Disability Living Allowance / Benefits Stopped!! Help

si456
si456 Online Community Member Posts: 4 Listener
edited October 2022 in PIP, DLA, and AA

My friend is entitled to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). It’s usually paid at the end of the month. End of September came and went and nothing came in. Phoned up a few days later and told Tuesday 11th October. Same thing happened again, nothing received. Phoned up the next day and told it’s been stopped. I’m guessing that someone else, so a bad friend or someone who don’t like my friend phoned up and said something probably like smoking drugs. This happened before. Got checked out and Benefits re-established after a few weeks. My friend is clean, doing what needs to be done to keep benefits.

It was very bad the DLA telling you will get paid then telling my friend it’s been stopped. Why did this happen? It’s very bad of them.  I’m guessing they don’t do back payments as friend is really struggling. It’s there any help that my friend can get in the meantime.

Friend is waiting for a letter for an appointment to get benefits re-established, however long that is going to take.

Is there anyway of stopping getting your benefits stopped. I’m guessing not. No letter or phone call regarding it’ll be stopped. So my friend is not in a good place and mental health isn’t the best either.


Hopefully there is help out there. I’ll be thankful for any ideas, help to get some money and get benefits re-established again.

Comments

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 63,184 Championing
    Your friend will need to ring DLA to ask why it was stopped. If your friend was claiming SDP in with the ESA then this could be why the ESA was suspended because if a disability benefit ends for any reason then it can temporary suspend the other benefits. Again, your friend will need to ring ESA.
    I don't understand what you mean by the "smoking drugs" part. That has nothing to do with any benefits stopping.
  • Alex_Alumni
    Alex_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 7,538 Championing
    edited October 2022
    Hello there @si456 and welcome to the community, thanks for reaching out. 

    I'm sorry to hear there have been some changes to the benefits your friend was getting, have they been able to get in touch with DLA/ESA about what's happened?

    I'm also sorry that they're not in a good place mentally right now, are they getting support from their GP or any other specialists?

    It's always advisable to contact your GP or mental health support if you're struggling with how you're feeling, especially after something sudden like this. 

    If you're friend needs support they can always call Samaritans on 116 123 for a chat, the team are there to listen, and you don't need to be at crisis point to talk things through. 

    If your friend still feels stuck after finding out why the payments have stopped, and would like support with their benefits, they might like to search Advice Local for some professional advisers. 

    They'd also be welcome to contact the Scope Helpline to speak to an adviser if they'd prefer, and of course there's the community here if they've got anything they need help with.

    Let us know how they're getting on when you can, and if we can do anything further to help :)  

    Alex

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