ESA **** up

hi

I am hoping someone can advise me what to do to help my mum,

she has been in receipt of ESA for quite a few years. She lives alone and gets PIP so gets the SDP element. She’s 65 next month.

about 18 months ago my nan left her some money which meant she lost her income related benefits for a short while. Her housing benefit stopped and she got a migration letter telling her to claim UC I called them and when i explained her housing benefit had stopped due to her inheritance they told me there was no point in her claiming it as she had too much savings to be eligible and she was using the money to buy her house off the council so wouldn’t need housing benefit again anyway once her savings were below the threshold.

she brought her house informed ESA and they reinstated her benefits.

anyway in march this year they have suddenly reduced her benefits when I contacted ESA they said they had been paying her incorrectly for the last 12 months and she should have been on UC for her income related elements and they should have only been paying her ESA contribution based so now she has to claim UC. We have done that now but the amount is much lower as she hasn’t been given transitional protection due to not being migrated. But i think the should have given it her as her last payment of SDP was made from ESA on the 4th March and we did the UC claim on the 29th.

although the letter she has had from ESA says her income based stopped March 2025 but it does say however you have been paid till March 2026 in error.

can someone please advise me? I have wrote all this on her journal but she hasn’t had a reply, i also asked them to back date to the 5th March and that message was ignored too.