Esa

ollieandduke

I was put in the support group in 2016 as a joint claim with my partner and given income related esa. I am also on pip higher rate mobility and standard daily living.
My hubby is my carer. At one time he got carer allowance but he started working for himself 2 days per week and would charge £50 per day  doing odd jobs around peoples houses and gardens.
We notified dwp they took me off income related esa onto contribution based. Because he is under the minimum wage they say we cant prove hes not doing more hours and stopped carers allowance and im now on contribution based esa.
He didnt have a wage slip but used to put his 100 quid  wages in the bank thrn draw it sraight out to live on but dwp say the bank statement aint enough to prove hes not working longer. Any help please as to what her can do to prove to esa.

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @ollieandduke, this certainly sounds like a frustrating situation for you and your husband to be in! I've moved this post to Ask A Benefits Advisor: they may be better informed to advise you on this one. They're receiving a large volume of enquiries at the moment, but somebody will be in touch ASAP. 

ollieandduke

Thank you xx

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi ollieandduke - this certainly needs straightening out. The rules about earnings are different for different benefits, and the DWP always need proof of any work and earnings. It sounds like they have been very quick to stop everything and haven't given you much chance to explain. If you are still getting daily living PIP, then your husband can get carer's allowance as long as his earnings do not exceed £116 a week after expenses. It may therefore be worth challenging the decision to stop CA, although you may have problems with the time limits for this (usually one month unless you have a good reason). If he has stopped working, then there is no reason why you shouldn't reclaim the benefits you had before (but see below). If he is still working, then there is no reason why you can't be getting contributory ESA, plus CA and earnings (up to the limit). Your husband will need to ask the DWP for proper steerage on how they want his earnings to be proved so that this doesn't get to be a problem in the future. If you do go back to a combination of income related and contributory ESA, then your husband can only earn £20 before the income related part is affected pound for pound. 
Things are further complicated by the rollout of Universal Credit - if your area has gone to the full service of UC, then you may not be able to go back to income related ESA once you have stopped claiming it: check this out on www.universalcreditinfo.net. You may actually find that UC is a better option for you - have a look at the benefits calculator on this Scope website to see if this is possible.
Either way, do consider challenging the decisions made so far in your case.
Hope this helps!

Jayne

ollieandduke

He gets £100 per week for 2 days but sometimes he only does 1 day it depends if he gets a phone call with work offers. The dwp says he must prove his money with a wage slip but he doesnt get one cus he works for his self. He started putting the money he earned in a natwest bank but when they said he had to prove he was earning via a wage slip he stopped doing it.
As for carer allowance he told them and they asked what hours he worked and when he said he gets £50 a day they just stopped it we didnt get a letter stating it was being stopped it just stopped

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi ollieandduke,

As Jayne has said, you need to use the mandatory reconsideration and appeal process to dispute this decision as it doesn't sound at all right what the DWP are doing on this case. Plenty of people are self employed and won't have wage slips, it shouldn't act as a barrier to entitlement.

Lee

ollieandduke

Its been since june 2017 so i cant appeal i dont think. I just dont understand why the carer allowance department never even sent us a letter explaining why they stopped the CA we just never heard anything and when i asked my hubby to ring them he said its pointless we obviously arent meant to receive it so forget it

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hello Ollieandduke

You can still challenge the DWP decision.  Although there is a general time limit of 1 month this can be extended for up to 13 months if it can be shown that you had a good reason as to why you did not lodge your challenge within 1 month of the date of the decision letter. But, you have said that you have not had a letter.  It may be worth contacting CA and checking what is going on, as CA should have sent you a decision letter to say at least the exact date when CA is to stop and give a brief reason as to why it has stopped.  It is then from the date of the decision letter does your 1 month time run.  As my colleagues have stated it is not clear why CA has stopped as you are below the earnings threshold. Please post again if you find out why CA stopped.

And ESA? Is this still not in payment despite your husband have stopped working?

Maria

ollieandduke

Esa put my money from income related to contribution based i get £109 

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @ollieandduke

If your ESA is contributions based then it's not being paid for a couple - therefore if you and your husband have no other income and your savings are below the threshold you should look at claiming income-related as well.

Also I'd like to echo Maria's advice that it's not too late to appeal - get on the phone to them, find out what they've done, and if it's not right then request a written decision and consider asking for the MR. Do sit down and get all the figures straight though, as any week he earned £110/week before April and £116/week from April onwards he won't qualify.

Let us know how you get on with calling them! And do check into ESA too.

Kind regards,

Mary

ollieandduke

I rang esa today to explain things and was asked does my husband have wage slips to prove his wages when i said no they said without proof of earnings theres no way they will put him back on income related esa with me.
I rang carer allowance and was told the same without proof of wages he wont get CA.
My husband cant work full time as i cant be left allone full time. It seems pointless him working. He asnt worked all week with the snow so we havent had his money.
Saying that theres always people far worse of than us.

ollieandduke

Can i ask a question regarding esa?? Ive been told there are changes regarding esa reassesments if you have been put in the support group are you exempt from a reassesment in future.
I have severe siatica and a crumbling spine  are these conditions part of the exemptions. I hear lots of things regarding it but nobody seems to know whats happening  thank you

CockneyRebel

The exemption will only happen following another assessment at which time you will be notified if it applies in your case

Please see the link to the severe conditions guidance courtesy of DRUK

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/sites/default/files/pdf/Severeconditionsguidance.pdf

CR

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hmmm... @Ollieandduke I think these earnings of your husband's are really going to cause you issues if they're really up and down.

He shouldn't necessarily need wage slips, as plenty of s/e people claim benefits as top-up, but he will need some kind of verifiable evidence to show them - just so that they can make an accurate calculation of what to pay - normally bank accounts won't do as it doesn't show deductions etc - You need to strategise as to how he could be paid in a verifiable way - maybe signed invoices?

If you're right on the bread-line then it's worth sorting this evidential issue in order to maximise on the benefits side of things.

CR is spot on re the new guidance on reassessment for SG. My feeling is that not many will benefit from it.

Mary

ollieandduke

Thank you all for your help x