ESA stopped despite 3yr support group award no explanation & tax credit mess

[Rich44]

Hi

 

Quick bit of advice. Earlier this year I was awarded 3 year ESA in support group due to Fibromyalgia and Functional Neurological disorder along with severe depression. I have been on every antidepressant my dr with prescribe and i'm being seen by mental health services, im also on Butrans patches for pain.

 

Anyway been paid fine every since the award until 13th August when the payments just stopped, no letter, no phone calls nothing just no money. I have phoned the hotline a few times and they always say I can't see any reason on my system for not paying, i'll email another department and they will call back later the same day. Of course i've never had a phone call back.

 

In the meantime the local job centre wrote to my wife inviting her in for a work related interview which is odd because she's self employed and does a little work here and there when it comes in makes no more than £500 a year after expenses. Anyway I wrote back to the job centre explaining she can't get there because we haven't had any money and the job centre is a 25 mile round trip, I made it quite clear it was not a refusal to attend but just not right whilst they are in breach of their side of the "contract". JCP have written back putting the appointments on hold indefinitely until they start paying me again, still no explanation why they are not paying.

 

I've written a complaint and sent that in asking what is going on that was nearly 3 weeks ago, heard nothing. My MP has written to them again nothing.

 

Am at my wits end over it, i'm not good on the phone when dealing with things like this because I am easily confused due to the neurological issues and I have a phobia of the damn thing so I rarely answer it unless I know who is calling.

 

On top of the ESA problem, I returned our child tax credit renewal to HMRC and they have ignored it and rolled salaries over from last year meaning they have invented a £25,000 income we don't have slashing our tax credits down to £79 a month.

 

So at the moment all we're getting is £79 ctc and £137 child benefit to pay for 2 adults and 2 young children. My wife and I visit the community cafe every thursday for a free hot meal to save a bit of money that way but to be honest i'm just getting to the point of snapping over all of this along with the car problems (posted in garage area) and these 2 problems (i'm hoping HMRC screw up is what has stuffed up my ESA but I have no idea on that!)

 

Permanently on the brink of tears and feel so depressed. On top of my usual pains and problems im now losing a lot of weight because I am vomiting several times a week for now apparent reason when it happens sickness lasts 24-48 hours where I can't keep anything down, drs don't know whats causing that either/

 

Really feel like it's not worth bothering anymore just feel so under someones boot. We're only just managing to put food on the table at the moment let alone paying any bills.

 

Does anyone have any advice on where I go from here i've written to everyone giving them the correct info but no one seems to be listening. I can prove that the DWP have never called back because I have extensive phone call logs showing they haven't called (no withheld numbers called either)

[honeybee13]

Hello there. I'm sorry you're having a tough time. The guys should be along later with advice for you.

 

HB

[tommy456]

I would be ringing the DWP until i got a proper answer , if you can't do that what about contacting the CAB or welfare rights , they maybe able to find out why your esa has been stopped , then you will be able to hopefully get any errors corrected and resume esa payments

[estellyn]

Rich44, starting tomorrow at 9am you and your wife need to make a nuisance of yourselves. Phone regarding the tax credits first, as this is the simplest to sort out. The adviser on the phone should be able to fix the mistake there and then if you or your wife explains it to them.

 

Then call ESA. The person on the phone knows very little, they are basically a glorified 'call handler'. If you struggle on the phone, you can give permission for your wife to talk on your behalf and then pass the phone over. You need to explain the situation and request an urgent callback from the supervisor of the decision maker responsible for your claim. Explain that the decision maker has had many opportunities to call back and hasn't and now you want to speak to the supervisor. Request that you get an urgent callback, and ask what the time limit is for receiving the callback - a normal callback is 4 hours, so urgent should be one or two hours. Ask for the name of the call handler for your MP who will be requesting an investigation If they haven't called by the end of the period indicated, then call them back immediately, and this time request to speak to the supervisor of the call handler, explain the situation and again that you need a callback from the supervisor of the decision maker urgently. Take the name of anyone you speak to and note the time. Keep records of your calls, and tell anyone you speak to that your MP is now involved. You keep calling till you get a response. Each time you can ask that your wife speak for you if need be.

 

Whichever phone number you give them, keep it free as if the callback comes while you're on the phone, they usually won't leave a message.

 

As to what might be causing it - when were you awarded support group?

[Rich44]

Hi thanks I'll try all that I have called several times already & been given the you'll be called back within xx hours I'll see what I can do.

 

I applied in January after a mutual parting of the ways with my employer. I forget when I was awarded support group around April time I think I'll look for paperwork tomorrow to check but think it's right.

 

I spent 2 weeks meticulously filling the form in with lots of detail as I have very variable illnesses & also am on opiate patches so let them know about that. It was a straight into support group no medical required, I assumed because I'd been very clear on the form & included consultants letters etc.

 

Thank you for your suggestions

[Nystagmite]

ESA phoneline opens at 8am. According to the automated thing, it's quieter to call at that time.

[Rich44]

Thanks for the suggestion, will have to be later tho as getting kids out the door to school at that time of day. Hopefully feel better tomorrow often have to back to bed for a bit after getting them out the door as knackered. I'll aim for around 9am as can have a bit of quiet time to psych myself up for it.

 

Thanks again I really appreciate it

[Rich44]

Hi quick update just checked and all money they owed me from August to today was put in my account late today. Only thing that worries me is instead of saying EESA in the reference it says JSA so at least we can pay the bills & get food shopping now.

 

Just hot to find out wth has happened here, I've had no paperwork saying I've been moved to JSA & was only put in support group 6 months ago & award was for 3 years.

 

OK so I feel a little less intimidated about speaking to them now.

 

Will update again tomorrow I'm really confused

[antone]

The reference on your payment is probably just some technical thing relating to the way the payment was made. You can't just be moved from ESA to JSA - if you were to transfer from one to the other you would be required to close the ESA claim and make a new JSA claim. These are things you would have to do yourself, they can't be done without your knowledge and they're not things you could do by accident.

 

Definitely let us know what they say when you finally get to speak to them.

[Rich44]

Ah ok that sounds good then. I could cry tonight so relieved to have some money. I had the local church offering us money the other day which was really kind.

 

Well we'll see what they say tomorrow, huge thanks for the replies.

[honeybee13]

Please let us know how you get on tomorrow, Rich.

 

HB

[jason2723637]

yeh it says JSA but it not your still on ESA mine said the same thing once ie cos back dated payment

[Rich44]

Hi all just to update the ESA is now sorted I phoned and whilst they didn't explain why they hadn't paid it ("it doesnt show that on my screen") they have said it will be paid at £173 per week paid fortnightly. The next day I got a 4 page letter from them explaining nothing but showing the payments made from January from assessment phase then into support group, so fingers firmly crossed it's sorted and looks like my MP intervening sorted it out.

 

Just tax credits to sort now but at least we have money in the bank and a full freezer now which is always a bonus! That's my mission for tomorrow phoning tax credits to try and get them to use the correct figures for this financial year that was provided to them back in July when we renewed...

 

Thanks for the advice and support to all who replied

[antone]

Thanks for letting us know how it went. It's a shame they haven't been able to give you more information about what went wrong, but at least it seems to be sorted and you can buy luxuries like food and electricity

 

Sometimes the computer system just seems to mess up. Shouldn't happen, of course, but it's an old system and there isn't the money or resources to improve it. One of my jobs used to be checking through all of those errors and trying to resolve them, ideally before payments missed their due dates. Looks like this didn't happen in your case.