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Esa3 form

1confusedgirl

Hi

I received a letter from DWP which included an esa3 form. I filled it in and sent it back, which they received on 30th November. I don't know Much about the form but they wanted me to complete it from October 31st 2011 to now. I'm on ESA support group and pip (was on DLA until last year) I moved out of my parents home in 2016 and notified the benefit office to keep myself right. But the form says I may be able to receive premiums if they should've put me on income related ESA. I haven't heard anything since, although I do know they received form as I sent it with tracking. Does anyone know how long it takes for them to check if you qualify or not? I don't wanna phone as I'm scared it'll trigger off a medical and couldn't deal with the stress and for it to affect my mental health even more. Also has anyone actually had success with the form. I dont even know if I was or am on wrong benefit. So confused right now.

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Comments

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @1confusedgirl, and a warm welcome to the community!

I'm sorry to hear you're feeling worried. We have some brilliant members experienced with the benefits system who'll hopefully be in touch soon and able to advise.

poppy123456

Hi,

It can take as long as 12 weeks and more to be assessed for the income related top up on your ESA. Yes, lots of people have successfully claimed backdated money and some have claimed in excess of £20,000.

Living with a partner that works, savings/capital and other household income are all things they look at when assessing you for this.

1confusedgirl

Thank you for reply.

My husband doesn't work, he's on ESA support group.although prior to us moving in together he received more ESA than me, which I didn't understand as we both in support group.

When I lived with parents I was on high rate care DLA and low rate mobility. My mam was on high on both and my dad was her carer. However since last year I went on standard pip care, no mobility.

When I moved into my now husband's home we applied for carers (although we qualified) we didn't receive the carers money.

So my question is from 2011 til 2016 did I qualify for the income related part? As I'm assuming once I moved in with partner from 2016 it wouldn't be given to me.

I'm so confused by it all.

poppy123456

I really can't answer that question i'm afraid. You will have to wait for DWP to make a decision, hopefully it won't be too much longer.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @1confusedgirl I think you are referring to the huge piece of work currently ongoing by the DWP which relates to claimants wrongly being changed from Incapacity Benefit onto contribution based ESA only, with no assessment for the Income related ESA. The government have said that 570,000 were affected by this error and from what you have said, it appears you are in that group; and this is consistent with the fact you say you are in the support group. This tells me if you have no other income and capital of less than £6000 then you should certainly have been on Income related ESA from the time you first went in the support group so you definitely did the right thing in returning your form.

Because this is part of a very large project of re-assessing so many people over such a long period of time, the process is likely to take longer than the standard time for processing an Income related ESA claim but it is encouraging you have had your form and returned that, so you at least know the process has started for you. The government have said this should all be completed by the end of 2019 but as you have already completed and returned your form I would be fairly confident you would hear before then. Many people have had a lot of arrears so it is certainly worth doing.

I hope you have a positive outcome fairly soon.

Sarah

1confusedgirl

OK thanks.

1confusedgirl

Thank you for your reply Sarah, much appreciated

GGG

I am on esa & lower rate dla care& higher rate mobility.
does savings effect claim for
umderpayment esa?

poppy123456

GGG said:

I am on esa & lower rate dla care& higher rate mobility.
does savings effect claim for
umderpayment esa?

DLA isn't means tested so doesn't affect anything. Savings affect all means tested benefits. Whether your savings affect your ESA will depend which ESA you're claiming. If it's contributions based then this isn't affected. If any of your ESA is Income related then this will be affected but it will depend on the amount of savings you have.

The ESA underpayments are for those that transferred from Incapacity benefit to ESA many years ago.

GGG

Hi poppy I’m on contribuasions
esa !!
i was moved onto esa from ib
msny years ago.
i have filled the esa3 form in
and am waiting to hear back!!

poppy123456

Savings affect any income related top up you maybe entitled to. Savings of £6,000 and over affect it £1 for every £250 over that amount. £16,000 and you're not entitled to any income related top up.

Other things affect the income related top up such as capital, living with partner that works and other certain types of household income can affect it too.

Decisions can take at least 12 weeks.

BreakingMad

Hi everyone :-)

Could People please describe exactly the process of being contacted to be told they WERE going to be paid and exactly how the money was paid (the same day? Next pay day?).

Thanks

THE REST IS JUST A RANT COMMENTS WELCOME THOUGH
So we receive the letter because they have looked at our payments and decided we MAY be eligible. (Yay we all say)
But are we?
We don't know they won't say.

I'm 11 weeks in now.
Has a decision been made? No (it's being g assessed by the panel)

How will they tell me. if it's positive they will email call or text......Which?? If not??

So we may or may not be owed money including money we should be getting NOW......but we may not.

People are going to kill themselves if it's a no.

Lastly
Not having this extra money destroyed many peoples lives. Relationships with children, choice of housing the ability to borrow and repay money. Food and so much more.

Who is assessing the damages for that one. Is there a '''class action' ...should there be one. If they do give me some money I'll put £100 in to sue them. It cost me 4 years of fatherhood and funds to sue my ex

poppy123456

@BreakingMad Hi,

The timescales for the underpayments is 12 weeks but with the backlogs i will advice that will most likely be increased as timescales are just a guide.

When a decision is made DWP will write to you and if you're owed backdated money it will paid into your bank 3-5 working days after it's be sent from DWP as bacs payments take this amount of time, there aren't same day payments.

If you owed money and it's more than £5,000 it will be disregarded for means tested benefits for the life of your ESA claim.

Hopefully you're not waiting too much longer.

BreakingMad

Thanks Poppy. Of course they told me the exact opposite of that but there you go :-)