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Advice with ESA appeal

KeithH

Hi I could do with some advice regarding my ESA appeal, which I've won but the arrears payment seems to be incorrect, I will go into more detail if anyone is willing to help me. Thank you.

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Comments

shelam

Hi Keith, I have no personal experience of this, but if you go into the Benefits and Work website, there is all sorts of information there about everything to do with benefits. There is a forum where you can ask questions, so you might be able to get some answers from them?

Benistmonk

All you can do is ask the DWP to look into it, tell them what you are owed and see if they agree.

CockneyRebel

Hi @keithH and welcome

Without sight of your paperwork or details it is not possible to advise. You might take your papers to an advice agency near you

Benistmonk

You don't need to see any paperwork, what you do is, calculate the component rate of benefit by the number of weeks it was not paid. Even then you will find the DWP never get it spot on. For eg, if it took a year to get to tribunal, that is 52 x £29,05 which = £1510.60 the component rate. If it was for SG, it will be more.

KeithH

To give some background I was in the ESA support group up until April 18, I was withdrawn from the group after an assessment, I started a mandatory reconsideration which did not change the decision so I started an appeal which was heard recently, it was a harrowing experience to say the least but I won my appeal and have been placed back in the support group. What I'm not understanding is they have backdated payments from 24 April to 23 August when they say I started on Universal credit, because my wife works I received nothing at all from UC from 23 August 18 to the present. They are not allowing these months in the backdated payments. Because my appeal was allowed surely I should be entitled to backdated payments from 23 August to present as I should have been receiving the support group payment all this time, or will they use this as a loophole not to pay me as my wife was working? Its a minefield when we have both worked all if our lives trying to work out how this system works. ESA said they can only pay us from 25/4/18 to 23 August when UC took over, I had no idea they were two entirely different entities so waiting for UC to answer the phone!

poppy123456

I'm afraid they are correct because you claimed UC and they will only back date you money until the date you claimed UC. See link. http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/esa-uc

Taken from link. In a full service area, income-related ESA will be abolished for her/him if s/he claims UC, or tries to make a new claim for JSA or for ESA. It makes no difference whether such a new claim is made before or after a request for mandatory reconsideration or appeal. From that point, s/he cannot be entitled to income-related ESA, even if s/he successfully challenges the WCA failure.

Benistmonk

It's funny how people are only finding this out after the event, yet I see some people on here advising people to claim UC pending MR for ESA, telling them they can go back on ESA if the win at appeal.

At least now we know beyond any doubt, if you claim UC in the middle of an ESA dispute, you lose the arrears that you would have got if you stayed on ESA at assessment rate pending the outcome of your appeal.

poppy123456

I've never seen anyone give that advice on here. I've always advised people that if they claim UC they can't go back onto ESA ever.

KeithH

Although a UC claim was started pending ESA appeal I never received any money as my wife was working. I spoke with UC and they are ringing me back in Monday with more info, however a lovely lady from ESA rang me back to say she hadn't realised I'd received no money whatsoever from UC so has asked for someone to ring me next week as she thinks there has been an error made with the back payment. It's so confusing, it seems ESA and UC don't speak to one another. Well hopefully have some clarity next week. It is sad as Benistmonk said that people only find out this news after the event, makes me wonder if this is a deliberate act to save them money, call me cynical but I've been through a year of complete stress with the DWP.

poppy123456

I'm assuming you were originally claiming Contributions based ESA? A partner working wouldn't have affected this claim. When you claimed UC because it's a means tested benefit then you claim as couple and your wife's earnings will affect anything you can claim. Put your details into a benefits calculator and it will tell you what you should be receiving, if anything.

KeithH

Thank you but ive been put back into the support group following the appeal, it was just the back payment I couldn't get my head around, hopefully it will be clearer next week, I will post the outcome in case its it's useful to anyone who's experienced something similar.

Benistmonk

poppy123456 said:

I've never seen anyone give that advice on here. I've always advised people that if they claim UC they can't go back onto ESA ever.

I have seen it on here, would you like me to dig it up?

As an aside, when I asked the CAB for help, they advised me to claim UC and done some half baked benefit calculation to see if would be better off on UC. Even though I had no income at the time, I decided to wait for the MR which remained unchanged so I appealed. Now I am paid at the assessment rate which was backdated to when my ESA was stopped, the only difference now is, I have to send in not fit for work notes until the appeal is heard, and the DWP has to pay the arrears if I win.

KeithH

I really hope you are successful at your appeal, if I can give you any pointers I'd be happy to help. We took a welfare rights officer with us from our local council, he was very good and would recommend it if you haven't already got one. He looked through the court pack which was hefty and noticed a page missing, a vital piece of evidence, he immediately submitted this to the court as further evidence which we would have missed, it was great to have his support on the day of the appeal too as he filled in gaps where we had missed saying something. Good luck, hope it goes your way.

CockneyRebel

Benistmonk said:

poppy123456 said:

I've never seen anyone give that advice on here. I've always advised people that if they claim UC they can't go back onto ESA ever.

I have seen it on here, would you like me to dig it up?

As an aside, when I asked the CAB for help, they advised me to claim UC and done some half baked benefit calculation to see if would be better off on UC. Even though I had no income at the time, I decided to wait for the MR which remained unchanged so I appealed. Now I am paid at the assessment rate which was backdated to when my ESA was stopped, the only difference now is, I have to send in not fit for work notes until the appeal is heard, and the DWP has to pay the arrears if I win.

I would be interested to see who is giving wrong advice

Benistmonk

https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/44813/new-claim-for-uc-after-esa-was-stopped-advice-for-meeting-my-work-coach-tomorrow?_ga=2.255895051.1669500270.1553868307-254595907.1544719397

poppy123456

Having read through that advice i don't see anyone advising they can go back onto ESA after they've claimed UC. In fact what was said in that thread was they can't go back onto ESA but it's worth appealing for other reasons.

Benistmonk

It is difficult to find but I am sure I have seen a post on here where someone was advised to claim UC while waiting for MR.

KeithH

Yes we were and I would advise against it especially if you're not entitled to anything as it's caused a world of stress for us. Still not sorted. If you dont claim UC whilst waiting for your appeal it will be much simpler when you win your case.

KeithH

I can now confirm that we are receiving the remainder of our back payment in the next few days . Although i was classed as being on UC as they were paying my stamp and expected me to keep my journal up to date I was not actually receiving any money. I am now back in the ESA support group so it is possible, I hope this helps others and I'm more than willing to share my experience if anyone needs help as this last year has been horrendous for us due to mistakes made by the DWP.