Esa have messed my claim up

Kelmarie83

Hi all, I’m new here but wanted to get advice and see if anyone has experienced the same. 

I live alone with 2 children, my eldest moved out 3 years ago. I am disabled after suffering a stroke, my middle is autistic and receives dla. My esa payments have always been different every week but tbh I didn’t really think much of it…. But recently I have only been getting £66.40 a week. 

I received a letter saying an owed esa £1000, when it rang the lady I spoke to checked the system and stated it was because I wasn’t entitled to child benefit anymore. Yet I have 2 children at home that I receive child benefit for.

Long story short….. they apparently only had a record of my eldest and they changed my claim 3 years ago to say I had no dependents. 

I’m now waiting to hear back from them but how can my children suddenly disappear from their records? My disabled child is 12 so they knew about her before. 

The same thing happened with the healthy start scheme, I lost it for 9 months as they had no record of my youngest? 

I have also went through my letters and discovered 2 different letters a year apart…. One stated that on a certain day I was due 115, the other states that on the same day I was paid 198…. Both letters are from esa. 

I’m so confused by it all, this is all only came to light this week. And the girl on the phone seemed to want to get me off the phone asap. 

Anyone had something like this happen?

poppy123456

An ESA claim will have nothing to do with your children. This money is just for you. The only time ESA would be affected by non dependents is Severe Disability Premium. 

Very difficult to advise without seeing the breakdown in the letters. I’d advise you to get some expert advice from an agency near you. 

Kelmarie83

I thought it was strange too that they mentioned child benefit. Looking at the letters it appears they’ve taken my premium off me and the amount I get for my daughters carers allowance has been deducted, leaving £66.40 a week. Even tho I’m down as living alone 

the lady on the phone did say I would get a call on Monday.

there is someone that lives close to me with the same name and our dob are a day apart…. I know this because her driving license was mistakenly sent to me a few years ago… so I’m wondering if someone has made a huge mistake again?

thanks for your response poppy x

poppy123456

If all of your ESA is Income Related and you're claiming carers allowance this will be deducted in full from your ESA. They should then add the carers premium of £42.75/week.

Can i just ask which group you're in, Support Group or WRAG? If Wrag did your claim start before or after 3rd April 2017?

Are you claiming a disability benefit yourself such as PIP daily living or DLA mid/high rate care?

Kelmarie83

Hi poppy, sorry for the late reply, but thanks for getting back to me.

I’m in the support group and get high rate pip as I’ve lost most of the use of my left side etc I did get the premium for several years and when it stopped I presumed it was because I got carers for my daughter 3 years ago, I only get a carers premium of £13.40 a week. 

The last 3 years I’ve been getting £115 a week then just before Christmas my money dropped to £66.40 a week, but as I have a speech problem now I didn’t ring and question it. And tbh my youngest is now going through diagnostics as he’s disabled, so I just had too much on my plate that I had to focus on. 

It was only this week when I got the letter stating I owed £1000 that I finally rang as I knew there was no way I could owe anything when I don’t get much. But I panicked and contacted them, that’s when I was told they had no record of my children etc and I owed the money for severe disability premiums I was paid….. but I haven’t received that in 3 years. Once I explained I have 2 children at home she said she needed to consult with people higher up than her and I would hear from someone on Monday. 

It’s just all confusing as now I’ve went through old letters, most of them don’t match up. They say different payment amounts, some say different entitlements etc 

What I’m worried about is them trying to take even more money off me, with only getting £66.40 a week I couldn’t afford to lose anything else 🤦‍♀️

sorry this is so long btw….. it’s such a confusing situation with it. 

poppy123456

If your PIP includes the daily living part (you said high rate but there's 2 parts to PIP, daily living and mobility) if you have no other adults living with you then you'll be entitled to SDP. (providing no one claims either carers allowance or carers element of UC for looking after you. If there's other adults living with you then they must also be claiming a qualifying disability benefit or be registered blind.

You claiming carers allowance for your child will not affect any entitlement you have to SDP.

£13.40/week is not carers premium. Something is definitely wrong here and if you don't hear from them tomorrow i'd advise you to contact ESA. While on the phone i'd advise you to reapply for SDP and ask them to backdate it to when you became entitled to it.

poppy123456

If your ESA is Income Related then the breakdown should look something like this.

Personal Allowance £84.80

Support Group component £44.70

Enhanced disability premium (also called disability income guarantee) £19.70

SDP (if entitled) £76.40

Carers premium £42.75

Total amount before deductions £268.20/week 

minus carers allowance of £76.75 total weekly amount £191.45.

If no entitlement to SDP then the weekly amount will be £115.05

This is assuming there's no other deductions for anything else.

Carers allowance will then be paid separately, either weekly or 4 weekly.

Kelmarie83

Hi poppy, apologies for the late reply. I’ve had a crazy week. I finally got clarification on the whole child benefit thing….. they had my eldest as Leaving higher education but as still living with me…. Which meant there was a non dependant living with me. 

So they awarded me the sdp from may this year, after speaking to a lovely man in esa he put me through for a mandatory reconsideration request. 

I received a letter today stating that the lady doing the mandatory reconsideration had found esa the be at fault, and they had removed it by mistake. She is now requesting I get backpaid from jan 2021.

I don’t know what happens now, I’m just glad I don’t owe them money and I won’t be having to struggle on £60 a week. 

Thanks a million ❤️❤️

poppy123456

Thanks for the update. Glad it's been sorted. Please also remember than once your eldest leaves full time non advanced education then you will need to report the changes and the SDP will stop. Unless they are either registered blind or they are claiming a qualifying disabilty benefit there self.