Told by DWP I may have been under payed ESA??

AnneF

Hiya

I'm a 1st time poster
I was just after some advice as I received a letter two days ago from the DWP stating that I may have been underpaid my ESA since being transferred  from ICB in 2013.
I'm not really sure what form of ESA I receive but it works out to £220 per fortnight (?). 
I've always received high rate DLA but not the care component. Is anybody able to tell me what I possibly should have been receiving as I find it all very confusing. I'm happy to answer any other questions about the benefits that I'm being/have been paid if needed. 

Thanks in advance

JennysDad

Hello Anne @AnneF and a warm welcome to the community. I'm very glad you found us.
I'm not qualified to answer your question, but we have plenty of good people here who are or who can point you in the right direction. They will be in touch with you here in due course. Please bear with us, and keep in touch.
Warmest best wishes,
Richard

CockneyRebel

Hi AnneF and welcome

Easy part first DLA has nothing to do with ESA.At some stage you will be ask to transfer from DLA to PIP. A suggestion that you start looking into what is involved with PIP.

Now your ESA
The government wrongly assessed some people when moving them from IB to ESA and that is what your letter is about. Some people should have been assessed for the income related element and were not

The gov are looking at all cases that might be affected so you may or may not be entiled to a bit of backpay.

CR

[Deleted User]

Hi AnneF

Written ino the transitional regulations when ESA was introduced in 2008, there was a regulation that said that everyone, even people only entitled to Incapacity benefit without an income support top-up, should be assessed for the income-rrlated type of ESA as they were moved across. However, this wasn't always or even often done by DWP staff,  and now owing to a recent High Court judgement, it has got to be done, though arrears are only being issued from 2014.

If you would have been entitled to some income-related top-up at the time when you were re-assessed for the then new benefit, then you might have some arrears to come. 

However, bear in mind that if you had savings over £16,000  at the time, or say a partner who was working at least 24 hours a week, then you won't have any arrears to come, because you haven't missed any benefit.

I hope that throws a bit of light.

The DWP say it's a complicated exercise to find the claims where arrears are due, and that it will take time. 

Best wishes

Gill_Scope