ESA income based

Hi advice needed as have a query. Unsure whether friend is in receipt of income based or contribution based ESA or whether friend is in WRAG or support group. Need to contact the DWP to obtain information about this.
However I do think from looking at past letter he is in ESA WRAG income based. I have two queries. First friend should really have been in support group due to poor/ severe mental health. Can friend ask for a reconsideration & be placed in the support group or is it too late? Think he went from incapacity to ESA contribution but WRAG group possibly early 2013.
Second question friend has just come into some money and as this will take him over £16,000 threshold do I take it if I am correct it's income based that he will be no longer entitled to benefit until is savings dip below £16,000
Man thanks for any advice

Karen wrote: Hi advice needed as have a query. Unsure whether friend is in receipt of income based or contribution based ESA or whether friend is in WRAG or support group. Need to contact the DWP to obtain information about this.
However I do think from looking at past letter he is in ESA WRAG income based. I have two queries. First friend should really have been in support group due to poor/ severe mental health. Can friend ask for a reconsideration & be placed in the support group or is it too late? Think he went from incapacity to ESA contribution but WRAG group possibly early 2013.
Second question friend has just come into some money and as this will take him over £16,000 threshold do I take it if I am correct it's income based that he will be no longer entitled to benefit until is savings dip below £16,000
Man thanks for any advice

Hi K,

If your friend was placed in The WRAG circa "early 2013" and is still being paid ESA, then the odds are that some part of their ESA is Income Related.

Otherwise, payments would have ceased after 365 days, if CB ESA only. (Of course it may have been CB ESA originally, and was then assessed and entitled to IR ESA payments)

If the WRAG award was circa early 2013, then they are definitely out of time to appeal that decision, as the absolute limit is 13 months after a decision. (As the decision was prior to 28/10/13, it would have been an appeal and not an MR)

Your friend should inform the DWP in writing of any monies that they "have come into" :

Sending Documents to the DWP or ATOS

You are correct, if their capital, assets or savings exceed £16,000, then they will lose entitlement to payment of any IR ESA that they currently receive.

This does not mean that they will not be entitled to IR ESA payments in the future when their monies diminish somewhere below the £16,000 limit.

This being the case, it may be advisable for them to keep all receipts of expenditure in a file.

The DWP may wish to see what they have spent their monies on in the future, to check that they have not spent capital to deliberately deprive themselves of capital for the purposes of gaining benefit entitlement.

bro58

Hi K,

Just to add,

If your friend's condition has changed/deteriorated or they now suffer from different conditions, since the time of The WRAG award, and they feel that they now qualify for The SG.

They could request a supersession/review of The WRAG award. They would have to provide medical evidence of the above, and would probably have to go through a fresh WCA and fill in a new ESA50.

This may put their current WRAG award at risk.

Of course, if they were placed into The SG, and were not entitled to CB ESA, payment of any IR ESA would still be precluded as discussed in my previous post.

An important aspect here may be whether your friend was initial paid CB ESA for the first 365 days of their WRAG award.

If they were, and they did gain access to The SG as the result of a review, or indeed some future scheduled reassessment, they would then be entitled to CB ESA payments once more. Any capital, assets or savings would have no effect on any such CB ESA payments.

bro58

If we ask for a super session/review of award this could potentially take some length of time. Does friend need to declare his change in income as this would stop his benefit. Friend has a severe mental illness & has had this for years. Personally I think he should have been in the SG when he was moved from incapacity to ESA but the benefit system is so complex it is difficult for people to understand it or are afraid to appeal/ challenge decisions.

Karen wrote: If we ask for a super session/review of award this could potentially take some length of time. Does friend need to declare his change in income as this would stop his benefit. Friend has a severe mental illness & has had this for years. Personally I think he should have been in the SG when he was moved from incapacity to ESA but the benefit system is so complex it is difficult for people to understand it or are afraid to appeal/ challenge decisions.

Hi K,

You should treat the Capital (Money) and the request for a supersession/review as two totally separate issues.

Your friend should report the Change of Circumstances (C of C) regarding "coming into money" as soon as possible to avoid an over payment of IR ESA, and any potential penalty for not reporting The C of C.

Once they report it in writing, they are covered.

The request for the superession/review can be made separately, and you should provide any relevant medical evidence with the request.

You will have to tie in the fresh evidence with the relevant SG Descriptors, to show that they now qualify for The SG :

Qualifying for the Support Group

Only if they are placed into The SG would they be entitled to payment of CB ESA once more, and this is only if they were originally entitled to CB ESA when initially placed into the WRAG on conversion.

If they were in receipt of IB prior to conversion, they would have been transferred to CB ESA payments. (in the WRAG) :

What will I be transferred to?

If they weren't paid the 365 days of CB ESA in The WRAG, as above, and have always been paid IR ESA, then obviously even if they did gain access to The SG, they would still be precluded from payment of IR ESA due to their Capital, and not being able to pass the IR ESA means test.

On the premise that they had originally received their 365 days entitlement to payment of CB ESA whilst in the WRAG, and if the supersession was successful, in that they gained access to The SG, payment of CB ESA would be reinstated from the date of the request for the supersession.

You can actually request the supersession now, just keep it separate from The C of C.

bro58

Hi K,

If your friend is entitled to other "passport benefits" as a result of being paid IR ESA, they may also lose entitlement to them as well.

Some examples of such "passport benefits" are Housing Benefit, (HB) Council Tax Support, (CTS) which would be administered by their Local Authority (LA) / Council, Support for Mortgage Interest, (SMI) free prescriptions, (although receipt of IR ESA is not the only reason for entitlement to free prescriptions ) etc, etc.

As well as informing the relevant DWP ESA Dept, it will also be their responsibility to inform The LA, if applicable. (HB, CTS)

Again, if they are receiving HB/CTS, failure to notify the LA may result in an over payment, as previously mentioned with the IR ESA.

bro58