ESA Support Group - contribution Based

IJG

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First thing, do not spend any of the additional money your wife is receiving, if there has been an over payment then it may be recoverable.

Next you need to contact the DWP office that deals with her claim to find out what is going on, the phone number will be on any of the letters that they have sent her. You need to find out if any Income Related ESA is being paid and if it is whether it is being paid as a top-up to her ESA(CB) or whether she is only being paid ESA(IR).

A joint claim will include any work that you do. If you work for 24 hours per week or more then Income Related ESA cannot be paid at all. If you work less than 24 hours/week then it will be your income that is the main factor as this will be deducted £ for £ from any ESA(IR) payment. The closer to 24 hours that you work the less likely that ESA(IR) will actually be payable.

The DWP should not put ESA(IR) into payment without asking the claimant for details of their financial situation this would normally be done via the original claim form (ESA1) or more likely by issuing an ESA2/3 form to capture up to date information, if you have not completed one of these then the most likely cause to the problem is admin error.

Gordon

ijgosling wrote: HI and thanks for replying so quickly. I do have one further question before I phone them.

We do have letter confirmation dated March 2014 for ESA(CB) which shows entitlement to £108.15. There is a component of £35.75 which states is an income related amount. This is the only reference. Other than this I still beleive this to be an admin error on the part of DWP Can you advise how I should apporach this?

If you work for 24 or more hours a week then your wife has no entitlement to ESA(IR).

If you work less than 24 hours a week then your income will be deducted £ for £ from any ESA(IR) payment, if she is receiving £171 per week then she is receiving an extra £63 per week of ESA(IR), so if you earn more than this then again, ESA(IR) is not payable.

There is not really an approach to take, phone the DWP and tell them that you think your wife's payments are incorrect.

Gordon

ijgosling wrote: HI - phoned DWP and advised they were paying too much and they have advised this was an admin error on their part and will be duly corrected.

However due to this admin error we have completed a new ESA50 that had been sent by DWP and returned with all evidence. When speaking to DWP today they advised that my wife did not need to attend a WCA, but have taken a 2nd call stating that she will now have to attend a WCA as it is live in the system?? Frustrated.....

The DWP have no input to the assessment process, all they do is initiate it with the Assessment Provider (AP), it is the AP that decides whether a face to face assessment is required or not.

Gordon