NS ESA and one off back pay tipping my earnings over threshold

Hello,

I wonder if someone here can help me please. I have two concerns regarding my NS ESA claim.

I am in the support group for NS ESA; DWP know I work 13 hours a week doing permitted work and earn £154.62/week so am under the threshold (£183.50/week).

The DWP recently wrote a letter (dated April 2024) which I received at the end of October (?!) stating as I was in the support group I did not need to do any work. I have no idea why that letter was dated April (this may have been when decision was made to put me from assessment group into support group?) and why it states I do not need to work as I discussed my part-time office job when I made my initial NS ESA application and they agreed this was permitted work. Should I query this, as they seem to have sent me the wrong information and it contradicts my original information DWP told me (that I was doing permitted work)?

Regarding my earnings, I am due to receive on 25 November nearly £400 backpay in addition to my regular wage £670/month (from a pay rise awarded last month which is backdated from April - so 6 months worth of back pay). This will put me over the permitted earnings threshold.

I have asked work if they can stagger the back pay, but they cannot. I am really concerned that my NS ESA support group will be impacted negatively but I cannot find consistent advice on this. One piece of advice says, I will only lose ESA for the weeks my pay was over the limit, another piece of advice states I will lose my NS ESA altogether and need to do a new claim.

I'd be grateful if someone could set me straight - and advise me if there is anything I can do to ameliorate these problems.

Many thanks.

Thank you David.

Does anyone else know if there's anything I could do to avoid receiving my back pay or something else so I am not over the wages limit for NS ESA?

Do they not take back pay into consideration at all and average it out over the 7 months it covers? Then it would be under the permitted earnings allowance.
When you say, reclaim within 12 weeks and not having to go through a WCA medical - I'll still have to reapply and go through the whole assessment again?!
Thank you in advance.

Hi Slothie, I had a similar thing when the Doctors surgery I work at merged with another. They gave us all a pay rise and back dated it. I requested that I did not want the pay rise, but they paid it anyway. I got a letter from my employer explaining that it was a back dated payment and should have been spread over a certain amount of time , I then sent a copy to DWP. It may work for you, it may not as slightly different circumstances, but may be worth a shot?