ESA and PHI Claims

Gordon, I don't pay the premium, work does. There seems to be very conflicting info out there. Even the DWP advising people differently depending on who they speak to.

Yes I am still classed as employed by my employer. I still get holiday pay etc. My work pays the premium and then Bupa pay the PHI claim amount to work who then facilitate it thru pay roll and I get a wage slip. I pay tax and Ni still. I think because I am still young (ish) it is thought that I still have time to recover from my illness and return to work before I am anywhere near old enough to retire
I really appreciate your replies in this very confusing matter

Just wanted to say thank you for everyones replies.I sent my letter off to Benefits with the info they wanted. When I know what the outcome is I will let everyone know so it can help others in the future.
Thanks again

It has taken a long time to get to the bottom of this, and benefits totally bodged it up as usual!

I wanted to post my outcome so it can help others in the future.

Final outcome :

PHI is not classed as PHI if you are still employed (but unable to work i.e. on long term sick).

This is due to the definition of PHI under ESA Reg 72. (2)

Therefore benefits cannot take this money into account and deduct it from your ESA.

Benefits revised their incorrect decision of stopping my ESA back in Dec 2014 but failed to advise me of this and due to an incorrect suspension on my account (they had issued an incorrect letter – which I had previously advised them about) no monies had been paid to myself.

I had sent 2 letters this year to try and get an answer from my original mandatory reconsideration request which I sent in Nov 2014, but I didn’t hear a thing, until I rang them up this month.

Even then the call centre people did not understand what was going on.

To think if I hadn’t challenged the Benefits office and accepted their original decision I would have lost out on ESA that I am entitled to.

It’s been a long and stressful battle (Lots of phone calls, letters and advice gathered, many of which I haven’t talked about here)

Thanks again to everyone here that helped and I hope my thread can help someone else in the future because it simply isn’t made clear by the benefits office how they deal with PHI when you are still employed.

They themselves didn’t even know, and I think that about sums them up.