Esa and Suspended Carers
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lscalow
Posts: 4 Newbie
I've received Esa since 2012, and my partner got carers as well as he is my carer due to my health.
He started working Aug 2016, until May 2017 he still got Carers. They notified us that due to his wage he was ineligible anymore, and after going to a jobcentre appointment, where we gave all the evidence they asked for (wage slips and bank statements) we asked to have the claim cancelled.
We recently found out (from esa reassessment letter notifying us of current esa rate we get) that we were still getting carers deducted from my esa. We rang esa and after 4 days were told to contact carers.
I spoke to them and they said that the claim hadn't been cancelled, it had been suspended instead. They then told us we had been sent forms to fill in to stop the deductions from esa, we haven't ever received any forms.
Yet it was confirmed that the whole time we've been losing carers from my esa. (62.70per week then £64.60 per week) due to their error.
I asked about back dating and we were told we now have got to get all my partners wage slips (he stopped working 30/12/18, as we are moving to another city, and my health has worsened) plus bank statements and another form sent in. I argued that on their own policy it states we can cancel a claim or if a claiment isn't in contact then it should be cancelled by a dm.
But it was still deducted as they didn't cancel the claim as requested (or via lack of communication) as the dm hadn't looked at it. The limit is 1 month of no communication on suspended cases, equals termination. Yet it wasn't done that way either.
It was blamed on a back log.
Either way since May last year we have still been having carers deducted from esa, but not paid us. We received no carers, yet it was still taken from my esa.
Can I get any of the money backdated? Or refunded as, as far as I'm aware, if you don't get carers paid it shouldn't be deducted
He started working Aug 2016, until May 2017 he still got Carers. They notified us that due to his wage he was ineligible anymore, and after going to a jobcentre appointment, where we gave all the evidence they asked for (wage slips and bank statements) we asked to have the claim cancelled.
We recently found out (from esa reassessment letter notifying us of current esa rate we get) that we were still getting carers deducted from my esa. We rang esa and after 4 days were told to contact carers.
I spoke to them and they said that the claim hadn't been cancelled, it had been suspended instead. They then told us we had been sent forms to fill in to stop the deductions from esa, we haven't ever received any forms.
Yet it was confirmed that the whole time we've been losing carers from my esa. (62.70per week then £64.60 per week) due to their error.
I asked about back dating and we were told we now have got to get all my partners wage slips (he stopped working 30/12/18, as we are moving to another city, and my health has worsened) plus bank statements and another form sent in. I argued that on their own policy it states we can cancel a claim or if a claiment isn't in contact then it should be cancelled by a dm.
But it was still deducted as they didn't cancel the claim as requested (or via lack of communication) as the dm hadn't looked at it. The limit is 1 month of no communication on suspended cases, equals termination. Yet it wasn't done that way either.
It was blamed on a back log.
Either way since May last year we have still been having carers deducted from esa, but not paid us. We received no carers, yet it was still taken from my esa.
Can I get any of the money backdated? Or refunded as, as far as I'm aware, if you don't get carers paid it shouldn't be deducted
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Comments
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I suggest asking Carer's Allowance unit to write a letter confirming the dates during which Carer's Allowance was in payment and when it was suspended. You can then supply this to ESA unit. However, assuming that your ESA award includes an income based element, working out what you may be owed is complicated which is why ESA unit need the bank statements.
I assume you kept the ESA unit fully informed about your partner's earnings as these would need to be deducted from your income based ESA entitlement. Additionally if ESA believed your partner was receiving Carer's Allowance the calculation of income based ESA would have included a Carer premium which would have increased your entitlement - if he was not getting Carer's Allowance then you were not entitled to the premium. The net difference is about £36/week.
Once they have the information you should be paid any arrears that are due.
Any contribution based part of your ESA would be unaffected by any of your partner's income (whether earnings or Carer's Allowance).Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.0 -
The loss of contact termination is not really used where there is a doubt over entitlement. The most they could do is terminate the claim from a safe date while investigating whether there is a further overpayment of the Carers Allowance due to earnings.
What level were the earnings and from when? Its quite possible you have both an overpayment of CA and ESA as your earnings have to be over £100, I think, in order for it to stop.
So were ESA taking the earnings in to account the whole time?0 -
The Carer's Allowance earnings limit was £110 in 2016-2017 and went up to £116 in April 2017 and then to £120 in April 2018.
For ESA the partner's earnings would be taken into account less a disregard of £20/week.
Unfortunately although you would expect different DWP departments to talk to each other the claimant is expected to advise each DWP separately of any changes so when the CA payments stopped you were expected to inform the ESA unit.Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.0 -
Tlwe get income based Esa.
They were fully informed of everything, we made sure to send in all is wage slips and forms.
We were never sent the form by carers (the one they claim we ignored) and they say that because we didn't return said form we were under loss of contact. They say that due to back log they didn't resend form automatically for 2nd attempt of contact, as it was not noticed by dm. So no loss of contact termination was attempted.
I know we didn't get it as I have issues with being quite obsessive and paranoid over making sure stuff like this is sorted correctly. With benefits, PIP and such even more so, as they are quite crafty with making sure you don't get what you deserve to save money for themselves.
We went to ever appointment, every form we received was returned, and all evidence they needed was supplied.
Tbh we never got the evidence/wage slips back from either esa or carers. I don't know if we should have. I just know we didn't.0 -
Unfortunately although you would expect different DWP departments to talk to each other the claimant is expected to advise each DWP separately of any changes so when the CA payments stopped you were expected to inform the ESA unit.
They were both informed separately. We even made sure we got 2 copies of his wake slips every month, so we could send each department a copy0 -
We get income based Esa.
They were fully informed of everything, we made sure to send in all is wage slips and forms.
We were never sent the form by carers (the one they claim we ignored) and they say that because we didn't return said form we were under loss of contact. They say that due to back log they didn't resend form automatically for 2nd attempt of contact, as it was not noticed by dm. So no loss of contact termination was attempted.
I know we didn't get it as I have issues with being quite obsessive and paranoid over making sure stuff like this is sorted correctly. With benefits, PIP and such even more so, as they are quite crafty with making sure you don't get what you deserve to save money for themselves.
We went to ever appointment, every form we received was returned, and all evidence they needed was supplied.
Tbh we never got the evidence/wage slips back from either esa or carers. I don't know if we should have. I just know we didn't.0 -
They were both informed separately. We even made sure we got 2 copies of his wake slips every month, so we could send each department a copy
If you can evidence that you kept both departments fully informed you may be able to argue that any overpayment of benefit is official error and they are not allowed to recover it.Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.0
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