ESA backpay

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lynette01
lynette01 Online Community Member Posts: 6 Listener
in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
My husband received a letter from the DWP in April 2019 saying he may be owed money from 2013 for ESA payments. He was told in April that it could take up to 12 weeks for a decision which would take him up to the 17th July. He phoned them yesterday for an update & has now been told that the wrong information was given to everyone & it’s now twelve weeks from the date they assess your paperwork which was only done on the 2nd of July. So now he has to wait until the end of September for an answer. Has anybody else been given this information as I’ve spoken to other people & they’ve told me they’re cases were resolved within twelve weeks of them returning the paperwork. Has anyone else been informed of this new ruling? Thanks Lynette 

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  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    Hi,

    There's never been any ruling for how long it takes to make a decision. Decision waiting times are based on backlogs and for this underpayment the backlogs are huge, as you can imagine there were thousands of people that needed to be contacted. The last i heard the waiting times were between 12-20 weeks but again it's just a guide. There's never any timescales for any decision.

    Once a decision is made your husband will be sent a decision letter.
  • lynette01
    lynette01 Online Community Member Posts: 6 Listener
    Thanks for your reply Poppy. My son has Down syndrome and Autism and he also was given one of these letters in December, again we were told it would take 12 weeks from the date they received his paperwork and we also called in a few times and were continually told 12 weeks. Nearly spot on 12 weeks we got a letter and 5 days later payment was made. I don’t know how they can now change it to add in another 12 weeks. They confirmed to me that on the 29th April they had received my husbands paperwork and it would be within 12 weeks he would have a letter but now I’m told they processed his paperwork only last week and it’s now another 12 weeks to wait? It doesn’t make sense. Lynette 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    Your son returned his form in December and backlogs back then were most likely not as long as they are now. I do believe that there's something like 200,000 people that need contacting so you can imagine the backlogs caused by this amount of people. Unfortunately, there's nothing more you can do but wait.
  • weeemma88
    weeemma88 Online Community Member Posts: 16 Listener
    I can understand this is causing a lot of frustration for a lot of people but,as poppy123456 says waiting is all you can do,myself included,my question too all in here today is,did anyone else get changed over from long term Incapacity benefit too ESA in 2009 and this year in question is not mentioned on the form that was sent,my dates are 2012/ upto 2014 is anyone else in this situation,hope you are all coping today with this latest burden,kind regards to all.weeemma88 ?
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    weeemma88 said:
    I can understand this is causing a lot of frustration for a lot of people but,as poppy123456 says waiting is all you can do,myself included,my question too all in here today is,did anyone else get changed over from long term Incapacity benefit too ESA in 2009 and this year in question is not mentioned on the form that was sent,my dates are 2012/ upto 2014 is anyone else in this situation,hope you are all coping today with this latest burden,kind regards to all.weeemma88 ?
    The earliest they are backdating to is November 2011. If the start date on your letter in 2012 then you'll need to contact DWP to ask why it only starts from that day for you.
  • weeemma88
    weeemma88 Online Community Member Posts: 16 Listener
    Thank you for that Poppy123456 ?

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