Dwp possible overpayment

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buttercup24
buttercup24 Online Community Member Posts: 1 Listener
in Benefits and income
I am a carer for our son , aged 23 severe Autism/Asperger's. As you all know life is hard enough.he) we claimed ESA from 2017 and after a lot of phone calls , letters , doctors proof letter he was put in a support group.  He hasn't got learning difficulties, he has a brilliant brain.  so to help him , or so we thought,  he agreed to do a gaming course at uni . With loads of support etc. But when he came to be enrolling, his severe anxiety meant a ended up deferring for a year. Finally in sept 2018 he agreed to go ( tbh I think it was more to help us than him) .  He has no understanding of benefits , household bills , etc, he couldn't deal with all that. But he knows he is different and that unlike his older brothers ( all left home years ago) he would never work or function outside his home and his regimented care etc. So he knew that the benefit was because of that.It was support money to help him stay at home , safe , cared for.  I wrote to the dwp and informed them of the change. But as there was no other changes to Michaels circumstances as far as I was concerned I had nothing else to tell them. Then last week Michael , well me ,as Michael has never seen any letters , I haven't bothered him with anything that might upset or worry him, got a compliance letter. I managed to speak , over an hour. And it seems over a year ago on their system it was flagged up that they had only acted on my letter for his first year.!!  And now there is going to be an overpayment. As she had to speak to Michael to confirm she could talk to me ( although they had written authority on file from the claim ( which was a nightmare I ended up raising a formal complaint with their attitude and comments which they apologised etc)   This call lasted over an hour! Obviously Michael asked about it and became very upset saying was it his fault , it was so upsetting , I have cried buckets tbh . He kept saying over and over , " but we told them the change!! there weren't any other changes!! " I tried to calm him and say nothing further. But I haven't slept ,I  can't eat what use am I as his carer if I am like this. So now I wait for a letter, every day I feel so ill. I am sorry for this long post but I have no one , nowhere to ask for help. Local help offices are all too busy and do not have the knowledge. mikehughescq I know has posted on here and seems very knowledgeable. Thank you for reading this and any help would be really appreciated . 

Comments

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    Full time students can continue to claim ESA providing they claim a disability benefit such as PIP or DLA. Does he cureently claim any of those?
    If a student maintenance loan available to them then it will affect any income related ESA he maybe claiming.
    However, if you wrote to them to report the changes then it's their fault for not making contact before. Therefore this could be classed as an official error so any overpayment would not be recoverable. Do you have proof that you sent that letter?
  • calcotti
    calcotti Online Community Member Posts: 10,001 Championing
    What type of ESA is it? Is it new style ESA or the older income based ESA?

    If it is the latter and you informed them of all relevant facts and they failed to act on the information then they cannot recover any overpayment because it is official error.

    if it’s new style ESA DWP can, unfortunately (and unfairly), recover any overpayment even if it is their fault.

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