Lost CTax/Housing Benefits when pip stopped. slow to get back now my pip is back

[mafiaduck]

Hi,

 

At the end of June, my father lost his PIP, he scored zero points. It was obvious nonsense, I posted about it at the time, and I decided to argue his case for him and I got him reinstated with 9 points daily living, and 12 for Mobility.

 

On July 4th, his ESA was cancelled. He has a pension, which he claims, the result of claiming the pension is that it is almost to the penny the exact amount ESA pay. However, with his PIP,  he gets the Enhanced Disibility Premium for his ESA which was giving him roughly £32 a week.  More importantly, because of his ESA, he was able to claim Council Tax benefit which he got with ESA anyway, but was now reduced to zero percent because of the premium, and he got housing benefit because of his standard ESA.

On July 17th, he received a letter. From the council. His ESA premium had been cancelled, and as a result he would be losing his Council Tax Benefit, and his housing benefit, and also because they paid him on the 15th of July, they want him to repay them him £157 because they gave him Housing Benefit for two weeks when he was not entitled to it, which he must pay immediately.  Obviously, this was a shock, because we didn't know his ESA was cancelled (we got a letter 3 days later from DWP saying his ESA was cancelled as without PIP, he does not get the premium, so his pension is more than the ESA amount, so the claim is now void). I called them immediately, explaining that the PIP judgement was going to review and it was nonsense. I got told that we could halt the £157 payment, or rather delay it in to smaller payments. Taking the monthly council tax up to £124. Housing benefit would still be cancelled. But should PIP be reinstated, and ESA be reinstated, the benefits would automatically kick back in within 7 days

To my shock, on October 26th I received a phone call from PIP, they had ruled in our favour (was expecting this to be sorted next year to be honest). My dad got his back payments and his benefit reinstated. On November 1st, ESA called, they were also reinstating and back paying.

 

We heard nothing from Council Tax, so today I phoned them. I explained the situation and exactly what has gone on. They gave me the following information about what I needed to do:

 

1) Send in supporting paperwork (which we have yet to receive, despite getting the payments and the phonecalls) to show my fathers benefit has been reinstated, then call the DWP, and ask them to contact the council, and then call the council a week later to see if they have the confirmation, and then show them bank records for 3 months to show my father doesn't have more than £6000 savings, or if he does, how much as this will effect his pay, and then they will reinstate his benefit from whatever date they get confirmation, but it will not be backdated unless they are told to do so by DWP.

 

2) If we do not have the paperwork, or if the end date for our benefit was June 30th, and the reinstated date was the 1st of July, giving a 24hour break then we will not be able to restart the same claim and instead my father who is 65, will have to apply for Universal Credit in order to be able to apply for a new Council Tax and Housing Benefit. Which is not possible, as he has an active ESA claim, and they already told him before he cant get universal credit as he is past the age group where they were shifting claims over, and instead he will just stay on ESA until retirement next May. So this is not a possible solution. This also, would not give him the back dated payments.

 

3) just wait, because it may be sorted out be itself, but only if ESA send them the information which in the advisors experience has only happened once.

 

 

Anyway have any advice about what to do here in order to get it reinstated with the correct backpay? Option 2 is a none starter, and option 3 is impossible if we never get the paperwork (which has been lost in the post at least once) but also seems to have a lot of steps and hoops to jump through, in order to claim something back that they stopped immediately when they sensed something was wrong.

I did ask why the CT and HB were stopped so quickly when ESA was halted, showing they clearly talk to each other, but why it's not the same communication now its reinstated... to which I was fed some line about it has to halt immediately to prevent fraud, but its the persons responsibility to claim it back (which sounds a lot like they bin you off quick, and hope you forget to sign back up). Really want to get this sorted, but with my fathers illness causing him massive anxiety when around people, and being unable to handle phone calls due to breathing issues, which the anxiety makes worse... the idea of getting all this evidence and making phone call after phonecall, and then going and taking evidence, seems like a nightmare to him just because some woman at PIP decided to score him zero 5 months ago despite massive evidence to the contrary.

[unclebulgaria67]

When you get the PIP and ESA award letters through,  send these to the Council and they should reinstate without any issues, as there should be no gap.  

 

The award letters should not show they stopped on 30th June and started again on 1st July.   Normally award letters show periods of time and when benefits are reinstated, the award letters will confirm that award periods have been ongoing. ( The Council will want original letters, so make sure you get photocopies, just in case you need them)

 

If you experience any problems, get in touch with Citizens Advice and ask for help. They usually have good access to both Council and DWP to resolve complaints in these situations.