ESA review reply letter

HoneyBee86

I was wondering if someone could help me understand this reply from ESA review basically back in July 2012 my husband was transferred over to ESA and I was receiving  income support back then after about 2 weeks we got a letter saying my Income support was stopped our housing benefit was stopped and we lost our home we had a new born as well we where living on contribution ESA, child tax credits and child benefit for 6 months, we received a letter from ESA stating they where going to review the benefit as we may have been under payed between the period of 27/7/12 to 4/1/2013 we received a reply from them 7 weeks after we filled the form in stating where not entitled to ESA from the 27/7/12 to 9/8/12 (which is 2 weeks out of the whole 6 months) because I was receiving income support but that’s all it says, what about the rest of the 5 months 2 weeks? Does this mean where not entitled full stop? It’s confused both of us and i’m hoping someone can possibly help us understand this better, we have phoned them with the number on the letter but they said they can’t help us and to write to them! 

poppy123456

Hi,

You'll need to ring DWP tomorrow when they open at 8am. They do have a very strange way of wording those letters. If they tell you that you're not entitled to any backdated money then you can request the Mandatory Reconsideration within 1 month of the date of the decision.

Without knowing all of your circumstances during those 6 months it's impossible to give you the correct advice. It may also be worth making an appointment at an advice centre near you and then you'll be able to tell them all of your circumstances at that time and they'll be able to advise you correctly.

HoneyBee86

@poppy123456 we have already phoned them and they told us that a different department is dealing with the reviews and that the only way of contact is written! They said they don’t have anything on system and that they wait to receive the same letter we receive so where in a pickle at the moment over it all it’s so confusing! I just don’t understand why they never wrote to us about the rest of the period we where living on barely anything we lost everything when we where transferred over to esa, the whole thing was a horrible experience and really shocking!. We literally lost our home it was such a hard time for us.

poppy123456

If you disagree with the decision then you have 1 month from that date to request the MR.