Income support, unexpected payment over £6000

Not_Me · 16 March 2019 at 4:48PM

Can anyone help, please?

Checked my bank account before bed last night and there was a large payment that had the code ISCS. Thought it was strange because we have only just received the letters stating that our payments are increasing by a few pennies as they do in April.

But the figures didn't match what we were receiving, figures were higher, thought they forgot to mention some deduction.

I passed my PIP (medium care)? but failed my ESA around the same time, wife gets carers allowance and we had to claim income support because signing on was becoming difficult. It was only time before i missed appointments and they sanctioned me. Stupid because one side they say i am fit and then goto the job centre and they say your not really fit enough to look for work. Stuck in the system.

This was 2017 when the ESA stopped and income support started, wife and myself receive about £176 income support and £60 carers allowance. that is fortnightly. We also receive £200 PIP every 4 weeks. Luckily the PIP made up the loss so we were no better off having claimed it.

Sorry for being so long but i thought you may need that to be able to help me.

So last night i checked the bank and found over £6000 in the account, today we received a letter stating the payment going in but no reason why. did not say underpayment or anything.
I know we are supposed to notify them if we have savings over £6000 and that it reduces the money you receive but it does not seem fair when they put the money in there in the first place.

Do i need to declare having more than £6000 now?

Sorry for the long post.

[Deleted User] · 16 March 2019 at 5:01PM

Did you claim ESA contribution based with no income based top up? The DWP have been trawling through their records as when some people were moved from incapacity benefit to ESA they were underpaid.
Could it be this? If its for an underpayment the £6000 won't be counted as savings for 12 months.

some info here;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45903514

Not_Me · 16 March 2019 at 5:16PM

Thank you for the fast reply.

I moved from IB to ESA a long time ago, the letter we received today says 2017 to 2019 which would coincide with the switch from ESA to IS though.
Odd the letter does not state the reason for the payment, just says IS 2017 to 2019 and the figure.

poppy12345 · 16 March 2019 at 6:30PM

As you transferred from IB to ESA were you recently sent an ESA3 form to fill in and return? If you were then this will be what the money is from but i would ring DWP Monday morning just to confirm.

Not_Me · 16 March 2019 at 7:14PM

I was switched from IB to ESA around 2011/2012? It was a long time ago.
I was switched fairly early after they mentioned it.

Not had any letters until the recent 2, one stating an increase from £132.50 to £134.50 and today a letter about the large payment.

I did think the figures looked wrong as we do not currently get £132.50 a week.

Not sent an ESA3 form, not a clue what that is. My ESA appeal went badly.
The local centre that were helping me assigned a different worker who was not as good as the previous one.

The appeal was done around christmas time and they said i had not contacted them regarding the appeal dates, then they checked and i had sent them emails. Then they blamed me for not chasing it up.
Check again, i called you were not in, i left a message on another day you didnt respond.

So a late appeal letter was sent and just before the actual hearing they said they could not help me due to something i put on the initial paperwork. Only later did we notice that form was actually filled out by them.

So i went to the appeal unprepared and it went badly. Job centre didnt want me there, the other job finder service didnt want me there either.
Services being cut and someone the things they mentioned had been scrapped already.

So we had to claim income support instead. That would have been Jan 2017?

thanks for helping

tacpot12 · 16 March 2019 at 7:27PM

I would put the money into a savings account until you are certain that you are entitled to it. Even when you are certain, having it in a savings account is the best place to manage how you spend it.

Bear in mind that if you have more that £5999 in savings you are supposed to tell the DWP about these savings. Spending money on the replacement of essential items, such as a broken appliance, would not be seen as depriving yourself of the capital.

calcotti · 16 March 2019 at 8:04PM

tacpot12 wrote: »

Bear in mind that if you have more that £5999 in savings you are supposed to tell the DWP about these savings. Spending money on the replacement of essential items, such as a broken appliance, would not be seen as depriving yourself of the capital.

But arrears of benefits are generally ignored when assessing capital for 52 weeks.

Not_Me · 16 March 2019 at 10:27PM

We live very frugally since our money dropped, dont drink or smoke, no sky or virgin tv, no naughty habits.

Once a month we may have a takeaway. After the main bills the car takes priority, lost without my car. I filled the tank at christmas and still have over 1/4 of it left. Managed to save just over £2000.

bigbill · 16 March 2019 at 10:44PM

An educated guess.

I would suggest they have failed to add the disability premium at £48+ weekly to your IS calculation from 2017, hence the arrears now?

[Deleted User] · 17 March 2019 at 12:52PM

Best thing is ring them tomorrow morning to confirm what it’s for and also ask whether it’s disregarded as it usually is for 52 weeks as already mentioned.

Not_Me · 17 March 2019 at 4:32PM

bigbill wrote: »

An educated guess.

I would suggest they have failed to add the disability premium at £48+ weekly to your IS calculation from 2017, hence the arrears now?

Think you hit the mark on that one, £47.80 because your partner is sick or disabled. Wife found paperwork dated february 2019 and the £47.80 is not showing.

Our figures come to £47.80 exactly. We were told the disability premium did not apply to IS. That was part of the huge mess up in 2017 also. ESA stopped and they were going to switch to IB but someone called me to say i would be losing that £50 a week so best to stay on job seekers. but i could not give them another sick note and it spiralled from there and we lost the £50 anyway.

thank you all, seems the mystery has been solved. they could have put a note on the letter to say what the money was for, save me worrying.

{{{hugs all around, please share}}}

Income support, unexpected payment over £6000

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