Feel helpless and alone, ESA, group income protection

pipboo

Hi. I went off work in January 22 with chronic migraine, visual snow syndrome, hypermobility (dislocations and pain) and anxiety. In July my sick pay ended and I was meant to receive group income protection. I had issues with consent to my medical records being held at the insurers offices so the income protection was not paid until Nov 22. Therefore in July I had to claim ESA. I did not claim universal credit as they told me I was entitled to 3p. The man that advised me this from dwp actually laughed down the phone. I get 70 per week ESA only from August until now.

I live alone and have a mortgage. My boyfriend works 70 hr weeks and can't help. My mother is 80 and has medical problems herself. I have no other friends or family. I have tried contacting citizen advice and they do not know the answers. I have tried looking online and cannot find any reliable information.

I applied for pip but couldn't complete the online form due to my disability. They booked an assessment anyway which took 3 hours. My condition has deteriorated since but I did not know or understand the information they needed. Pip declined my claim. I rang to say I disagreed with the decision and they said I had a month to send my medical evidence. I have lots of evidence from my neurologist and rheumatologist but before I could send it they wrote again (before the 30 days) to say a mandatory decision had been made. I now have to appeal and I am terrified.

 ESA have written to say they have placed me in wrag (which I don't understand as I'm still employed) and they want my payslips. I am now terrified they will say I have to pay them back as I am receiving group income protection (only since Nov) . I haven't sent my payslips yet as I just can't cope with them attacking me over this when I don't know the answer myself. They have advised they are going to stop my payments.

My employers give you the option to increase the amount paid out by the group income protection scheme. I paid a small amount towards the group income protection out of my salary for years prior to going off sick, so I'd receive 60 percent of my salary rather than 50 percent.

 I have found information that if you don't pay towards policy it's ok but I can't find anything about paying towards it out to get another 10 percent.

 I don't know where to turn anymore. I have worked all my life and therefore paid into a system but when I need help as I'm genuinely disabled by my conditions I have found a system which makes it impossible for me to understand or claim anything. 

 I feel completely alone and I no one seems to know whether I can claim ESA when I receive group income protection (that I paid a very small amount towards) or not and I wondered if anyone else out there has the information or can help me.  

poppy123456

I can't advise about the GIP, hopefully someone else will see this and give you some advice.

When you claim ESA and have your work capability assessment the outcome of that could either be WRAG (work related activity group) Support Group or fit for work.

As you were placed into the WRAG this means your ESA payments are time limited to just 1 year. After this your ESA payments will end. You will continue to receive NI credits towards your state pension.

If you're placed into the Support Group your payments would have increase from week 14 of your claim and continue to be paid for as long as you remain in that group.

If you disagree with the decision to be placed into the WRAG you can challenge that decision by first requesting the MR. You have 1 month from the date of the decision to do this. If you're outside that timescale you can still request it but you need to state why you didn't do this within the first month. If they refused then you just proceed to Tribunal.

Before doing anything else you need to take a look at the descriptors for the Support Group to see if any apply to you, if they don't then it's pointless going forward with the MR/Tribunal. If you don't understand the descriptors and why they mean then i'd advise you to get some expert advice from an agency near you. You can see the descriptors here. https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/employment-and-support-allowance/esa-glossary/support-group-descriptors

This link will help you find an advice agency local to you. https://advicelocal.uk/welfare-benefits

For your PIP although you asked them to wait for evidence to sent, they don't have to do this and a decision can be made at anytime. This is one of the reasons you shouldn't ring to request it and to just put that request in writing. As the MR decision didn't change you can now proceed to Tribunal. https://www.gov.uk/appeal-benefit-decision/submit-appeal

You may also want to get some expert advice from an agency to check that enough points can be scored for an award before going any further.

calcotti

If you are still employed the GIP shouldn’t make any difference to ESA.

Alex_Alumni

Hi @pipboo thank you for reaching out today, and I am sorry to hear how distressed you've been feeling lately about not getting any answers regarding ESA. I hope we can help support you. 

I can see our members have replied, and I hope their answers can help to reassure you. Trying to work out the details of these sorts of things can be very stressful and overwhelming, so I'm pleased you were able to reach out.

It's important to look after our mental health and wellbeing when feeling very stressed, so it might be worth chatting to your GP if you feel you are struggling and need more support. 

Please rest assured that you are not alone in feeling the impact of this system in making you feel less capable than you are. I'm sure many of our members can relate to this feeling. If we can do anything further to help, or we've missed anything, just let us know.