in the past?

Is your ESA contribution based or income based?
How much is your pension annually?
What does the £3398.99 relate to? Is that the index linked increase since April 2013 to Nov 2017?
What amount of ESA are you getting now (with an adjustment for your pension)?
What amount of ESA were you getting before?

Ive been in receipt of PIP since July 2013 I applied for DLA at that point to be told to reapply to PIP as Id had the form for 6 months and it took me that long to get round to filling it in. they approved that, had me a face to face and exam by a physio and then gave me the payment in December 2013
I was on enhanced care and standard mobility from then until January 2016 , I appealed lost and stayed on standard mobility, until a recent PIP review face to face on April 4 which Im still waiting to hear back from

My ESA is contribution based as I worked from age 24 to age 39 and paid 40% tax mostly during my employment up until age 38

My pension started off at £468. something a month in 2012 when I was 42 so thats £5616 annually ( You don't get an ill health pension easy I was basically stated as not being able to work ever again and that is the case. Doing all these letters and trying to go through the internet has caused me awful stress and I'm about to breakdown)

It was 502 per month which is £6024 annually until this April's increase.( which they have an authority form for ) They reduced the ESA in November when they threatened the civil penalty which they have now waived.

The 3398.99 is the stated amount of over payment that the ESA folks are asking back. From 18/04/2013 to 28/11/2017 as their overpayment ( don't ask me how they worked it out I really don't know)

Because by October 2018 I was getting 109.15 a week. up from 100 pounds a week in 2013 when they migrated me to ESA ( do not ask me how much my reduced Incapacity was because its been over 6years now Id have to look at bank statements and I cant find them for those years ( and they are not on the net unfortunately or if they are its after midnight and I am wrecked by having to type so much))

The ESA I am getting now is £188.15 per two weeks.
The ESA I used to get was £218 per two weeks,

all you had to do was pick up the phone (or send a letter) once a year, when you received your pension increase.

indeed, but having informed them less than 12 months previously that it was going to increase I would have expected them to send out an authority form because they knew it was going to increase, They lost that form and then claimed ignorance and even threatened me with a civil penalty but their first words were " You didnt tell us you had an XXX pension" Not you didnt tell us of your annual increases to your XXX pension

Then when I supply a photocopy of that form to IB, to them they come back with

"You did not tell the ESA office on 22/2/13 that you had an XXX pension " Which I also told them was not my fault because they had failed to migrate the form I send another letter with the same form from IB with all the pension details and accuse them of having not migrated that letter

They come back with Oh yes we forgot to migrate the pension details when we moved you to ESA You dont have to pay from 22/2/13 to 18/04/2013 > Well on that form if they had migrated it properly in the first place None of this would have happened because they would know I had had a pension from the start and would know the date of increase and if they needed to know would send out a letter of auth or ask me what the increase was.

My problem here is that If they didnt do the first thing of migrating the information. How was I supposed to know that they had lost the form? within 12 months along with my original pension documents which they asked for at the time. I thought they knew, it said we will check you pension details and I was blissfully unaware that they needed to know the increased amount from me as I had already told them that it would increase every year. on that form.

You tell me If someone tells you I'll check it, do you go back and ask him/her to check every year? ( if they put it in writing?) Considering you are sick, ill and in receipt of other benefits the next year?