ESA Payment not been paid

Alex_Alumni

Thank you, and the farm sounds great, definitely the time of year for the lambs  

Pandapaws

@Alex_Scope Hi I’ve just received a letter from job centre plus about my esa and I don’t understand it one bit. Is there anyway you could look at it for me in private?

calcotti

If you are willing to post it with all personal identifying information removed people will be able to comment.

Alex_Alumni

Hi @Pandapaws if you black out any personal information you'd be welcome to share the letter here, no problem. You can paste a picture in the comment box to post it, or use the attach image button.

If you do need a hand with that, let me know

Pandapaws

@Alex_Scope  here you go  I’ve checked my bank account from the dates in the letter and is does not amount to their figure, mine amounts to £960?

Alex_Alumni

Thanks for sharing @Pandapaws it sounds to me like the figure in the letter was due to be paid to you, but it is being held back as it might be an overpayment.

I think the best thing to do is to wait and here what they have to say, and hopefully the amount in the letter will all go through to you. 

As the letter says, if you don't hear anything in 5 days, then you can contact that office to find out more. 

You've not done anything wrong, so there's no need to worry. They are just informing you of issues happening on their end with this possible arrears payment, so hopefully it will be sorted soon, and make it's way to your account.

Is that making more sense now?

Pandapaws

@Alex_Scope Thanks so much for that 😌 Hubbys just been checking all my past letters etc and fingers crossed it seems to be that I’ve been underpaid.

Pandapaws

I haven’t had an increase since 2020

Alex_Alumni

Well I hope you hear soon, it seems likely that's the case, glad I could help out

Pandapaws

@Alex_Scope yes thank you for all your help. I shall let you know the outcome 

calcotti

I broadly agree with Alex's reading of the letter.

They have calculated they owe you the money shown for the period shown. However they also have a record indicating that they may previously have overpaid you. If so, they will deduct the amount previously overpaid from the amount now owed and pay you the balance.

Pandapaws said: I haven’t had an increase since 2020

Obviously your income based ESA payment amount is affected not only by your maximum entitlement but also by your other household income.

Do you mind if I ask how much you have been getting?

poppy123456

The letter says an arrears payment but they are holding it because they think you've been overpaid. Is your ESA Contributions or mixture of both? Do you live with a partner that works?

Pandapaws

My hubby doesn’t work now due to I’ll health 

Pandapaws

Also as far as I’m aware I’m not on income related and have never been. And had that confirmed a couple of weeks ago

calcotti

Pandapaws said:

Also as far as I’m aware I’m not on income related and have never been. And had that confirmed a couple of weeks ago

In which case the reference in the letter to income based ESA is odd (to say the least). If you claimed new style ESA then it is always contribution based and cannot include any income based amounts. If you claimed the old type of ESA a claim for that was for both contribution based and income based ESA at the same time. You might have been entitled to contribution based ESA only because of other household income but if that income stopped could become entitled to income based ESA (but you would need to have told ESA about the changes for them to know this).
When did you claim ESA? 
Is your husband claiming any benefits himself?
Do you also get any PIP?

Pandapaws

@calcotti I’ve been on ESA since 2014 which is contribution based. Hubby has had to give up work and has been claiming ESA and PIP since January this year.
sorry I’m also on pip too 

calcotti

Pandapaws said:

@calcotti I’ve been on ESA since 2014 which is contribution based. Hubby has had to give up work and has been claiming ESA and PIP since January this year.
sorry I’m also on pip too 

So if you claimed in 2014 you are on the old ESA which is a mix of contribution based and income based. As mentioned previously, your other household income may have meant that you only received your contribution based entitlement. If income has now changed you may be eligible for an income based top up. If you are the only two adults in your household, both get the Daily Living part of PIP and nobody claims Carer's Allowance or the carer element of UC for looking after you then the calculation of your income based ESA would entitle you to a double Severe Disability Premium in the calculation which would give you a maximum entitlement of £316/week from which would be deducted your husband's ESA and other household income.

The period mentioned in the letter you received from 19th January to 15th March is a very precise period. 19th January when your husband's PIP started?

The way I read it is that the £1214.40 may be your income based ESA with the double SDP factored in but doesn't take into account the deduction for your husbands ESA. If that's correct you are possibly actually owed about £700 for that period and would get about £88/week of income based ESA on top of your existing benefit going forward (assuming he is in the ESA Support Group). However that is guesswork on my part.

What has possibly happened is that they started to make a correction to your claim but didn't complete it properly which is why your payment hasn't come through. Unfortunately you aren't going to get clarity until you get more information from them.

Pandapaws

@calcotti oh I see! I just have no idea of what we’re entitled to or not? But that would be great if we get more money 😌 I’d still like to have my payment though soon as It will be 2 weeks late on Tuesday.  

Thank you for all your help too

calcotti

Just to explain my earlier post (whilst emphasising that this is guesswork on my part). If, as described earlier, you meet the conditions for double SDP your ESA calculation would look like this (2021-22 rates) if you are both in the Support Group and there is no other income and no capital in excess of £6,000.

Personal Allowance £117.40
Support Component £39.40
Enhanced Disability £24.60
Severe Disability Premium £134.60
Applicable Amount/ maximum ESA £316.00

C-ESA Support Group (Claimant) £114.10 
ns-ESA Support Group (Partner) £114.10 
Net income £228.20  

Applicable Amount £316.00 less Income £228.20
Income-related payable = ESA 87.80/week

Pandapaws

@calcotti thanks for the info even though it’s confusing to me! I can never understand the workings out! Especially when you have cog fog. But thank you