Hi, my name is matty916! Do you think i will get this money? Am i reading the letter wright?

matty916

Hi all, could someone please put my mind to rest, I've been claiming ESA since before 2017 due to mental health and PTSD, also awarded basic pip since I'd say 2022, mainly because i didn't realise i was entitled to it until a friend told me i was.

I've recently received a letter which has really confused me and I'm not sure if I'm reading it wright or wrong so I'll type the letter word for word.

Dear MR....

YOUR CLAIM FOR EMPLOYMENT AND SUPPORT ALLOWANCE

A payment of arrears of income-related Employment and Support Allowance amounting to £9996.70 has been calculated for the period from 29 June 2022 to 7 January 2025.

This arrears payment has not been sent or credited to you as we are holding details of a possible overpayment. We are checking whether any recovery must be made. Arrears payments due will be sent to you as soon as possible and we will tell you why any money has been held back.

If you do not hear from us about this after five days, please contact this office.

Yours sincerely......

Since this letter my ESA payments have increased by around £160 every 2 weeks, so I'm reading this letter as they didn't calculate my money correctly and have been giving me less than i should have been entitled too and they owe me £9996.70.

Anyway surprise surprise i didn't hear anything from them and i thought I'd give them 2 weeks before i chase this up and i called what i presume was head office and was told pretty much what i was reading and told its in process and any money owed to me would be payed once processed.

So i wait another 4 weeks and nothing! So i call head office again and they said i should have heard something within 5 days so he put a note on the system and said i should hear something soon, anyway i hang up the call and within 15 minutes i get a call from my local dwp and they said the woman who's dealing with it is off work and back Monday and i should hear something Monday but surprise surprise nothing! This would have been last Monday now so a week ago today.

So today feeling like I'm being fobbed off i call again, the chap said obviously something big is going on and couldn't tell me much more after explaining all of this and goes off to speak to the manager, comes back and says their protocol for call backs is 14 days so i should still get this call by next Monday, but he did say they can't pay me anything owed until any overpayment has been recovered which apparently is taking place… despite my payment's being increased, the overpayment is apparently £400.

I said to the chap so why can't you just deduct the overpayment from what is owed to me, he said i don't understand why they can't do that and seemed just as confused as me, he said wait until Monday for the call and that's all he could tell me.

So I'm left thinking they're fobbing me off and trying to wriggle out of paying me because it doesn't make sense to me.

Do you think i will get this money? Am i reading the letter wright?

Kind regards

Matt

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

It looks like you were entitled to SDP when you gained the PIP award, but this does not get added automatically and should have been applied for at the time.

That would explain the increase in your fortnightly ESA payments. It is around £80 per week but the exact amount has changed each year.

Unfortunately I do not know what the £400 overpayment would be for. All you can do is wait for them to sort it out, and keep phoning them until they do.

I do believe you will get the rest of the money owed. Usually backpayments are only disregarded from savings for 12 months. However yours will be disregarded for the lifetime of the award as it is more that £5000.

Albus_Scope

Hey there @matty916 and welcome to the community.

That's great news about the payment increase, but sorry they're dragging their heels with the money owed. This is pretty normal for the DWP to be honest. Despite calculations already having been made, they still have lots of "i's to dot and t's to cross" which can take a couple of months. Fingers crossed they wont keep you waiting too much longer.