Reporting a change confusion

FluffyCatMeow
FluffyCatMeow Online Community Member Posts: 95 Contributor
in Benefits and income

Hi all,

I have a couple of questions about reporting a change to ESA and PIP.

Yesterday, I managed to walk a little bit further than I could before (and I’m very excited about it 🥰) and I know you have to report any changes to the DWP, but I’m confused about some things, so I thought I’d ask here.

The reason I’m not sure if it needs reporting now is that I’ve only done it the once (but I don’t want to get in trouble if I’m meant to report it but think I don’t, if that makes sense). I‘m unsure if I need to be able to do it consistently, as needed, etc, before reporting it or not? Or because the application questions had an option for “it varies”, if doing it once falls under that?

Either way, I have some questions about reporting it (even if I don’t need to do it right now, it’d be good to know this stuff so if I do ever have a change to be reported, I’ll know how to do it and won’t be as stressed that I’ll be getting things wrong) 

Can I inform them through the post? I struggle with using the phone due to my energy levels (long waiting times on the phone, etc) and autism (I find it harder to talk to people when I can’t see their face). The government website says to phone them but I’ve seen elsewhere that I can send a letter and so I’m confused.

Do I need to let ESA and PIP know separately? Or will one phone call/letter to the DWP suffice?

If it does need reporting to them, how soon should I let them know? I’m explaining badly, but basically I’ve read it has to be within a month of the change occurring. Is this true and I should get a letter (if a letter is allowed) sent within the month? Or is the timeframe shorter than that?

Because I’m on ESA, should I expect reporting a change to cause a move to Universal Credit?

As long as I let them know on time, should I expect to have to pay any money (ESA and/or PIP payments) back? This is a just-so-I-know-what-to-expect question, but any thoughts would be appreciated (in case you can’t tell, I’m not good with not knowing facts and what’s expected of me and things that can happen lol)

Is there anything else you think would be useful for me to know, please?

I’m sorry for all the questions, but thank you for any advice ☺️

Comments

  • bg844
    bg844 Online Community Member Posts: 3,883 Championing
    You are reading too much in to reporting changes, receiving ESA and PIP doesn’t mean you can’t have a life. You don’t need to report unless there’s a significant change to your needs and I really can’t stress that enough.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    I agree with bg844 here. You only walked further once. PIP and ESA are both assessment on the majority of the time. Walking a certain distance just once isn't the majority of the time. If you've been experiencing significant changes longer than a few months then yes maybe report the changes but before doing so you should get some exper advice from an agency near you.

    So many people think that when claiming these sort of benefits, you can't have a life, that's simply not true.
  • FluffyCatMeow
    FluffyCatMeow Online Community Member Posts: 95 Contributor
    bg844 said:
    You are reading too much in to reporting changes, receiving ESA and PIP doesn’t mean you can’t have a life. You don’t need to report unless there’s a significant change to your needs and I really can’t stress that enough.
    Thank you for letting me know that.

    I’ve not been able to walk more than 20m before (which for PIP put me in the highest mobility category - I’ve forgotten the name of it) but I managed to walk a bit further than 20m and so if I become able to keep being able to do that, shouldn’t I let them know? As, if I was a new person applying and able to keep walking 20+m, then they’d pay me less (I think)
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    FluffyCatMeow said:
    bg844 said:
    You are reading too much in to reporting changes, receiving ESA and PIP doesn’t mean you can’t have a life. You don’t need to report unless there’s a significant change to your needs and I really can’t stress that enough.
     I managed to walk a bit further than 20m and so if I become able to keep being able to do that, shouldn’t I let them know? As, if I was a new person applying and able to keep walking 20+m, then they’d pay me less (I think)
    That will depend on whether you can walk that distance regularly, reliably and in timely manner, the majority of the time.

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